It’s hard to believe that there are only seven days left until the upcoming watershed election takes place.
Only a month ago, it was believed to be an uphill struggle just to capture 39 House seats and flush Nancy Pelosi. Now, poll after poll estimates that Democrats could lose between 80 to 102 seats. Also, the Senate is now in play where just a short time ago that was also considered an impossible event. Could it be possible to also unseat Harry Reid?
Every two years I have an election night get-together party at my home with a few friends, and some students who belong to the College Republican Club on campus. It was a rather depressing time back in 2008, but this time it’s going to be entirely different. It is a good thing I have a late class Wednesday as I’m going to savor every last moment this time.
But please don’t become complacent yet. Keep on talking to as many people as you can between now and Nov. 2.
What we have been doing so far is having impressive results as indicated in the first paragraph. It also helps that Obama is constantly shooting himself in the foot. His approval rating has dropped another four points in a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll — a new low — and this also happened over only a one-month period. It simply shows that sane, logical people are starting to see through all the smoke and mirrors.
You should be ashamed of yourself if you don’t make the effort and get out to vote this time. This election is too important for you not to. Even though it looks like it will be a landslide of epic proportions, if people just assume it will happen automatically and enough voters lazily decide to sit this one out, they could be sorely mistaken, and all those hard-fought efforts could be for nil. To all you conservatives and independents out there, please, please vote.
Obama has certainly lost his rock star status in two short years. Have you noticed that the cameras don’t show the size of the groups he reads to anymore? It must be tough for his ego to handle. Yet he will always have a handful of delusional individuals who will be blindly loyal to him. They remind me of the teens and preteens who screamed with delight when Elvis shook his hips or when the Beatles first came to America, and these teenagers screamed, swooned and fainted.
There are actually people out there who think that he has accomplished many good things, and that ObamaCare is really one of those things. They are still talking about the impossible-to-measure “saved jobs” or that his socialist agenda has actually softened the effects of the recession when just the opposite is true.
We would have been in recovery long before this time if his incompetence wasn’t allowed to create the policies he has pushed through Congress.
Also, you have people out there resorting to plain and simple lies. We now hear that there are all these secret billionaires out there who actually created, and are training, all the Tea Party members and their events. These people will never be reached and are best ignored. They do, however, push more and more independents to the conservative side of center.
I guess it is hard for them to explain away why none of the Democrats in trouble are running on Obama’s record or policies. Also, I wonder why the rock star or his right-hand man hasn’t been invited to campaign with these same incumbents who are in trouble. It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish between Barack and the bumbling Joe Biden.
Maybe some of you ought to Google a few columns and see if you can explain away these facts. One of them is “Why Texas Has the Jobs,” a Rich Lowry piece. If you want to read about how ObamaCare is already having disastrous results you should read Sally Pipes’ column, “Killing our Choices.” If you want to read about yet another Obama lie uncovered (by himself actually), read Jonah Goldberg’s “A Shovel-Unready Prez.”
As to the people with the ridiculous conspiracy theories and the same, old, tired lies of privatizing Social Security and the like, those individuals are too far gone. Just ignore them.
Only seven more days before we turn our attention to 2012. I’m looking forward to a new challenge.
Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/tomsears.
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Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.
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October 26, 2010
On the Right Side: Polls show tough day soon coming for Democrats
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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Upstate theme parks offered affordable thrills
I saw in the news last week that Disney theme parks are raising admission prices to almost $100 a person. Children (who Uncle Walt considers 10 and under) are now $86 a day.
Continued ... - Getting creative with gifts for grads
- Safety Patrol D.C. visits never get old
- My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
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Upstate theme parks offered affordable thrills
- Cary Brunswick
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Book-banning has a tendency to backfire
So what does the 1960s game show ``What's My Line'' got to do with the Bloomsday festivities occurring in Dublin, Ireland, this week? Surprisingly, there is a link.
Continued ... - Envisioning a world without terror
- We've become our own worst enemies
- Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
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Book-banning has a tendency to backfire
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
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- Mark Simonson
- Rick Brockway
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Don't play around with snappers
The other day, I was driving along Route 205 between Mount Vision and Hartwick. Suddenly, I had to swerve out of my lane to miss a huge snapping turtle. It was crossing from a large swamp on the left to some higher ground on the other side of the road.
- Emmons Pond Bog is pretty easy to enjoy
- Fishing has gotten a lot more complex
- Waterfalls are even better when you keep them to yourself
- Kids have sparkle in their eyes
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Don't play around with snappers
- Sam Pollak
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Justice Dept., IRS abuses worth screaming about
"If this had happened while a Republican was president, the liberal media would be screaming."
Continued ... - THIS WEEK'S POLL
- Using time off in the worst way possible
- Terror lives on, and there's no end in sight
- Remembering the glory of their times
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Justice Dept., IRS abuses worth screaming about
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
