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Keto trim Review
While trying to balance work life and house chores, people often forget to take care of their bodies. Most people these days are very negligent of their body and the food that they put in it. Processed foods are taking over and there are very few people who can say that they only eat homemade foods. Eating unhealthy and high-carb foods has made many people obese. This is why the statistics show that obesity is on a rise around the world. To solve this problem, it is important that people get physically active.
Introduction to Keto trim
Keto trim is a weight loss supplement that comes from natural sources. It is a supplement that works based on the principle of ketosis. This principle is the basis of keto diet too. So, when you take Keto trim, the effects are pretty similar. So, this product helps the users quite a lot in losing weight and being fit. The ingredients used in this product are the result of intense testing and checking. While some of them are from medicinal healers of the past, others come from scientists who have been working on several products for years.
- Keto trim starts ketosis so that your body can use fats and break them up.
- After breaking of fats, ketone concentration in the body rises.
- This is the reason for lowering of fat content in the body over time.
- When you are using Keto trim, you would experience that there is high energy in your body.
Why You Should Use Keto trim?
No one wants to be obese because it does not look good. In our society, obese people have to face a lot of criticism. They could also be bullied for their weight. This makes people very un-confident about themselves. So, Keto trim helps people get out of this insecurity.
Keto trim is organic because it is made on organic farms where all the right standards are kept under consideration. The company has special suppliers that grow ingredients according to organic standards. No pesticides or other agricultural chemicals are used. This is done to ensure that the accumulation of these chemicals in the body does not harm the user.
Starts Ketosis
When you are in ketosis, fat loss is accelerated. So, it is quite helpful that Keto trim puts you in ketosis. It is one of those supplements that change the natural energy production unit of your body. Normally, carbs are the energy packets that are broken down to produce energy. When Keto trim is in action, the energy packets are fats.
Higher Energy
One of the most noticeable things about Keto trim is that it makes your body very energetic. When you take this formula, you will feel like you can conquer the world.
- This is because high amounts of energy are contained in fats.
- Fats produce more ATP energy molecules as compared carbohydrates.
- When there are more ATPs in the body, the energy levels are also higher.
Ingredients Used In Keto X Factor:
Green tea-It has disease avoidance specialists properties which can weight lessening easily. It can devour more calories from the body.
Ginger concentrates -It can decrease weight with mollifying from gassiness and swelling which can give you compliment gut in few days.
Chia seeds-It is in like manner prepared to reduce weight like distinctive fixings yet it is stacked with fiber which digests sustenance easily and diminishes weight quickly.
Keto trim is Brain-Healthy Too
Keto trim is healthy for your brain too. Back in the day, people were aware of the fact that ketosis can do wonders for your brain along with your body. This concept could not possibly be used in recent times without any scientific evidence. This is why some studies and research was needed for people to believe in the process. These studies were then conducted and it was seen that ketosis helped in weight loss and also kept people more alert.
- When your body is running low on glucose, it instantly starts using fats.
- This is because your body does not want to use up all of the glucose supply.
- The reason for this is that your brain can only use glucose as energy.
- There is a blood brain barrier so your brain cannot take energy in form of fats.
So, in ketosis, your body saves up the glucose energy for your brain. As a result of this, your brain stays active and alert without every getting drained of energy. In such circumstances, the working of your brain gets better and the thinking capability also improves.
Does Keto trim really Work?
You cannot just take someone's word to believe that Keto trim actually works. You need to see the result in your body too. How can you do this? There are keto strips in the market that work quite like pregnancy tests.
- You have to pee on the strip.
- There are different colors to indicate the level of ketones in your body.
- So, using these strips, you can see if you are in ketosis or not.
Seeing this yourself will convince you that Keto trim works for your body and that it is fully functional.
Liya/30 years: Keto trim was suggested to me by a close friend. I actually remember the time when I was quite fit and people used to take advice from me on how to maintain their bodies. Over time, I stopped noticing the slow but consistent weight gain and that became the reason for my obesity over the years. I realized it too late. No amount of dieting could make me lose all that fat. So, I started using this formula on advice of a friend.
Luckily for me, I had chosen a supplement that was effective. In the first month, I felt lighter and my body also lost the water weight. After that, the weight loss became constant even though it was slow at first
Major Pros of Keto trim
If you have been trying to lose weight for years and have found no breakthrough, then this product is great for you.
- Keto trim begins fat melting process in your body so that the excessive lipid layer is lost.
- The supplement does amazing job for your brain by making it work faster and better.
- Upon using Keto trim, you will also find your body to be more active and alert.
- This formula is great for all users despite how obese they are.
Major Cons of Keto trim
So, Keto trim is great for your body and it can make you feel like a snack but it also has a few cons.
- It may show side effects in some people such as those who have allergies or a chronic illness.
- Since it is not approved by the FDA, Keto trim may not be fully up to the standards.
- The supplement could be contaminated if you leave the bottle open for too long..
How you can Buy Keto trim?
To buy Keto trim, you just need an Internet connection. Go to the company's website.
- You will see a home page with details about the formula.
- There will also be some reviews from real people on the page.
- You will also be able to see an ordering form in the top corner of the page.
Just fill in that form. At first, it is good to buy just one bottle for trying purposes. Pay for the supplement through your credit card and the company will send you a confirmation message on your given contact number.
Final Wording
Why go for expensive and surgical options when Keto trim can do the same thing for you without that extra cost.


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Delve into Tenby's Interesting History
Beloved for it's beachside location, but do you know the history of everyone's favourite Welsh town?
Much of Pembrokeshire is steeped in history, but we often only know the unmissable tales suggested by the impressive castles and forts which you'll spot when you drive through the county. If you dig a little deeper, you'll find connections to past British monarchs, well-known wars and much more.
Tenby is one of Pembrokeshire's most popular seaside destinations. It's a coastal town where many choose to take their summer holidays; where people spend their days building sandcastles, paddling in the shores and bathing in the sunshine. Whilst it is certainly a fantastic place for all of those things, Tenby has a most fascinating history to explore too.
Tenby Castle and the Medieval Town Walls
If you stroll through the cobbled streets of Tenby, you'll no doubt spot the magnificently preserved town walls and the famous "Five Arches" located along the South Parade, but you might miss the Castle upon first glance.
Originally built in the 12th Century by the Earls of Pembroke, Tenby Castle is perched high on top of Castle Hill ensuring a fantastic lookout over the surrounding coast. Much of the castle has turned to ruins now, but a tower does remain at the highest point and there is still a gateway standing over the path up from the harbour.
Unfortunately for Tenby, the fortress built was not as successful as intended and in 1260, Llewellyn ap Gruffydd captured and destroyed much of the town. Some 4 years later, William de Valence rebuilt the town and reinforced the defences once put in place. He enclosed the town with towers and added the iconic Five Arches which you can still see today – pretty remarkably maintained for a structure built in the 13th Century.
Following a period of little/no maintenance during the 14th and 15 Centuries, Jasper Tudor intervened and ordered repairs in 1457. During this time, Tenby's town walls were significantly strengthened. A parapet walk was added to improve lookouts, the height of the walls were raised 5 foot and the depth extended up to 6 inches. It was last strengthened in 1588 as a reaction to the threat of the Spanish Armada invading.
Despite the town walls of Tenby once having acted as a pillar of protection and defence during medieval times of battle, they were later deemed unwanted and in the early 18th Century, many parts of the town walls were torn down. Nowadays, the walls are listed as a Grade I structure and are often regarded as one of the most historically important town defences in Wales. Next time you stroll along the South Parade, cast your mind back to the forgotten significance of these walls.
Tudor Merchant's House
The Tudor Merchant's House in Tenby dates back to the 15th Century and as suggested by the name, offers an insight into the life of a merchant in Tudor Tenby. Now managed by the National Trust, you will find the Tudor Merchant's House hidden down Quay Hill just off Tudor Square.
Tucked away down a cobbled side street of Tenby town nearby to the harbour, this property housed a local merchant and his family during the 1400's. On the ground floor was the merchant's shop where he sold many imported items from foreign countries or various British products which were coming through the port from other areas of the country. You would have been able to purchase items such as salt, wine and sugar. The first floor housed the family with their living quarters taking up this space.
Today Tenby's Tudor Merchant's House is a popular historic attraction and a great place to go with the children. During your visit, little ones can dress up in traditional Tudor costumes, play with replica toys from Tudor times and even get involved with fun activities and games. Explore the house and discover the differences between past and present times in Tenby.
The painted cloths you'll find draped over the walls are a real charm of the Merchant's House. Rather than purchasing expensive tapestries during the Tudor times, many opted for painted cloths which had become a popular alternative. If you call into the House today, you will see two cloths on display - the first illustrates Tenby in 1457 after the rebuilding of the town walls by Jasper Tudor, whilst the second is set during the War of the Roses and exhibits the 1471 escape of Jasper and Henry Tudor from Tenby.
It is said that in an attempt to escape from this West Wales destination, Jasper Tudor and the child who grew up to become Henry VII burrowed into the network of tunnels beneath the town in hiding. From here, they followed a tunnel to the harbour where they boarded a ship which sailed them to safety in Brittany, France.
St Catherine's Island
This iconic island lies just off the coast of Tenby and has in recent years been used as filming location for the popular BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as the famous literary pairing, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. St Catherine's Island had a starring role as the "Sherrinford" maximum security prison in Series 4 of the award-winning television series.
Originally St Catherine's Island housed a small chapel and known as a place of worship. Somewhere along the lines the island became the property of the Corporation of Tenby who later sold it to the War Office in the 19th Century for a mere £800. It was during this time the island took on a much more important role in Tenby life.
By this period, Tenby was becoming a notable destination with valuable links to the Royal Dockyard through the newly established railway line, so the War Office saw fit to prepare defences for the town against the possibility of foreign invasions. In 1867, work began on the island to create a secure fort which would provide protection against incomers from the sea. By the end of the decade, the War Office had established a garrison with a total of 9 guns and 100 men.
Over the next few years, the army and the navy both took control of the island until the early 20th Century when the Windsor Richards family purchased it and converted the fort into a private home and summer house. During the last century, it has been garrisoned during both world wars as well as being privately owned at various times by the army, a solicitor and a Tenby businessman. St Catherine's Island even became home to a zoo in 1968 but in 1979, this relocated and the island has since stood empty for the most part.
Caldey Island
A serene setting for summer days, Caldey Island is another island just off the coast of Tenby and is a popular attraction amongst locals and visitors alike. Since 1929, Cistercian monks have lived and worked on the island all year round, following a traditional method of living.
Quite remarkably, it is said that Caldey Island began life as part of a peninsula in the Carmarthen plain during the Ice Age, before a portion of the land became submerged leaving Caldey standing isolated in the sea as an island.
Around the 12th Century, Tironian monks moved onto the island setting up a sister monastery to the already established base in St Dogmaels. If you pay a visit to Caldey, you can still see this building – it is now known as The Old Priory. Monks remained on the island until 1536 when the monastery was dissolved under the order of Henry VIII. It was later then privately owned and used for farming and quarrying before being bought by the Anglican Benedictines in 1906, who established the current buildings and restored The Old Priory. In 1925, the Cistercian monks bought the island and have remained there ever since until the present day.
Between April and September, you can board a boat from Tenby Harbour over to Caldey Island – most definitely recommended if you're in the area. You can spend the day strolling the beautiful sands of Priory Beach, explore the tranquil village complete with shops, delve into the history at the museum and amble up to the island's lighthouse for a picnic overlooking stunning views of the Welsh coastline. Of course, you'll also enjoy the twenty minute boat journey through the seas where you may catch glimpses of sea life and coastal birds. Take the whole family - pushchairs and dogs on leads are welcomed too!


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Technical web development documentation.
Бюджет $30-250 USD
CATEGORY: IT + Engineering + Web development
NAME: Technical web development documentation.
SIZE OF PROJECT: Small
We required to generate user case documentation according with a predefined modules and using an existing template. One of the modules is share as reference to build the other ones. See Module 1.1 For reference - Customer: Register document
Is necessary that the freelancer has a very deep understanding and experience doing digital assets such as: landings, websites, native applications and web applications, including knowledge about front, back end tasks and quality assurance.
Have in mind documentation must be build thinking in responsive assets and mobile versions for each resolution screen as well.
Think design in a grid 12 to 15 columns, and responsive.
The document has the following sections:
IDENTIFICATION: To include name and ID of the module, and creation date as well.
HISTORY CONTROL: To track the progress of adjustments and improvements, with the description of what change from one to other version.
MODULE DESCRIPTION: To define the module scope, how it works, assumptions, types, variations, user case diagram and actor categorization.
INPUTS OF THE SYSTEM: If applies all the information that the user gave to the system.
OUTPUTS OF THE SYSTEM: If applies, all the information that the system generate or use for other modules.
USER CASE FLOW: Including precondition and postcondition and step by step having in mind user and system. Include exceptions and alternative paths.
CONFIGURATIONS: Parameters that can be changed, which ones apply always, which ones do not.
ACTIVITY DIAGRAM: It must include the detailed flow having in mind: user, frontend and backend.
TASKS, EFFORT AND PROFILES REQUIRED: List the tasks, that according with your experience are required and the effort in hours to finish each of one, the task should not take more than 4 hours. You must have in mind all the profiles that are in the digital production: User experience, User interface, Front development, Back-end development, QA, Project management.
HOW TO TEST: Detailed checklist with step by step, inputs and expected result for Quality assurance, including front-end, back-end and design review.
9 documents, one for each of the following modules:
1. Header
2. Menú
3. Page
4. Section
5. Counter
6. Favorite
7. Footer
9. Banner
Use document Module template
Each module must be delivered in zip file including editable documents and graphs used.
One consolidated round for feedback must be included. It means, we will review the documents and ask for adjustments once.
Estimated duration: 3 and a half weeks entire project
We expect to have all the documents ready for first revision in one an a half week.
There will be 1 week for review and send feedback.
Then the adjustments required will take up to 1 week.
Further detail in Structure sketch file
Have in mind effects like fixed menu in scroll Reference: [url removed, login to view]
Hamburguer Menú (Off canvas, animation left to right or right to left or top down)
Further detail in Hamburguer menu file
[url removed, login to view]
[url removed, login to view]
Further detail in Structure sketch file
Parallax effect reference:
[url removed, login to view]
Counter for views (eye icon)
EG: [url removed, login to view]
Favorite mark as favorite (stars or hearts)
[url removed, login to view]
Further detail in Structure sketch file
Further detail in Banner self advertising file
20 фрилансеров(-а) готовы выполнить эту работу в среднем за $302
Hi I work towards providing reliable, relevant and robust IT solutions at most competitive prices to my customers. I ensure 100% customer satisfaction so lets start Thanks
Hi, i am an expert in website designing and I can Develop sites in Wordpress, Magento and Core PHP, API. let's discuss. ready to start. thanks.
Hello, I assure you to complete your work within 3 and half week but according to 3 and half week work you need to pay me $ 400 -$ 450 USD. I assure you to complete the work as per your need and within timeframe. Больше
Hi Here are few of my writing samples for technical writing (IT & software based writing): (1) This is the user's manual for a CRM software: [login to view URL] (2) Here are few User's Guides I crea Больше
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Hi,dear. I am a senior software developer. I have just checked your project report, I am able to perform this task with my developer team. I am looking forward to your proposal...
We've dedicated team of experts to deliver quality solution within your time frame. I can answer your queries on CHAT. Looking forward to work on your project.
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- Contain over 25% vegetable glycerin
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- Proprietary soap formula is vegan
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- Made by hand in small batches for optimum fragrance
- Each bar is shrink-wrapped, great for gift giving
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18 portion(s)
Red Velvet Cake
- 100 g beetroot, peeled and roughly chopped
- 35 g lemon flesh, 1/2 large lemon, skin and pith removed
- 50 g fresh or frozen raspberries
- 15 g apple cider vinegar
- 60 g natural yoghurt
- 60 g Kefir or buttermilk
- 110 g Butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 g sugar
- 2 eggs, separated
- 130 g plain flour
- 15 g cocoa, NOT dutch cocoa
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
45minPreparation 5minBaking/Cooking
Recipe is created for
Recipe's preparation
IF YOU HAVE A SECOND BOWL; place egg white into clean and dry TM bowl. Insert butterfly and whisk for 1 minute at speed 4 on 37C. If you don't have a second TM bowl beat the egg whites to soft peaks using a hand held beater or whisk.
Pour the egg whites into the beetroot batter and mix for 5-10 seconds on speed 4 until just incorporated.
Pour the cake mix into a lined cake tin and bake for 25-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. DO NOT OVERCOOK as the red colour will convert to brown.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto cooling rack to completely cool.
Ice with cream cheese icing. Try my white chocolate cream cheese icing for total decadence. //www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/white-chocolate-cream-cheese-icing/77669
Red Velvet Cake
After seeing a friend make red velvet cake using 2 bottles of red food colouring I knew the thermomix would offer a natural alternative for red velvet cake and here it is!
The acidic ingredients are important for the tangy taste but also to maintain the red colour of the beetroot.
I used a 26cm square cake tin and then cut the cake in half to make 2 thin layers for the cakes in the photos. You could also use a 15cm round cake tin.
These quantities are actually a half batch so feel free to double the recipe and use a 20cm round tin. The cooking time will vary accordingly, start checking at 35 minutes and be careful not to overcook the cake.
This recipe was provided to you by a Thermomix ® customer and has not been tested by Vorwerk Thermomix ® or Thermomix ® in Australia and New Zealand.
Vorwerk Thermomix ® and Thermomix ® in Australia and New Zealand assume no liability, particularly in terms of ingredient quantities used and success of the recipes.
Please observe the safety instructions in the Thermomix ® instruction manual at all times.
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CommentsAdd a comment
add dry ingredients to butter mix & then add...
add dry ingredients to butter mix & then add beetroot mix
This looks good but seems to
This looks good but seems to be missing steps. I'm guessing add dry ingredients to butter mix & then add beetroot mix?
Delicious, I made these for a
Delicious, I made these for a fundraiser at school.. with the white chocolate/cream cheese icing.. Yumo! So pleased I was able to get some fruit & veg in through the cupcakes!
Sonia Maree Skewes
Pathways of Potential- Back to Basics
Hi Karen, great to see a
Hi Karen, great to see a colour free version - mines in the oven now but I found that the recipe is missing the steps to add all the dry ingredients and when you put the beetroot mix back in. I hope I got it right! Will see when it comes out of the oven
Thanks Karen, looks good. Thanks for posting a 'colour-free' version!
Thanks Karen, looks good. Thanks for posting a 'colour-free' version!


text:
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text:
watch 01:38
The Loop (TV)
Do you like this video?
- "Just look at Amber. Who does she think she is, a Laker Girl?"
- ―Cordelia Chase[src]
Amber Grove was a Sunnydale High School student and one of the aspiring members of the Sunnydale High cheerleading squad in 1997.
In high school Amber got detention once for smoking a cigarette. She had trained with a coach named Benson, though she was also rumored to have turned down the Laker Girls.
The day of the audition, Amber spontaneously burst into flames as she began her choreography, though her life was saved by Buffy Summers. The spontaneous combustion had been caused by a curse exacted upon Amber by Catherine Madison.[1]
Behind the scenesEdit
- She was portrayed by Jeannette Papineau.
- "Witch"
- "The Puppet Show" (Only mentioned)
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


text:
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text:
Frequent Fryer
Pardon the Tofurky.
Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006
Crystal Ball: Move over, Mort Kondracke. You heard it here first: as predicted, Flyer and Fryer held on to defeat Plymouth and Rock, 27% to 22%, in this year's White House turkey naming contest. Corn and Copia, the other food item on voters' menu, finished third with 21%, ahead of deserving founder Ben and Franklin at 18%. Washington and Lincoln ended up first in war, first in peace, and last in the turkey standings, with 12%.
In what may be an early glimpse of a kinder, gentler Bush, the president dispensed with his annual neck-and-neck joke. He has given up pretending the election was close. Instead, Bush joked that it was probably better to be called Flyer than Fryer. He said the turkeys' owners "did a fine job raising these birds," then petted Fryer's neck and called it "a fine-looking bird."
Bush also revealed that although Barney had enjoyed chasing Flyer around the Rose Garden, his favorite toy is a soccer ball. That makes the president an honorary soccer dad, too late to win back any suburban swing voters.
Bates Motel: Flyer and Fryer have flown off to greener, Barney-free pastures in Disneyland. They don't know how lucky they are. With no help from Washington, some states are finding their own ways to reduce the turkey retiree burden. The Montgomery Advertiser reports on Alabama's solution: coyotes.
Every November, Bill Bates, a leading Republican who runs the largest turkey farm in the state, brings the best bird from his flock of 20,000+ to Montgomery for the governor to pardon. Bates, who has been doing this since segregationist days, doesn't need an online naming contest. He gives his best bird the same name every year: Clyde.
While a pardon may be the dream of every turkey worth his salt, the Advertiser's account suggests it's not easy being Clyde. The paper reports that many of Bates's prized turkeys "ate so much and got so fat that they had a hard time even waddling around the farm." Others apparently "have been known to drown during storms when they lift their beaks to the open sky."
But the pardon of Clyde '05 proved to be the cruelest hoax of all. After being honored by the governor, Clyde '05 went on display at a farmers' market in Montgomery. PETA complained about his shabby treatment, so Bates brought him back to the farm. A few months ago, a coyote got into his pen and had an early Thanksgiving dinner. "Poor Clyde never had a chance," Bates told the paper. "There wasn't much left but feathers and bones."
Since then, Bates has installed a new security system – barbed wire. But if more coyotes had time to read blogs, they might have left Clyde alone and followed this hot tip from Huffington Post: Tofurky. Made with "organic, non-genetically engineered soybeans," Tofurky has been "America's Leading Turkey Alternative Since 1995."
The 2007 "Gobble the Vote" naming contest is 364 days away, but we already have a frontrunner: Tofurky and Clyde. You heard it here first. … 1:27 A.M. (link)
Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006
Fed and Up: As soon as he sets foot on American soil, President Bush will get back to the people's business: Wednesday's annual Rose Garden ceremony to pardon the Thanksgiving turkey. Last year at this time, the White House was thick with turkeys looking for pardons. This holiday season, it's the president who needs one, and neither the country nor his party is in a forgiving vein.
Every Thanksgiving, the president actually pardons two turkeys – the official Thanksgiving Turkey, who poses for the cameras in the Rose Garden, as well as an alternate, who remains in an undisclosed secure location, ready to take over if the Thanksgiving Turkey is eaten by terrorists. The two turkeys then retire to the Elysian Fields of Disneyland, where they will serve as Grand Marshals for Disney's Thanksgiving Day parade, and be free to volunteer as mascots for California congressman Duncan Hunter's 2008 presidential campaign.
A few years ago, Bush aides launched an online contest to name the turkeys. That was back in the days when the Bush White House enjoyed elections.
The turkey naming contest has been more successful than other administration experiments in democracy, like Iraq. But like the administration itself, the contest may be fading away for lack of interest.
In 2004, nearly 20,000 people voted, lifting the names Biscuits and Gravy to a 27%-22% win over Patience and Fortitude. Last year, turnout dropped by a third, to a mere 12,726 voters, as Marshmallow and Yam beat Wattle and Snood by only 27%-26%. The Wattle and Snood campaign is still whining that with a shift of just 65 votes, Marshmallow would have been stuffed and the press would be writing about a Wattle comeback.
This is an election year, so turnout ought to be higher. But the choices in this year's "Gobble the Vote" contest won't help. Each year, the race attracts four types of candidates: Famous Founders (Lewis and Clark in '03, Adams and Jefferson in '04), enduring values (Stars and Stripes and Hope and Glory in '03, Patience and Fortitude in '04, Democracy and Freedom in '05), turkey parts (Gobble and Peck in '04, Wattle and Snood in '05), and Thanksgiving favorites (Pumpkin and Cranberry in '03, Biscuits and Gravy in '04, Marshmallow and Yam in '05).
The race usually comes down to a choice between food and values, and food almost always wins out. Stars and Stripes won on a values mantle in 2003, when the nation was still in shock from 9/11. But Pumpkin and Cranberry finished second that year, while Biscuits and Gravy and Marshmallow and Yam won the last two contests. Turkey parts nearly pulled an upset last year with Wattle and Snood – but without exit polls, we'll never know how many voters thought those were Republican values, nor how many regions consider those parts prized holiday fare.
This year, the White House faces the same challenge in naming turkeys that it had defending them in the midterms: No values are on the ballot. The Founders have three candidates: Washington and Lincoln, Ben and Franklin, and Plymouth and Rock. The other two entries are Fusion candidates: the Food/Founder hybrid Corn and Copia and the Turkey-Parts/Food combo Flyer and Fryer.
Even lifelong political birdwatchers don't know how to handicap this race. Washington and Lincoln, who dominate the nation's currency, will have a tougher time with turkey voters, who have never given a Founder more than 10%. The same bias against historical figures will hurt Ben and Franklin, despite their namesake's impeccable credentials as the father of Thanksgiving and champion of the turkey as the national bird.
For once, the Founders may have a contender in Plymouth and Rock. Unlike Lewis and Clark and all those ex-presidents, it actually reminds people of Thanksgiving. Of course, if Plymouth could carry the top of the ticket, Lee Iacocca would have won the presidency in 1988, and we could have avoided a pair named George and George W. Bush.
While nobody ever lost money betting against the Food candidates, this year's entries are more kitschy than appetizing. Like Wattle and Snood, Corn and Copia will leave many voters scratching their heads – although a holiday built around birds stuffed with bread and drenched in cranberries is enduring proof that Americans will eat anything.
Flyer and Fryer is another candidacy built on confusion – two appealing ornithological concepts ill-suited to this particular species. If Corn and Copia sounds like a Bushism, Flyer and Fryer sounds like the Bush Doctrine. Maureen Dowd is drooling at the chance to write up the father-son symbolism of a Flyer and Fryer win, as World War II flying ace Bush 41 sups with third-degree-electoral-burn-victim Bush 43.
Judging from the few open threads on the issue, the White House would have been better off entering the joke President Bush makes every year about the closeness of the race: Neck and Neck. If voters could write in, their choices would probably be None and Of the Above. MousePlanet shows the deep, unmet desire for Food nominees: Get In and My Belly, Lunch and Dinner, White Meat and Dark Meat. Although high elementary school turnout could boost Plymouth and Rock, such a hungry electorate will probably save Flyer and Fryer down the stretch.
But if the president heard the voters on November 7th, he would use Wednesday's Rose Garden event to usher in a long overdue era of belt-tightening. Like the holiday, the twin-turkey program is an apt symbol of national bloat. We don't need to pardon that extra turkey, and we'll pay for it later. It's only a matter of time before the population of retired turkeys will dwarf the number of working turkeys left to support them. Now that scientists have discovered anti-aging, anti-obesity compounds in red wine and peanuts, every bar in southern California will be overrun by drunk turkeys who think they have a get-out-of-jail-free card from on high. Mel Gibson, take a number. ... 4:59 P.M. (link)
Friday, Nov. 17, 2006
Cats:Democrats in Congress would do well to forget the last 100 hours and get back to work making the case for their "100 Hours Agenda." According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans are not only glad Democrats won, but eager for them—not Bush—to take the lead in setting the agenda.
With such a welcome audience, the next month is a crucial time for Democrats to explain their ideas. Most Americans will like the Democratic agenda but don't really know what's in it. On Election Night, my 11-year-old son may have spoken for much of the country when we were half-listening to CNN crosstalk about Democrats putting caps on prescription-drug costs. In the spirit of Emily Litella, he asked, "Why do the Democrats want to put cats on prescription drugs?"
It sounds like a pretty good idea to me. But I'm a dog person.
Dogs: Yesterday's House leadership contest confirmed that the big winners in the midterm elections were the Blue Dogs. Other dogs were big losers.
Republican attack dogs had a bad year, led by New York Senate candidate John Spencer, who used his 15 minutes of fame to accuse Hillary Clinton of having undergone plastic surgery. Rick Santorum's overwhelming defeat in Pennsylvania suggests that the man-on-dog issue has no future, either.
The only things faring worse than attack-dog politics are actual attack dogs. Mel Martinez, take heart—at least you're not taking over the pit-bull-rights movement. Just before the election, pit bull owners marched in six cities to oppose "breed discrimination"—in other words, bans on pit bulls. An organization called ROVERlution sponsored the nationwide protest, its "second annual Luv-a-Bully March."
Dr. Paula Terifaj, who calls herself the packleader of ROVERlution, put candidates everywhere on notice: "Dog owners comprise 48 percent of the voting population, therefore politicians need to be aware of policies that affect us in a negative way."
If the marches are any sign, the ROVERlution has about as many true believers as the Gingrich Revolution has left in Congress. The Colorado Springs Gazette counted "about 15" marchers, in a state that has led the way in imposing urban pit-bull bans.
Still, every revolution has to start somewhere. Pit bulls may be an even tougher sell these days than George Bush and Tom DeLay. But Frank Luntz could have written the ROVERlutionists' Contract with America, the "Dog's Bill of Rights":
1. The Right To Have Their Lives Cherished and Protected
2. The Right To Social Integration
3. The Right To be Trained Humanely
4. The Right To a Fair Share of Public Resources
5. The Right To Act Like Dogs.
That fifth point cost Republicans the Congress. But the first four points are actually better than the House Republican agenda. Democrats have long argued for a Patient Bill of Rights to guarantee emergency room care. A pit-bull bill of rights might be the quickest way to get there. ... 1:37 P.M. (link)
Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006
One Dog, No Vote: For the next week, President Bush will be on a forced march through the capitals of Asia, playing dress-up at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference and trying to forget his troubles back home. As if he didn't have enough problems with his conservative base, this year Bush and the other leaders will be wearing silk Vietnamese dresses called ao dai.
The dress may be all Bush has to show for his talks in Singapore, Hanoi, and Jakarta. If he really wants to salvage the last two years of his presidency, he should make a brave, surprise side trip to Beijing to take on the latest threat to global freedom: China's new policy to limit families not only to one child but to one dog.
Americans have been remarkably patient with China's emergence as a budding superpower. We've run a huge trade deficit to help fuel China's double-digit annual economic growth. We've saddled our children with nearly a trillion dollars in national debt that will go to make Chinese children better off. We bear their babies for them, then let China take those American-born away from us to spend the rest of their lives behind Communist bars.
While the United States was never thrilled with the one-child policy, we looked the other way, especially once we figured out that 30 years from now, China will have a far worse worker-to-retiree ratio than we will. But we have rolled over and played dead long enough.
As the Washington Post reported this week, China's new policy imposes a limit of one dog per household, prohibits owners from taking their dog to the park, and bans dogs from being more than 14 inches in height. Here in the greatest dog nation on earth, we simply cannot stand by and let a totalitarian regime restrict its people to one dog, and a tiny breakfast dog at that.
The ostensible purpose of the one-dog policy is to curb rabies, but the big-dog ban suggests darker motives. A bureaucrat told the Post that dogs more than 14 inches tall "make those who don't own dogs psychologically afraid." China is one of the most oppressive governments on earth, the largest authoritarian regime in human history—and it's worried that border collies make people quiver in fear?
According to the Post, the policy is the product of an aging ruling class that has lost touch with China's emerging middle class. Much of the old guard clings to the Maoist notion that dogs are a bourgeois symbol of corruption. Maybe that's what John Murtha meant when he pooh-poohed corruption as "crap."
China's action has split the American animal-rights community. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, makes the sensible argument that vaccinating dogs for rabies would do far more good than limiting each household to one (unvaccinated) dog. By contrast, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk's only objection is that there should be a "grandfather clause so that people who have more than one dearly loved dog don't now have to kill them." PETA's position doesn't sit well at dogpolitics.com—"The Political Blog for Dog Owners"—which attacks Newkirk for sending China the message, "Kill 'em but just don't eat 'em."
For Bush, the domestic politics of jerking China's chain on this are irresistible. The Pew Research Center reports that 39 percent of American households have dogs (only 23 percent have cats), and they're disproportionately the same middle-class families who ran away from Republicans last week.
No PETA sympathizers in that crowd; they're all hard-liners. Just look at the recent survey of 1,000 dog owners by a group called My Dog Votes. The group says "a startling 94.3% of dog owners ranked dog laws and policies as being an even more important concern than even property taxes." More to the point, the survey found that 97.9 percent of dog owners oppose size restrictions, 99.6 percent oppose limiting access to parks or downtown areas, and 92.9 percent "would cross party lines in a local or state election to preserve the right to own the dog of their choice." We're not in China anymore, Toto.
Bush told Bob Woodward that he would stay the course in Iraq even if Laura and his dog Barney were the last ones left to support it. Whatever Laura and Barney tell the Baker Commission, they'll never waver on China. For Barney, it's personal. Dog manuals list Scottish terriers' height as 10 to 11 inches, but that's just to the shoulders. Barney's adorable head and ears stick up another 6 inches—which would make him banned in Beijing. The Bushes have a second dog, so if the Chinese policy were in effect here, they'd be Drowning Miss Beazley.
Dogs have played a role in some of the great comebacks in American political history—from Nixon's Checkers speech to FDR's warning not to pick on his dog Fala. If George Bush wants to retrieve his presidency, he should follow the same foreign policy doctrine as Teddy Roosevelt: Speak softly and throw a big stick. ... 1:53 P.M. (link)
Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006
Open Season: A week after 9/11, Pres. Bush made headlines around the world when he proclaimed that Osama bin Laden was "Wanted: Dead or Alive." A week after the 2006 midterms, conservatives are applying the same phrase to the Bush presidency—except for the "wanted" part.
John Podhoretz weighed in first in last Wednesday's New York Post under the headline, "Lame Duck Bush Is Left Crippled by a Crushing Vote of No Confidence." Insisting that "the presidency of George W. Bush ended last night," Podhoretz said Bush is done as an activist and will now be at best a caretaker.
In the view of many on the right, Bush isn't just a lame duck, but a Roboduk—a motorized decoy despised by purists. By constantly spinning their wings to seem authentic, Roboduks lure real ones to an untimely, unsporting, and unethical demise—just like the Republican Congress. According to the outdoor-sports section of the New York Times, the decoys come in such models as "The Wobbler," "The Thrasher," and "The Torpedo"—the very names now applied to Bush in conservative circles.
In the Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes counters that Bush "intends to be a very live duck in his last two years in the White House." Barnes says that as president, Bush still "has an unmatched set of political tools": He's still in charge of foreign policy, still has the bully pulpit, and will finally learn to use that veto pen.
That's all true, although as Bush has discovered, those tools don't work as well as they once did. The pulpit is far less bully for an unpopular president. If Democrats have their way, Bush will be using that veto pen to kill popular proposals, not pork-laden spending bills. Being in charge of foreign policy is what cooked Bush's goose in the first place. Bush may not like being sent to his room over the issue. But he'll be better off if he takes the voters' advice and shares the national security burden.
Far from uncovering any convincing signs of life, even Barnes seems to find what Thomas Nast once illustrated in a cartoon about Andrew Johnson—"a brace of dead ducks." Barnes rules out progress on entitlements, energy, or education. He says immigration reform will happen only if Democrats give Bush his guest-worker program. He expects Bush to cave to Democrats' demands on the minimum wage. His leading proof that this White House is alive and kicking is that Bush "instantly changed the story line from an Election Day repudiation of his presidency to his removal of Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld."
Of course, if Bush had fired Rumsfeld and accepted a minimum-wage increase before the election, Republicans might never have lost their majority. So, it might be more accurate to say the Bush presidency is alive and kicking itself.
Barnes is right that no matter how lame, the presidency is always relevant. But if Bush wants to be a live duck, not just a relevant one, his presidency needs a genuine rebirth. When Democrats lost Congress in 1994, Clinton still had a significant advantage: Voters had punished Democrats for not enacting the agenda they'd been promised in 1992, such as welfare reform. The 1994 election emboldened our White House to let Clinton be Clinton.
This White House can't simply let Bush be Bush, because being Bush is his biggest problem. Letting Bush be Gingrich won't work, either. Conservatives have been quick to point out that the 2006 election was a rejection of Bush, not of 1994-style conservatism. They neglect to mention that Bush's own election in 2000 was itself an explicit rejection of Gingrich-style conservatism. If Bush hadn't promised to be a different kind of Republican, voters never would have given him the chance to prove he wasn't one.
That leaves the White House only one real option: Let Bush be Arnold. Schwarzenegger tried Bush's way for the first two years of his term, but gave it up when he flopped at the box office. For his new role, he made a Democrat his chief of staff, charmed Democratic leaders, and embraced Democrats' agenda. Voters loved it and signed him to do a sequel.
Bush would be smart not only to copy Arnold's playbook, but to join the California governor in making climate change his new favorite issue. Schwarzenegger signed a Democratic bill that for the first time caps a state's greenhouse-gas emissions. For Bush and his party, endorsing a nationwide carbon cap might feel like finally giving that concession speech he owes Al Gore. But the country and the world would cheer for the first time in a long while.
Bush owes his sole truly bipartisan accomplishment, the No Child Left Behind Act, to a similar strategy. He took a good Democratic idea (education reform), added his own wrinkle (annual tests), and charmed leading Democrats into writing most of the bill. But once it became law, Bush couldn't take the heat from conservatives who oppose national support for education. He promptly broke his promise to provide the funds to make reform succeed and gave up on bipartisanship altogether.
That's Bush's problem in a duckshell: He can only reap the benefits of bipartisanship if—like Schwarzenegger—he throws himself into the role with gusto. Unfortunately for the president, his base now wants him to be more conservative, not less. If he tries to placate them, any Bush reclamation project will be doomed from the outset.
Conservatives may be wasting their time debating whether Bush's duck is alive or dead. If the president is too weak to stand up to his base, he might end up looking like the lamest duck of all: a girly one. ... 11:12 A.M. (link)
Friday, Nov. 10, 2006
One-State Strategy: Now that Republicans have won lost houses of Congress, the political totem pole is clear: Rovism may beat Shrumism, but it will never beat Schumer-Rahmism.
But take heart, Karl! The good news: Rovism is not dead, after all. The bad news: The only state where it still works is Idaho.
While red-, purple-, and blue-state Republicans were falling everywhere else Tuesday night, Idaho Republicans enjoyed a historic night. They held both congressional seats and the governorship with ease and won every statewide office for the first time since the Hoover landslide in 1928. Rove has a bright future out there, and if he needs help getting his foot in the door, I'd be happy to make a few calls.
The rest of America may be hungry for common-sense centrists who'll change the tone and solve the country's problems. But in Idaho, voters looked at the extremism of the last six years and said, "Bring it on," "Stay the course," and "Full steam ahead!"
Kipling once began an ode, "If you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs." Idaho is out to prove that the converse is also true.
For all those despondent right-wingers who think the GOP lost Tuesday because Bush and the Republican Congress weren't conservative enough, we've got a fresh face who will never let you down. Congressman-elect Bill Sali had to overcome a vicious smear campaign—from fellow Republicans, who attacked him as mean, wacky, and none too bright. But he still won a majority, 50-45 percent.
One Republican called Sali "an idiot's idiot." When Idaho's other Republican congressman, Mike Simpson, was House speaker in the state legislature, he once got so angry with Sali for mouthing off that he threatened to throw him out of a third-floor window in the state Capitol.
Idaho voters decided that's just the breath of fresh air Washington needs. "I can't keep my mouth shut and neither can Bill Sali," one supporter told the Associated Press. Sali boasts that he's one guy who'll have the backbone to stand up to Nancy Pelosi. Visitors might want to avoid the Capitol grounds beneath her window.
Across the country, Republican candidates bent over backward to look reasonable and still lost. Maryland Senate candidate Michael Steele ran one ad of himself saying, "I like puppies," and another of a woman defending his stem-cell position and insisting he cares about sick people: "I should know. I'm his sister, and I have M.S."
When Mr. Sali goes to Washington, you won't see him running around with his tail between his legs. He's famous for bringing a breast cancer survivor to tears by insisting that abortion and breast cancer are linked. If an ad firm ever calls your puppy in for an audition, make sure it's with Michael Steele and not Bill Sali.
Several members of the class of 1994 bit the dust on Tuesday, so Sali could rapidly emerge as the most colorful wingman in the Republican caucus. His official campaign biography on the Government is Not God Political Action Committee looks promising. Over the years, he has performed in a number of successful local rock bands: "Willard and the Rats," "Cimarron," and "Idaho the Band." The last one appeared on national TV in the finals of TNN's True Value Hardware Country Showdown. Sali has won awards from Oliver North, pro-life groups, and his late predecessor, Congress member Helen Chenoweth, the gold standard of beyond-the-pale conservatism.
If Sali wants to be in Chenoweth's league, the rookie will have to prove he can hold his own on a national stage crowded with Ann Coulters. But already, the craziest congressional district in America has kept its reputation intact—and the Black Helicopter Caucus can count on at least one member. ... 12:52 P.M. (link)
Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006
Thumper on the Right: At Wednesday's news conference, President Bush took responsibility for Tuesday's defeat, then generously shared it with Republicans in Congress. He explained not once, but twice, that the election was "close" and that voters had given him a "thumping." On Thursday afternoon, the Washington Post ran two headlines side by side: "Bush Urges Bipartisanship" and "Bush Makes Push for Approval of Bolton."
If this seems like erratic behavior, get used to it. The White House is in shock, and it may take awhile for the president to find his bearings.
All eyes are on Bush to see whether after six years of partisan shock-and-awe, he can chart a new direction for himself, if not America. His side says, no problem—he loved working with Democrats in Texas, he always wanted to be a uniter, not a divider, and he's glad to finally have the chance to change the tone in Washington. Soon the White House will be telling us that when the president said last week that a win for the Democrats was a win for the terrorists, that was just the campaign talking. He meant to say a win for Democrats is a win for bipartisan cooperation.
Across the aisle, Democrats say they'll try to work with Bush but doubt that he will ever stop being a my-way-or-the-highway man. His party won't let him break with conservative orthodoxy, and he won't be able to bring any votes with him if he tries.
The political world will have to stay tuned, because we won't find out the answer any time soon. The president and his White House scarcely know what hit them. They must feel like they've been losing a house of Congress every day this week.
What makes the blow even harder for the White House to take is that the election was such a personal rebuke of the president. In 1994, voters were upset about what Bill Clinton and the Democratic Congress had (and hadn't) done together. This time, the fault lies almost entirely at Bush's feet.
Two years ago, Bush's approval rating in the exit polls on Election Day was 53 percent, and Republicans won 53 percent of congressional seats. This year, Bush was at 43 percent, and Republicans won 46 percent of congressional seats. That would be tough medicine for anyone to take—and it can't be easier for a man who can't think of a mistake, doesn't believe in do-overs, and remembers happier bullhorn moments after 9/11.
As someone who worked in a White House that grieved over the loss of Congress, I feel Bush's pain—although, admittedly, not as much as I enjoy it. The president watched a number of friends fall on the political battlefield on Tuesday, many solely because of their ties to him. For many of them, their political careers are over—and his will be soon, too. There's not much he can do to make it up to them.
When Democrats lost Congress in 1994, we were able to channel our grief and frustration into finishing the job we had come there to do and helping the Democratic Party recover to fight another day. Within a year, Clinton had knocked Republicans back on their heels. A year after that, he became the first Democratic president to be re-elected since FDR. And in both 1996 and 1998, Democrats made back a good deal of lost ground. By 2000, with a strong economy and a winning governing formula, the majority was ours to lose—which Democrats promptly did.
It's too late in Bush's presidency for such a rebound. Instead, all his options look like Iraq, trying to keep things from going from bad to worse.
Considering all that's on the president's shoulders, we should give him the space to grieve. With only two years left in his presidency, it doesn't matter how Bush feels about do-overs. He doesn't get one. ... 4:59 P.M. (link)
Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006
The Botcher-in-Chief: While a majority in the Senate may hang on recounting Jim Webb's victory in Virginia, the worst numbers for Republicans are not subject to recount. National exit polls provide graphic detail of what happened Tuesday to Karl Rove's dream of a Republican majority: The middle fell out.
In 2004, the GOP had the Democratic Party on the ropes. Democrats lost people over 30, high-school grads, college grads, and voters in every income category over $30,000. The Democratic coalition was down to two groups with nothing else in common: dropouts and post-docs.
What a difference two years make. In 2006, Democrats won or tied every age group, every education level, and every income group below $100,000. Nearly half the electorate identified themselves as moderates, and Democrats won them by a whopping 61 percent to 38 percent. After a long, six-year vacation, the voting bloc Democrats have always needed to be a majority party—the middle class—finally came home.
That translates into roughly a 53 percent to 45 percent margin in the national vote. As Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues must have thought waking up this morning—quite a majority, Madam, if we can keep it.
Will Democrats recognize what it takes to hold onto that middle-class majority? Will Republicans recognize that it's gone missing? For both sides, that's harder than it looks, and more important than many on either side will want to admit.
For Democrats, the first crucial step is that while millions of Americans on Tuesday bought a Democratic House (and maybe two), voters bought it on spec. Democrats will need to post two good years—in the Congress and the presidential race—in order to close the deal.
Democratic leaders in Congress got off to a good start Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in doing what an overreaching White House keeps failing to do: defining their mission and giving clear benchmarks for success. Michael Kinsley may find Democrats' campaign agenda wanting—he should read the book instead!—and Jacob Weisberg is right that too many Democrats have forgotten that the United States can't create jobs without trade. But the Democrats' 2006 agenda has one great virtue: It tries to promise a handful of sensible steps (ethics reforms, a minimum wage increase, pay-as-you-go rules, the 9/11 Commission recommendations) that a new majority can actually deliver. Each of those promises is an opportunity to make a modest repayment on the trust that has just been given them.
For Republicans, 2006 can be a crushing blow—or, under the circumstances, the best thing that could have happened to them. As a governing philosophy, Bushism has been doomed to failure from the outset. The math never worked, because you can't keep spending the same money you're giving away, especially when you never had it in the first place. The theory never worked, either. Bush promised to be a reformer with results, but you'll never be serious about reform or results if you're not serious about government in the first place.
All that kept Bushism alive was the illusion of political expediency—and Democrats' willingness to walk into the traps Karl Rove was setting. In the long run, Republicans are better off finding out that their failed governing theory is a political flop, too. This election will force them to go back to the drawing board and try to come up with a plan that is good for the country, not just a couple elections.
In contrast to Democratic leaders, who succeeded in striking measured tones at their post-election press appearances, President Bush's news conference didn't do much to contain yesterday's damage. To escape being pinned, he probably needs to follow Schwarzenegger's lead and pursue bipartisanship with gusto. Today wasn't even a half-Arnold.
The president even stumbled when he tried to tell John Dickerson's joke about Democrats and their drapes, blowing his chance at self-deprecation by rushing the punch line. Last week, John Kerry said botching a war is worse than botching a joke. Now Bush has really hit bottom: He has done both. ... 5:20 P.M. (link)
Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006
Painkiller: Going into tonight, Democrats had celebrated a grand total of three truly happy Election Nights—1986, 1992, 1996—in the past three decades and three truly miserable ones in this decade alone. So, for Democrats, an election in which we were destined to win back the House and a majority of governorships for the first time in 12 years is more than a good night. It's a new lease on life.
On Election Night six years ago, my long-suffering wife and I stood in the rain in Nashville. I had just broken my shoulder playing touch football, but that was what hurt the least. Two years ago, we stood in the freezing cold in Boston. I'd just lacerated my wrist but had to share all my painkillers with the Kerry-Edwards staff. This year, we skipped the emergency room and spent the evening at the happiest place in town—the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's victory party on Capitol Hill. No painkillers necessary: Democrats were partying like it was 1992.
After six years during which the Democratic Party lost two straight presidential elections it should have won, lost the Senate, and lost ground in the House, tonight's triumph felt like the weight of a giant Rovian albatross finally being lifted off our necks. Democrats are so accustomed to having the football snatched away at the last minute, this year we actually ran a congressional candidate named Charlie Brown—and we still can't believe we finally get to watch the other side kick the dust and mutter, "Good grief."
For a party that had been on such a cold streak, tonight's victory provided clues to two of political life's eternal questions: How come we won this time? And what can we do to make sure it happens again?
In one sense, the answer to the first question is easy: Democrats never had a chance to blow this election because Republicans blew it first. Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel won't thank Bush by name, but they could. The president and his party have dedicated his entire second term to electing a Democratic Congress, from Iraq to Katrina, Schiavo to Miers, Ney to DeLay. It now looks like Bush, not Iraq, is the one who's just a comma—a presidency that was on the brink of failure before 9/11 and in the voters' eyes has now officially found its way back there.
But give Democrats credit. Apart from a foolish summer fling with Ned Lamont and a late Laugh-In cameo from John Kerry, Democrats did just about everything right and ran their best campaign in a decade. Field marshals Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer ignored the virtual industry of self-help nonsense that has paralyzed Democrats' chattering classes and went back to a simple, proven formula: From the suburbs to the heartland, elections are won in the center.
Emanuel and Schumer went out of their way to recruit candidates that could put the party's best face forward in otherwise-hostile territory. Despite pressure from various interests, they refused to impose ideological litmus tests. The result? Democrats did the opposite of what Republicans have been doing (and what losing Democratic campaigns usually do). Instead of shrinking their tent, Democrats made their big tent a lot bigger.
Winners like Heath Shuler of North Carolina, Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, and Gabby Giffords of Arizona are straight out of centrist casting—candidates with broad appeal who have put Democrats back on the map in red districts that the party hasn't won in years. With mainstream Democratic candidates who weren't vulnerable on values and weren't afraid to hit back when attacked, Republican social issues were the wedge that didn't bite.
Against Bob Casey, Rick Santorum spent more than $20 million to lose a swing state by almost 20 points. (Santorum did, however, get one of the biggest cheers of the night at the DCCC party—for his concession speech.)
In fact, the best news of the 2006 elections is the opportunity it gives Democrats to earn the lasting support of the independents and disgruntled Republicans whose votes just dropped in our laps. Tuesday was the death knell for Rovism—the quaint and now fully discredited theory that majorities are built not by expanding support with ideas that work but by mobilizing extreme minorities with ideas that aren't meant to be enacted and wouldn't work if they did.
Ever since watching Rove's success in 2002 and 2004, some on the left and in the blogosphere have been trying to persuade the Democratic Party to follow suit and develop our own smashmouth politics aimed less at persuasion and more at motivating our base. As Lamont discovered, that approach wins primaries—but as Joe Lieberman showed him, that's no match for pragmatic problem solving in a general election.
Today's elections, fought in territory where the Democratic Party needed to expand its reach, showed how many swing voters there are—enough to turn districts, states, and even entire houses of Congress. As Republicans found out the hard way, the elections also proved that parties can't count on any American's vote if they can't solve the country's problems. That's the most important lesson Democrats learned this year: It is better to beat Rove than to join him. ... 11:58 P.M. (link)
Webb Up Early in Virginia: Last Friday, the New York Times made one of the safer election predictions of this cycle. The article, "In Virginia, Women Make the Difference," went out on a limb to say, "This exceedingly tight contest, one of a handful that will determine control of the Senate, may be decided by how women vote." May be decided? Unless a million Virginia women stay home and let the men do all the work, how women vote seems likely to be, if not the deciding factor, at least one of the top two.
This just in:Slate has exclusive exit poll results from Virginia. A Democratic poll worker in northern Virginia emailed the numbers: "My early exit poll after doing visibility for Webb—14 middle fingers and 35 thumbs up." That means Webb is above 70 percent in northern Virginia, and winning among women, hands down.
The other early return from Virginia is less promising for Democrats. In his 2006 Crystal Ball predictions, famed University of Virginia pundit Larry Sabato is predicting that Democrat Larry Grant will defeat Republican Bill Sali in Idaho-1. Sabato makes clear that he's mainly gambling on the race for the thrill of beating history's long odds. But the fact that an Idaho Democrat is now favored to win a House seat suggests that expectations have gotten seriously out of hand. Grant's only hope is that it comes down to how women vote. Sali, the Republican, likes to tell women that breast cancer is their own fault. ... 2:29 P.M.
Worry Beads: Most of my Democratic friends planned their Election Day weeks ago: vote; knock on some doors; then spend the rest of the day worrying about electronic voting machines. Some went to the polls early so they could inspect the Diebold dragon firsthand; others voted absentee so they could free up an extra hour to worry about it.
Last month, the Miami Heraldtried to stir up similar anxieties on the right by pointing out that the third-largest manufacturer of U.S. voting machines is a Venezuelan company staked by the government of supreme Bush-hater Hugo Chávez. Palm Beach County, which wrecked the 2000 election with its infamous butterfly ballot, is using Venezuelan technology this time. For all we know, these machines could flash a subliminal devil next to Republican candidates and emit readings of Noam Chomsky in high-pitched tones only the subconscious could hear.
Alas, conservatives shrugged. While Democrats tend toward the latest in fashionable paranoias, right-wingers' taste in anxiety is more traditional. Conservatives worry about old-fashioned mainstays like the mainstream media. Even their helicopters still wear black.
Democrats aren't buying the Chávez conspiracy, either. We'd rather fear the devil we know than the devil-caller we don't know.
Based on my own experience at the polls this morning, tonight we will find out that the real voting-machine conspiracy is to deprive a weary nation of much-needed sleep. There were only five people trying to vote in my D.C. precinct at 7:30 a.m., and two of them were my underage children. But election workers said the fancy new electronic machine was already broken, and it was clear the three of us might have to stand in line for hours. We decided to vote with a number-two pencil instead.
In a boon for conspiracy theorists, one state has courageously resisted the modern era and held onto its punch-card voting machines: Idaho, where 13 counties will be vying to ensure that Katherine Harris's memory outlasts even her mascara. In elections past, Idahoans counted votes only out of civic duty, not because the outcome was in doubt. But this year, the House and governor's races could be close enough to come down to a few hanging chads. The state's old slogan: "Idaho Is What America Was." New slogan: "Idaho Is What Florida Was."
While Diebold and Chávez vie to steal higher profile races in places like Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia, vote counters in Idaho are as honest as the state is long and can't imagine why something as unappealing as a seat in Congress would be worth stealing, anyway. If Republicans keep the House and the Democrat wins Idaho's 1st Congressional District, we'll know the Diebold conspiracy is for real.
After the Republican candidate for governor in Florida snubbed the president yesterday, the poor, confused voters of Palm Beach may once again not figure out how to cast their anti-Bush votes. But if Hugo Chávez is elected governor of Florida, we'll have solid proof that the devil is in our midst. ... 12:35 P.M. (link)
Tsunami or Not Tsunami?: Perversely enough, the nearer we get to finding out the actual election results, the more we obsess about the latest poll results—and as today wears on, the more we will wish we had exit-poll results we know will get it all wrong. In the same way, the closer we come to that blessed moment at 8 p.m. PST when we can put these campaigns behind us and once again watch TV in peace, the more we think each late-breaking campaign tactic matters, even though a few hours from now we'll find out in almost every race all those tactics didn't.
The spin we hear from all sides in the closing days of a campaign is like a bad poll that oversamples two demographic groups: people who have no idea what's going to happen, and people who wouldn't tell you if they did.
In recent weeks, one of Karl Rove's last sustaining hopes has been that unlike Democrats in 1994, Republicans in 2006 had a chance to prepare because they could see the tsunami coming. Whatever tonight's results, the GOP's preparation spin is wrong on two counts: That's not what cost Democrats in 1994, and it hasn't done the GOP much good in 2006.
To be sure, even now, many Democrats can't believe Republicans took Congress in 1994. On Sunday, David Broder passed along the recollections of Leon Panetta, the former congressman who was President Clinton's chief of staff in 1994:
"We knew the Senate would be close, but we thought we had enough margin in the House [258 seats, 40 more than a majority] to withstand anything -- and it had been ours for 40 years. The first we knew we might lose it was early on Election Day, when George [Stephanopoulos] got the early exit polls and said, 'We're in trouble.' "
Panetta described three stages of reaction -- something that may be a clue to what the Bush team will experience. "First," he said, "there were a few days of complete shock, glazed eyes, slow reactions -- what you saw in people after Hurricane Katrina. Then there was a period of anger, people asking, 'Why wasn't it anticipated? Why wasn't something done?' "
"And then," he said, "you get to the real question: How the hell do you make it work now?"
Panetta is right about the stages of grief that Democrats went through. Yet while both sides of the aisle were surprised by the magnitude of the Republican wave, Democrats had known all along that an ugly year was brewing. For one thing, a fierce anti-incumbent tide had been swirling for the past few cycles, stirred up by the House banking scandal and anger over congressional pay raises. Congress' low job-approval, which had been masked by Clinton's victory in '92, plunged lower in '94 when it went home empty-handed on political reform and health care—the way the current Congress went home empty-handed on the issue it deemed crucial, immigration.
Perhaps most important, and most forgotten, a huge number of Southern and red-state Democratic incumbents who had survived for years in hostile territory by steering clear of the national party had nowhere to go in a nationalized electoral downturn. Those members didn't get beat because they had gone fishing or forgot they had opponents. Most of them went into every campaign knowing it could be their last.
By mid-October of 1994, I knew plenty of Democrats who thought a Republican sweep was possible. But as the Bush crowd has learned this year, seeing a national wave on the horizon was no consolation when the principal political weapon in the White House arsenal is of little use—the ability to nationalize issues and elections.
There's one other way we knew a tsunami was coming, well before we got the network exit polls: We read about it in the newspaper. For example, here's the Page-One lede from the New York Times on the Monday before the 1994 election:
Republicans are poised to win more seats in the House of Representatives than they have held since Dwight D. Eisenhower was President. Indeed, after a strong campaign they could end 40 years of Democratic control in the House, history's longest period of one-party dominance there.
So much for the element of surprise.
The other reason to discount Rove's spin is that while a White House can do much over the long run to make a wave, it can do very little in the short run to break one. All fall, pundits have expressed surprise that the president and vice president are just as bad at disaster management on the campaign trail as in office. David Corn recently went so far as to wonder whether Bush and Cheney were losing on purpose.
But whatever the results tonight, it's not the Republicans' campaign that did it. They won or lost this election a long time ago. If they hold onto the House, it will be because the redistricting levees Republicans built over the past six years were strong enough to withstand the backlash their failed policies have built over the past six years. If they get ousted, it will be for running the country into the ground.
We'll find out soon enough whether Hurricane Anti-Bush is a Category 3, 4, or 5 storm, and whether it lost any force passing by last week's temporary low, John Kerry. If Republicans survive the storm, it won't be because they saw it coming. If they lose, it will be because they had it coming. ... 2:35 A.M. (link)
Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006
Term's Up: According to the New York Times, Republicans are feeling blue about their chances on Tuesday, and "increasingly steeling themselves" to losing the House after 12 years. GOP strategists describe the midterm outlook as "grim," "dreadful," and "the worst political environment for Republican candidates since Watergate."
Chin up, Republicans! Losing isn't all bad. In time, the conservative base, which never liked Congress to begin with, will be glad to be rid of it. From the president on down, Republican leaders will no longer have to resent Karl Rove for taking all the credit. Any surviving GOP members of Congress can stop worrying about going to jail for selling their vote, because nobody will want to buy it.
For Republicans from the famous class of 1994, here's the best consolation of all for losing the House this time around: You will finally have kept your promise.
The most powerful issue for the Republican revolution in 1994 was congressional term limits, which made voters think the 104th Congress would bring fundamental change to Washington. One of the early signs that the revolution was not on the level came in late March 1995, near the end of Newt's first 100 days, when the new House of Representatives failed to pass a constitutional amendment to put a 12-year limit on congressional service. Forty Republicans crossed over to help defeat the measure, which fell 60 votes short of the required two-thirds majority.
Most of the class of 1994 voted for the term-limits amendment. Had it passed, they would be out of a job after this Congress, anyway. So, in truth, voters are just helping them honor their original parting wishes.
At least a dozen Republican members who are in tough races this time voted for 12-year term limits in 1995. Half are members of the class of 1994: Steve Chabot of Ohio, Charlie Bass of New Hampshire, J.D. Hayworth of Arizona, Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota, Barbara Cubin of Wyoming, and Sue Kelly of New York. That's not counting Mark Foley and Bob Ney, for whom the House was a 12-year program that led straight to a 12-step program. Those two were so honor-bound to keep their term-limits pledge, they were willing to take the law into their own hands--and much, much more.
Others look like whiners by comparison. Last month, Kentucky Rep. Ron Lewis ('94) denied that he had ever promised to limit his term in Congress, even though he had written his constituents a letter in 1998 explaining why he wasn't keeping that promise. Lewis' opponent tried to run an ad accusing him of lying "when he put his hand on the Bible and took an oath to serve only three terms." The local FOX affiliate rejected the ad, claiming there was no proof the pledge was that length or that Lewis had put his hand on the Bible when he said it.
If Tuesday looks so bad, Republicans should stop cursing their luck and start claiming it as their destiny. In the minority, Gingrich used to complain that government programs never went away. By that standard, the vanishing Gingrich revolution wasn't a failure--it was a sweeping triumph! On Tuesday, the Republican class of 1994 should declare victory for finally doing what it came to Washington to do: go home. ... 11:59 P.M. (link)
Friday, Nov. 3, 2006
Unsecured Undecided Location:Dick Cheney went hunting for votes in my hometown last night. The first vice president in history never to change his mind didn't try to change any Idahoans' minds, either. Republicans decided it was too risky.
In 2004, Republicans won raves for micro-targeting—using modern marketing techniques to identify potential Republican voters based on what magazines they read and what purchases they make. This year, the GOP has been forced to use those same techniques for a less impressive purpose: to limit election rallies to true believers.
The White House has long kept presidential and vice-presidential events to the party faithful. Cheney's Idaho visit posed a special problem—Idahoans don't register by party. To make sure that all 2,000 tickets for last night's event went to diehards, the local party used micro-targeting to develop a countywide screening list.
According to the conservative local paper, the Coeur d'Alene Press, a small businesswoman and lifelong independent named Melodee Watt who wanted to attend the Cheney event was turned down when her name was rejected by the party database. "I thought, 'What? I've never been arrested or anything,'" Watt said. Her crime: the Republican voter vault had her pegged as a possible Democrat.
The GOP county party chair staunchly defended using the voter vault to screen out independents: "It's our party and that's what we want to do." Watt told the paper she thought that as an undecided businesswoman, she was exactly the voter Republicans would want to target. "No wonder there's so much division in the country," she said. "When did it become us versus them?"
It's hard to tell which is the greater sign of Republicans' desperation—that four days before an election, they had to send Dick Cheney to Idaho, or that they had to use sophisticated software to find anyone happy to see him. When I used to knock on doors for Democratic candidates in Idaho, we had our own system of micro-targeting. If a person came to the door in Birkenstocks or with a walker, there was a chance they might be a Democrat or at least undecided. Everyone else: Republican. If they came to the door with a twin-gauge or a Doberman, there was a good chance I was about to be micro-target practice.
The Cheney rally took place in an airplane hanger outside the small town of Hayden, the most conservative precinct in North Idaho. For years, Hayden was home to the infamous Aryan Nations compound of the late neo-Nazi evangelist, Richard Butler, until a hate-crimes suit by civil rights leaders put him out of business. I'm not sure how the GOP voter vault ranks the magazines Butler's gang of skinheads subscribe to, but most of them couldn't come to the Cheney rally—they're back in prison.
It's just as well Melodee Watt didn't get to hear the vice president, because he said nothing to sway an undecided voter's mind anyway. He attacked "Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi" and predicted a "clean Republican sweep in Idaho next Tuesday." The only thing Cheney failed to do to play to the base was to ditch Air Force Two and arrive instead by black helicopter.
Even the party faithful don't feel on safe ground anymore. A Republican in the crowd yelled to Cheney, "Take us with you!"
The day after Cheney's visit, two more polls came out showing Republicans in deeper trouble than ever. In the race for governor, Democrat Jerry Brady has opened up a five-point lead over Republican Congressman Butch Otter, 41 percent to 36 percent. In the First Congressional District, Democrat Larry Grant now leads Freaking Idiot Bill Sali, 38 percent to 34 percent.
Apart from the Democratic leads, what's most striking about both polls is that contrary to the usual pattern, the number of undecided voters keeps growing as the election approaches. An astonishing 25 percent haven't made up their mind in the congressional race, which makes Idahoans the most undecided voters in America.
If Democrats win in the reddest of red states, it will be because the undecided have nowhere else to go. In Idaho and across the country, the Republican Party has already let undecided voters know: They're not invited. ... 1:37 P.M. (link)
Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006
Buttersticks:The National Zoo in Washington doesn't get as much attention as its sister institution across town. But in recent years, the zoo has done its best to match Congress scandal for scandal: lax oversight, multiple cover-ups, millions of taxpayer dollars squandered, ruinous mismanagement and neglect, a pattern of botched mating attempts with the whole world watching.
Last month, the zoo opened a new Asia Trail designed to showcase its most bankable asset, the giant pandas, in their 40,000-square-foot Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat. The $53-million project is part of an ambitious facelift by the zoo's new director, who wants to build "the world's finest zoo."
When the new trail opened, the Washington Post cooed over the antics of Fujifilm Giant Panda cub Tai Shan, the first surviving panda cub to be born at the zoo, who has been its top attraction since his birth last year. The Post reported that Tai Shan sparked a $1.6-million jump in merchandise sales in the first half of 2006, and the paper's eyewitness reporting showed why: "The cub snuffled through the underbrush as he hunted for a carrot, which he then devoured, licking his lips, as camera shutters whirred. Afterward, he climbed a cork tree and hugged it."
In the very next paragraph, however, the Post dropped a bombshell in what may be Washington's biggest and most ominous scandal yet:
"As part of an agreement with China, which lent Tai Shan's parents to the zoo, the cub is set to be returned to that country this summer after his second birthday."
In other words, this proud nation of ours—once master of its own destiny—is now renting itself out to have a rich totalitarian's babies.
For decades, millions of panda lovers have held their breath through the pandas' unpredictable and star-crossed attempts to mate. Time after time, thousands of schoolchildren wept when a surprised mother panda would give birth to a tiny cub, only to watch it die days later.
Thousands more voted in the zoo's suspiciously undemocratic Internet contest to choose the name Tai Shan ("Peaceful Mountain") from a list of five prescribed alternatives, each sanctioned by the China Wildlife Conservation Association. That list included two virtually identical and unappealing duds—Sheng Hua ("Washington China") and Hua Sheng ("China Washington")—and left out the cub's adorable American nickname, Butterstick ("Little Tub").
The zoo's website didn't bother to tell those young American stooges—most of them taking part in democracy for the first time—that they would all be invited back in 2007 to watch as the U.S. puts the cub on a Swift Boat to China.
According to the Post, "Zoo officials hope that they can breed the parents again this spring and that the roomy new habitat will increase chances for a second cub." The article doesn't say whether China will get to steal that young panda as well, in flagrant violation of its own one-child policy.
Of course, America's youngsters might as well get used to shipping their prized possessions off to China, because thanks to the current administration and Congress, that's what they're likely to spend the rest of their lives doing. In the past month, China's foreign-currency reserves topped $1 trillion, most of it invested in U.S. Treasury bonds to finance the Bush deficits. It's no crowd-pleaser, but the Bush White House and Congress have built their own Asia Trail: the Fujifilm Giant National Debt.
Fiscal disciplinarians have struggled to find a way to capture the nation's imagination about the Bush debt and America's looming indentured servitude to China. At last, we may have our chance. Get ready for this simple and devastating 30-second attack ad, "Butterstick":
"It's bad enough that President Bush looks the other way while illegal immigrants flock to America. Now the White House is letting China steal babies born in America and force them to spend the rest of their lives behind bars on Communist soil. This time, it's a cute and cuddly panda cub. But the way Republicans keep running up debts to China, your cute and cuddly 2-year-old could be next. That's wrong. Little ones made in America ought to stay in America. It's time to tell Republicans in Washington to get their paws off our children. If China wants babies, they can go make their own."
Lou Dobbs has already agreed to do the voiceover. … 12:21 P.M. (link)