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O’Donnell attacks then stumbles in debate

Posted on October 14, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Newark, Delaware (CNN) — A feistyChristine O’Donnell attacked her Democratic opponent but also stumbled in Wednesday’s debate with Chris Coons in their election battle for Delaware’s U.S. Senate held for nearly four decades by Vice President Joe Biden.

O’Donnell, the Tea Party backed candidate who upset the mainstream Republican favorite in the primary, appeared nervous at the start but quickly went on the attack, accusing Coons of raising taxes and offering a “rubber stamp” to Obama administration policies if elected.

“My opponent wants to go to Washington and rubber-stamp the spending bills” that she said are hurting the nation and Delaware.

Later, O’Donnell said, a vote for Coons would cost the average Delawarean $10,000 “instantly” in tax hikes and energy reform costs.

Coons emphasized his experience as New Castle County executive but also attacked O’Donnell, calling some of her positions extreme and accusing her of lying about his record in campaign messaging.

Both candidates framed the election as a clear choice for voters, with Coons taking mainstream Democratic stances on economic policy, health care and other issues, while O’Donnell backed Republican positions such as tax cuts and spending cuts to balance the budget.

The most serious problem for either candidate came when O’Donnell was asked to cite any specific recent Supreme Court rulings that she opposed.

“Oh gosh, give me a specific one,” she said, and when told the question required her come up with cases, O’Donnell responded, “I’m sorry,” and promised to put the information up later on her website.

Coons quickly referred to the Citizens United ruling in January in which the court lifted some limits on corporate contributions to campaign spending.

In a pattern throughout the debate, O’Donnell made broad statements that attacked Coons on various mainstream Democratic stances, sometimes with personal references to his political record and what she called a family business.

Offered the chance to respond, Coons several times expressed exasperation, saying at one point: “A fascinating question that really makes no sense. What’s she talking about?”

The debate produced a few humorous moments, such as when Coons said O’Donnell’s well-publicized statements from a decade earlier that she dabbled in witchcraft and questioned evolution theory were distractions instead of a substantive campaign issue.

“You’re just jealous that you weren’t on ‘Saturday Night Live’,” O’Donnell said, referring to the comedy show’s satirical skit about her.

“I’m dying to see who’s going to play me,” Coons responded with a smile.

O’Donnell scored a major upset last month when she defeated Rep. Mike Castle to win Delaware’s GOP Senate nomination.

She had support from the Tea Party Express, a major endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as well as the strong anti-establishment and anti-incumbent feelings among voters this year in topping Castle, a moderate Republican who served nine terms in the House and eight years as governor before that.

Since O’Donnell’s primary victory, she has had to deal with controversial and colorful comments she made about a decade ago when she was a spokeswoman for conservative causes.

Her first campaign commercial began with O’Donnell declaring, “I am not a witch” in response to her statement years ago on the program “Politically Incorrect” that she “dabbled in witchcraft.”

She acknowledged in an interview with CNN that the resurfaced clips have forced her to reinvent herself in the final weeks of the campaign.

“I haven’t been embarrassed. And I’m not saying that I’m proud,” O’Donnell told CNN’s Jim Acosta last week. “I’ve matured in my faith. I’ve matured in my policies. Today you have a forty-something woman running for office, not a 20-year-old. So that’s a big difference.”

The debate at the University of Delaware in Newark was co-moderated by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and by longtime Delaware news anchor Nancy Karibjanian of Delaware First Media.

Results of a CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday showed Coons with a 19-point lead over O’Donnell. However, O’Donnell enjoys a lead in campaign cash, which is one reason both President Barack Obama and Biden are coming to Delaware on Friday to help Coons raise money.

O’Donnell, 41, ran unsuccessfully for Senate twice before, in 2006 and 2008. Since winning the primary, she’s had to deal with controversies involving unpaid income taxes and allegations of misusing campaign donations, as well as attacks from Democrats and some Republicans, including Karl Rove, on her qualifications.

Coons, the 47-year-old executive of New Castle County, the state’s most populous county, faced no serious opposition in the Democratic primary.

While he is running his first statewide campaign, Coons is neither a political novice nor a party outsider. In 1988, Coons served as a policy researcher for the failed Senate campaign of then-Lt. Gov. S.B. Woo.

He went on to earn a degree from Yale Law School, as well as a master’s in ethics from Yale Divinity School.

The winner in November will fill out the remaining four years of Biden’s final term in the Senate. Biden stepped down from his seat after his election in November 2008 as vice president.

Former Biden aide Ted Kaufman was named as an interim replacement, and did not seek a full term.

CNN’s Tom Cohen, Paul Steinhauser, Jim Acosta, and Bonnie Kapp contributed to this report.

O’Donnell attacks then stumbles in debate

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Obama notes private sector job growth, rips GOP

Posted on October 8, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

(CNN) — President Obama put a positive spin on the Labor Department’s new jobs report Friday, noting the country has now had nine straight months of private sector job growth.

The economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, though the private sector added 64,000 jobs. The nation’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.6 percent.

Obama blamed the net job loss on layoffs at both the U.S. Census and state and local governments. He slammed the GOP for opposing additional state assistance.

“We have to keep doing everything we can to accelerate this economy,” he said during a visit to a Maryland brick and masonry company. Too many Americans have been “swept up in the most devastating recession of our lifetimes.”

Obama highlighted the recently enacted small-business aid bill — a measure opposed by many senior Republicans — and renewed his push for a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts for families making less than $250,000.

“The damage left by this recession is so deep that it’s going to take a long time to get out,” he said.

Republicans have repeatedly warned that a failure to extend all of the tax cuts — including those for wealthier Americans — will damage an already sluggish recovery. GOP leaders have also criticized the White House’s economic recovery initiatives, claiming they’ve needlessly added to the debt while failing to sufficiently stimulate growth.

“With each passing month, and each new jobs report, it becomes increasingly clear that while massive Washington spending is growing the size of government, it’s clearly not growing sustainable private-sector jobs,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in statement released before Obama’s remarks.

“The trillion-dollar stimulus didn’t live up to promises made by the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress; the massive growth of the federal government didn’t result in a similar growth of jobs; and the maze of new regulations, health care mandates and taxes are having a predictable impact on the economy.”

Obama notes private sector job growth, rips GOP

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Dems look to curb expected losses

Posted on October 3, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Washington (CNN) — Democrats know they are going to lose congressional seats in the November elections. The question is what can they do to minimize the damage?

With less than a month to voting day, even the most ardent Democrats conceded on Sunday talk shows that the outlook wasn’t rosy.

They differed on whether they can retain majorities in both the House and Senate, with the House considered more vulnerable, but all agreed there will be fewer of them working in Congress next year.

Republicans certainly believe it. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, predicted a GOP “tsunami” at the polls.

While he declined to offer a specific prediction on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Cornyn added he expected a “good day” on November 2, adding: “I don’t know how high or how wide that tsunami will be, but I think it will be significant.”

His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, warned on the same program against counting any electoral chickens before they hatch.

“With midterm election history, the president’s party, going to back to the Civil War, it means the president’s party loses seats,” conceded Menendez, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “But the difference between a tsunami and losing some seats is the suggestion that they can take over the majority. That will not happen.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, one of the most visible carriers of the Democratic banner, agreed that the Senate majority was safe, but he was unwilling to offer a similar guarantee for the House.

“I think we’re definitely going to keep the Senate,” Rendell said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” “And I think we have a chance to win the House because I believe that Democrats, including the base, are starting to come back.”

Video: Momentum swinging back to Democrats?

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From liberal to moderate, all the Democrats interviewed Sunday concurred that the party has to offer voters a unified message that clearly contrasts their agenda with what Republicans have done and are doing.

The goal, they said, is to energize the party’s liberal base and convince independents that it is Democrats looking out for working-class Americans while Republicans represent special interests and corporate fat cats.

One line of attack, already employed by Obama and other Democratic leaders, is to blame Republicans for deploying a strategy of congressional obstruction instead of trying to work out differences on major issues.

“They do not want America to succeed,” independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a far-left liberal who sits with the Democratic caucus, told the CBS program. “They’re into politics.”

Asked if he meant such a harsh appraisal, Sanders responded: “I would say that, given the choice between regaining power or obstructing the initiatives that create jobs, that protect the American people, yes, I think gaining power is their major initiative.”

Democrats also have to put aside any internal debate over whether Obama’s administration and congressional leaders have too easily compromised away policies and provisions sought by the party’s progressive wing, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said on “Face the Nation.”

“We should stop firing at each other; we’ve got enough people, the Republicans, firing at us already,” Richardson said. “We don’t need these divisions in the party.”

To Richardson, Obama has to lead the Democratic charge in the final weeks of campaigning to make sure voters understand the choice before them regarding economic policies and other key issues.

“It’s not enough to say, ‘OK, American people, give us credit because we Democrats prevented it from getting any worse,’ ” Richardson said of a standard message from Obama and Democratic leaders. “You’ve got to be positive. You’ve got to talk about jobs, and you’ve got to talk about the economy, and you’ve got to connect with people emotionally.”

Republicans are making Obama and his policies the issue of the campaign, even though it is not a presidential election year and all the races are at the statewide or district level.

“I think this election really is about the president’s agenda,” Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky — who is backed by the Tea Party movement — said on “FOX News Sunday.” “Do you support the president’s agenda or do you not support it? I think his agenda’s wrong for America.”

On the same program, Paul’s Democratic opponent — state Attorney General Jack Conway — backed some Obama achievements, including health care reform, but adopted the stance of Republicans, including Paul, and some other Democrats on extending the Bush-era tax cuts to everyone.

Obama and Democratic leaders favor extending the lower tax rates to the 98 percent of people earning up to $200,000 a year as individuals or $250,000 as families, while letting the rates for the other 2 percent return to higher levels from the 1990s.

The president says it is too expensive for the government to borrow the additional $700 billion over 10 years needed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

However, Conway agreed with Senate Republicans, who pledged a filibuster against allowing anyone’s tax rates to go higher, as well as some Senate and House Democrats unwilling to vote for what opponents would label a tax increase so close the November election.

“I think that raising taxes, we shouldn’t be doing it as we recover from recession,” Conway said Sunday.

Polls show Conway may be starting to erode a big lead by Paul, the Tea Party favorite who defeated a mainstream Republican candidate in the primary vote. To Richardson, such primary upsets by social conservatives such as Paul in Kentucky and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware present an opportunity for Democrats to highlight how the Tea Party influence has shifted the Republican agenda further to the right

“I also think we should take on the Tea Party,” he said on CBS. “For some reason everyone is scared of them. What they really want to do to this country when they talk about reducing deficits is they’re cutting into Medicare, Medicaid, firefighters, teachers, nurses, people’s benefits, Social Security.”

Cornyn, however, said the Tea Party movement is only expressing a deeper and wider political desire among the American people.

“They want us to stop the runway spending, the unsustainable debt, and they want to put America back to work,” Cornyn said on CNN. “And they see the big-government American policies of the last year and a half being an impediment to job creation in America.”

Another Republican, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said the new faces in Congress after November will bring an unpredictable atmosphere.

“There are going to be a lot of new faces and probably some pretty strongly-held views,” Thune said on the C-SPAN program “Newsmakers.” “We’ll see how that works.”

Dems look to curb expected losses

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Obama focus of KY Senate debate

Posted on October 3, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

(CNN) — President Barack Obama was a central theme of a televised debate Sunday between Kentucky’s two U.S. Senate candidates.

Rand Paul, the Tea Party backed Republican who beat a mainstream GOP opponent in the primary, accused Democratic nominee Jack Conway of hewing to Obama’s agenda at the risk of the nation’s economic stability.

“I think this election really is about the president’s agenda,” Paul said. “Do you support the president’s agenda or do you not support it? I think his agenda’s wrong for America. I will stand up against President Obama’s agenda. And I think that’s what people in Kentucky want.”

Conway, the state’s attorney general, said that while he agreed with some Obama policies including health care reform, he would be an independent voice looking out for Kentucky.

Asked about his campaign ads and reported comments depicting Paul as “crazy,” Conway said: “I’m not saying Dr. Paul is crazy. I think some of his ideas are out of the mainstream and they’re out of touch with the values of normal Kentuckians.”

The debate moderated by “FOX News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace included accusations by Paul that Conway flip-flopped on some issues, first backing and now questioning cap-and-trade energy legislation and the expiration of some Bush-era tax cuts.

Video: Obama: ‘We cannot sit this out’

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Conway denied changing positions but made clear that he now was firmly in the moderate camp on some hot-button issues, for example insisting that all the tax cuts should be extended.

Obama wants to extend the tax cuts for the 98 percent of the country earning up to $200,000 individually or $250,000 as families, while returning to higher tax rates of the 1990s for the 2 percent making more money.

Republicans, along with some Democrats — including Conway — say all the tax cuts should be extended as the economy slowly recovers from the recession.

Conway accused Paul of being out of touch with Kentuckians by advocating policies that he said were out of the 1930s. He repeatedly cited Paul’s past suggestion of a $2,000 deductible for Medicare coverage and reducing the federal role in mine safety regulations as examples.

Polls show Conway may be starting to erode a big lead by Paul in the race to fill the seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher. The other senator– Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — holds the party’s highest post in the chamber.

Paul, an eye surgeon, is the son of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

Obama focus of KY Senate debate

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Big labor mobilizing Tea Party alternative

Posted on October 1, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Bensalem, Pennsylvania (CNN) — It sounds like a political classified ad.

“Wanted: unemployed voters.” That’s the message from one of the nation’s biggest labor unions, the AFL-CIO.

Between now and Election Day, the union’s community outreach organization known as Working America will be recruiting jobless Americans for a new political movement.

The idea? To match the energy of the conservative Tea Party movement. The goal? To keep Democrats in power in Washington.

“We want to give people a choice,” said Kim McMurry, a union organizer with Working America.

This week, McMurry met with a group of unemployed workers inside the home of Angela Oravsky, an unemployed mother who says she is burning through her daughter’s college savings money just to pay the rent.

“I don’t care if I have to scream from the rooftops, knock on doors. We have to come together as unemployed people,” she said.

Another unemployed mother, Liz Lassiter, wiped away tears as she described how she had to live in her car during last year’s brutal winter after losing her home.

“I’m looking everywhere, I mean, you know, McDonalds, Wawa, anywhere,” she said.

The meeting was both cathartic and strategic.

Also on the agenda was a discussion on how to rally other jobless friends, relatives and neighbors to get behind Democratic candidates.

Union organizers with Working America said the gathering is one of countless meetings across the country over the next month.

Oravsky will speak at the One Nation rally Saturday on the National Mall in Washington. The event was organized by a coalition of unions and liberal-leaning groups to give voters an alternative to the conservative message offered at Tea Party rallies.

It’s no accident that union organizers are trying to rally Democrats in Oravsky’s hometown of Bensalem. She lives in a crucial swing congressional district, where incumbent Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy is in danger of losing his seat.

Murphy won the seat in 2006 by beating Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick. The two are now in a rematch that could affect the balance of power in the House of Representatives.

“If there are more people like me in Washington, we’ll have a reasonable health care bill and lower taxes,” Fitzpatrick said as he touted his plan to put Pennsylvanians back to work. “Lower taxes will permit the businessperson to create jobs,” he added.

Murphy was not available for an interview.

Oravsky is out to prove that unemployed Americans are ready to roll up their sleeves, even if it’s for a political cause.

“I’m tired of people saying ‘these people are lazy. They need to get a job, they need to get off of unemployment.’ I would do anything, and anybody at this table would do anything, for work,” she said.

Big labor mobilizing Tea Party alternative

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Obama, top Dems to huddle on way out

Posted on September 30, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

(CNN) — Top congressional Democrats will huddle with President Obama Thursday for one last strategy session before lawmakers leave Washington to campaign for their jobs.

As November election season nears, Democrats are dealing with voter anger about lingering high unemployment, two wars and a growing federal deficit.

Earlier this week, Obama had already appeared to be in campaign mode as he addressed a group at a town hall-style meeting in the yard of a home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At the meeting Tuesday, Obama faced a range of questions but no matter the topic — education, small businesses, military veterans, clean energy — he repeatedly reminded listeners that the upcoming congressional elections would be their time to decide.

“I hope everybody is going to pay attention and do their homework and find out about candidates,” Obama said at the end of the hour-long event. “And I think what you’ll find is, is that when you’re making choices for governor and you’re making choices for Senate and Congress, that these choices are going to mean something.”

He encouraged people to ask themselves, “What direction do I want this country to go in?”

“Do I want to invest in our people, in our middle class and making it stronger, and our infrastructure and our education system and clean energy — is that one vision,” Obama said, “or are we just going to keep on doing the same things that got us into this mess in the first place?”

His stark portrayal of the stakes in November and his Thursday White House meeting with party leaders comes as polls show likely losses for Democrats, with a possibility they could lose their majority in the House.

Obama, top Dems to huddle on way out

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Obama questioned on abortion, religion

Posted on September 28, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Albuquerque, New Mexico (CNN) — An event billed as a discussion on the economy turned personal Tuesday when a woman asked President Barack Obama about his Christian faith and views on abortion.

The question came at a town hall-style meeting in the yard of an Albuquerque home as part of Obama’s public outreach to explain his policies and campaign for Democrats in the November congressional elections.

With a recent survey showing that only a third of Americans can correctly identify Obama as a Christian, the president gave a personal account of his conversion as an adult and how his public service is part of his faith.

“I am a Christian by choice,” Obama began, standing beneath a blazing sun, when asked why he is a Christian.

“I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead,” Obama said. “Being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper. Treating others as they would treat me. And I think also understanding that, you know, that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility that we all have to have as human beings.”

Humans are “sinful” and “flawed” beings that make mistakes and “achieve salvation through the grace of God,” the president continued, adding that we also can “see God in other people and do our best to help them find their, you know, their own grace.”

“So that’s what I strive to do,” Obama said. “That’s what I pray to do everyday. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith.”

At the same time, Obama emphasized his belief that freedom of religion is “part of the bedrock strength” of the United States.

“This is a country that is still predominantly Christian, but we have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists” and others, he said, adding that “their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own, and that is part of what makes this country what it is.”

The same questioner also asked Obama about regulations on early and late-term abortion, a politically charged issue in the abortion debate.

Obama responded that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare” in America, adding that families — not the government — “should be the ones making the decision.”

Restrictions against late-term abortion are in place now, he said, adding that “people still argue and disagree about it. That’s part of our Democratic tradition.”

On September 19, Obama publicly attended church for the first time in nearly six months when the first family joined the 9 a.m. service at St. John’s Church Lafayette Square, an Episcopal congregation about a block from the White House.

The family sat a few rows from the altar, among roughly 40 worshippers. Each family member received communion, led by the president.

A survey conducted in late July and early August by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, up from around one in 10 Americans who said he was Muslim last year.

The number of Americans who expressed uncertainly about the president’s religion, meanwhile, is much larger and has also grown, including among Obama’s political base. For instance, fewer than half of Democrats and African-Americans now say that Obama is Christian.

According to the Pew survey released last month, most of those who think Obama is Muslim are Republicans, but the number of independents who believe he is Muslim has expanded significantly, from 10 percent last year to 18 percent this summer.

In March 2009, 36 percent of African-Americans said they didn’t know what religion Obama practices. Now, 46 percent of African-Americans say they don’t know, according to the survey.

Obama questioned on abortion, religion

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Obama approval hits new low

Posted on September 24, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Washington (CNN) — With little more than a month to go before the midterm elections, President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit an all-time low.

Only 42 percent of Americans now approve of how Obama’s handling his job as president, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. Fifty-four percent disapprove of his performance.

The figures represent a new low-water mark in the CNN/ORC poll for the president, who, almost two years into his term, continues to wrestle with public worries over a sluggish economy and exhaustion with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Congressional Democrats aren’t faring much better. They now face a nine-point deficit when likely voters are asked which party they’ll back in November, according to the poll.

Top non-partisan political analysts have given the Republicans a serious shot at picking up the 39 seats necessary to recapture the House of Representatives.

A solid majority of all Americans — 56 percent — say that Obama has fallen short of their expectations. As a result, the president is not in a position to help struggling Democratic candidates; only 37 percent of likely voters say they are more likely to vote for a congressional candidate backed by Obama.

In contrast, half of all likely voters now say they are likely to choose a candidate supported by the conservative Tea Party — contributing to the GOP’s 53 to 44 percent lead when such voters are asked which party’s candidate they will choose in November.

Also damaging the Democrats: the enthusiasm gap. Republicans in general are much more engaged and excited about voting than Democrats, according to the new poll.

One cautionary note for Republican candidates: voters aren’t wild about the GOP, either. Nearly half of likely voters who say they will vote Republican in the fall say they are doing so to oppose the Democrats, not to support the Republicans.

Also potentially cutting against GOP momentum: while nearly eight in 10 voters favor extending the Bush tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year, a majority oppose extending the cuts for families that make more than that amount.

Republicans have vehemently argued in favor of extending the cuts for the wealthiest Americans as well, arguing that a failure to do so would damage the recovery. Top Democrats, led by Obama, claim that the roughly $700 billion price tag associated with an extension of the cuts for the richest Americans would be fiscally irresponsible.

While the president’s approval ratings may seem grim, he has plenty of company among his most recent predecessors. Obama’s approval rating exactly matches that of Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in September of their second years in office.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted September 21-23, with 1,010 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

There is a 4.5 percent margin of error for the 506 likely voters questioned in the poll.

CNN’s Polling Director Keating Holland contributed to this report.

Obama approval hits new low

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Jobs loom over Obama’s talk of wars, peace

Posted on September 23, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

(CNN) — Foreign policy may be the focus of President Barack Obama’s address to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, but domestic concerns will continue to remain in the forefront for many White House aides.

When Obama steps to the podium in New York, he will seize a unique opportunity to update the American public — and the broader international community — on the administration’s overseas priorities, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Among the topics likely to be covered: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear nonproliferation efforts in Iran and North Korea, and “real opportunities” to achieve “a lasting peace in the Middle East.”

But how much do people back home care? And — perhaps more important — will yet another day focused on foreign policy hurt Democrats’ efforts to convince voters that economic recovery is really their top priority?

With the nation’s unemployment rate stuck stubbornly close to double digits, a stronger economy remains the key issue in the looming midterm elections. Fewer than one in five Americans consider the economy to be in good shape, according to a September 1-2 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. Eighty-one percent characterize economic conditions as poor.

Roughly half of all Americans believe the economy is as bad or worse than it was two years ago, when Obama was running for president.

Nearly 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the administration’s handling of the economy.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Adding to Obama’s woes: turmoil with his economic team. The White House announced Tuesday that Larry Summers, the president’s top economic adviser, will return to academia at the end of the year.

The announcement followed July’s departure of Budget Director Peter Orszag and the exit this month of former Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer.

And while some analysts may give Obama credit for winding down the Iraq war or launching a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — both issues tied to the broader struggle against terrorism — there’s scant evidence voters are impressed.

Americans surveyed in the poll gave Republicans a 20-point edge — 54 to 34 percent — on the question of which party can do a better job handling terrorism. They split virtually evenly, favoring Republicans 45 to 42 percent, when asked which party can do a better job handling the war in Afghanistan.

Despite those numbers — and the critical importance of economic issues — Obama may still be hoping to find a degree of political solace in international affairs.

“Traditionally, presidents who have faced problems in their domestic agenda have turned to foreign policy to shore up their standing with the public,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland notes.

“Previous presidents have found that acting as commander in chief, in an arena where they can act largely unchecked by Congress, has served them well. Obama may be facing a different environment in 2010, but he’s using the same playbook that most of his predecessors have since World War II.”

Nevertheless, the White House plans to quickly remind voters more worried about pocketbook issues that the president has not forgotten their concerns. Obama is set to return to the subject of the economy next week when he travels to New Mexico, Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia.

While in Wisconsin, he’ll also raise funds for U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, who is suddenly facing a tough re-election race.

In short: Obama’s U.N. visit may be the focus of discussion on Thursday, but the economy is far more likely to remain in the headlines in the dwindling stretch run to Election Day.

Jobs loom over Obama’s talk of wars, peace

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GOP sniping up after Tea Party wins

Posted on September 19, 2010 by admin| Comments Off

Washington (CNN) — Tea Party euphoria confronted reality Sunday, with Delaware Senate primary winner Christine O’Donnell backing out of scheduled talk show appearances amid talk of possible civil war among Republicans over the conservative movement.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski accused the Tea Party Express of infusing money and lies into her Republican primary to swing it against her.

Now waging a write-in campaign to retain her seat, against the wishes of mainstream Republicans, Murkowski told CNN that fellow party members were inciting inner-GOP conflict.

“What happened in my particular race, you had the Tea Party Express, this California-based group, come in at the last minute in a campaign, run a mudslinging, smear — just a terrible, terrible campaign, with lies and fabrications and mischaracterization,” Murkowski said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “They came in, they dumped $600,000 into a small market here in Alaska, and they absolutely clearly influenced the outcome of that election.”

Murkowski accused conservative GOP Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who backed her victorious opponent in the primary, of undermining fellow Republicans.

“I don’t think that it’s particularly helpful to undercut fellow Republicans, but as I say, it’s his prerogative,” Murkowski said of DeMint, later adding: “I think that he has made people uncomfortable. I think that he has kind of rattled the cages. Whether it advances to a full-on civil war, I don’t know.”

On the same program, DeMint said in a pre-recorded interview that his efforts have helped Republican chances of regaining control of the Senate in November’s mid-term elections.

“The only reason we have a chance at a majority now is in large part for the candidates I’ve been supporting,” DeMint said.

Video: Murkowski defends her write-in decision

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DeMint’s support for Joe Miller over Murkowski and for O’Donnell in Delaware, who defeated veteran Republican Rep. Mike Castle in Tuesday’s Delaware primary for Vice President Joe Biden’s former Senate seat, caused consternation in GOP party circles.

Some fear such extreme conservative candidates can’t win statewide races and are unprepared for the scrutiny of such a campaign.

O’Donnell added to such concerns by canceling previously agreed-to interviews on “FOX News Sunday” and the CBS program “Face the Nation,” deciding instead to make appearances in Delaware.

Bob Schieffer, the host of the CBS program, said on air that O’Donnell’s representatives denied she withdrew because of videotape released over the weekend showing her talking about dabbling in witchcraft.

Whatever the reason, O’Donnell continued to serve as a lightning rod for analysis of the influence of the Tea Party movement. She was given little chance of defeating Castle, but received late support from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as well as Tea Party money, and pulled off the upset.

Now the 11-year-old “witchcraft” video and others becoming public are reinforcing the image preferred by Democrats of O’Donnell as an unknown, untested and risky candidate.

Republican strategist Ed Rollins acknowledged the problem on the CBS program, saying O’Donnell was off to a rocky beginning.

“Right now this campaign’s about her,” said Rollins, who is a CNN senior political analyst. “Unless she gets her ship righted … this is not a good start.”

Another top GOP strategist, former Bush White House aide Karl Rove, softened his earlier criticism of O’Donnell, whom he described as unelectable last Tuesday.

Appearing on the FOX program, Rove joined other mainstream Republicans in supporting the O’Donnell campaign but called Murkowski’s write-in campaign selfish and ultimately unsuccessful.

“She’s going to lose,” Rove said. “Who would’ve thought that one of the most conservative states in the country ran the risk of having two liberal Democrats who follow the Obama line representing in the United States Senate? And that’s what she could do as a spoilsport.”

He added: “This is sad and sorry.”

At the same time, Rove denied there was “civil war” between the Tea Party movement and Republicans.

Democrats conceded that the Tea Party movement reflects real anger and frustration with continuing high unemployment and the growing federal deficit.

However, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, the former Virginia governor, told CNN that voters now have clear choices for the November elections with the primary season completed.

“I think the Republicans are moving way to the right of the American electorate,” Kaine said of the Tea Party movement’s influence.

CNN’s Alexander Mooney and Mariano Castillo contributed to this story.

GOP sniping up after Tea Party wins

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