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August 17, 2006

Republicans Losing The Security Moms

Republicans Losing The 'Security Moms'
Married women with children, the "security moms" whose concerns about terrorism made them an essential part of Republican victories in 2002 and 2004, are taking flight from GOP politicians this year in ways that appear likely to provide a major boost for Democrats in the midterm elections, according to polls and interviews.

The study, which examined the views of married women with children from April through this week, found that married mothers support Democrats for Congress by a 12-point margin, 50 percent to 38 percent. That is nearly a mirror-image reversal from a similar period in 2002, when this group backed Republicans 53 percent to 36 percent. In 2004, exit polls showed, Bush won a second term in part because 56 percent of married women with children supported him.

Posted by rich at 11:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Losing in the Heartland


For the GOP, a Heartland Plunge
When the Columbus Dispatch's respected poll recently reported that Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was trailing Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland by 20 points in the race for governor of Ohio, there was dismay but no shock among his fellow Republicans. Those I interviewed during a recent visit here said they had seen it coming for a long time. But it is a political earthquake.

Posted by rich at 11:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 16, 2006

Who Won the War?

It's interesting to see who is going to win this latest Lebanese conflict. To me its another case of the big super power, in this case Israel, winning, but losing at the same time and another example of where we have:

  1. They don't hate us for who we are, but for some very real bad things that have happened. Notably, lots of innocent folks have died or lost their homes
  2. They don't love the Hezzbolah because they want to be martyrs irrationally, but because the organization works and provides an alternative for a government that is either a dictatorship (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt) or inept (Lebanon, PLO)
  3. They get their money from "us". Oil is the real center of gravity of the Middle East.

Hezbollah Leads Work to Rebuild, Gaining Stature - New York Times
As stunned Lebanese returned Tuesday over broken roads to shattered apartments in the south, it increasingly seemed that the beneficiary of the destruction was most likely to be Hezbollah. A major reason — in addition to its hard-won reputation as the only Arab force that fought Israel to a standstill — is that it is already dominating the efforts to rebuild with a torrent of money from oil-rich Iran. Hezbollah’s reputation as an efficient grass-roots social service network — as opposed to the Lebanese government, regarded by many here as sleek men in suits doing well — was in evidence everywhere. Young men with walkie-talkies and clipboards were in the battered Shiite neighborhoods on the southern edge of Bint Jbail, taking notes on the extent of the damage.

Posted by rich at 02:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fiasco what a book!

I just finished reading Fiasco and I would have laughed if I wasn't crying. A great chronicle of the length and breadth of the five years in Iraq. Its so sad to see what happened particularly to see how such critical decisions were made with zero forethought. It's also a great source for further reading about counterinsurgency and seeing how folks can ignore the experts and end up in a real, well "fiasco." Its a page turner.


'Fiasco,' by Thomas E. Ricks - The New York Times - New York Times
“Fiasco” is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how the United States came to go to war in Iraq, how a bungled occupation fed a ballooning insurgency and how these events will affect the future of the American military.

Get it at Amazon

Posted by rich at 02:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack