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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Out of the far turn [1]
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Date: 2022-10-20
Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post says that even on the same debate stage, Republicans and Democrats couldn’t be further apart.
Judging by the debates, Republicans want to dispense with much of the federal government and repeal virtually every Biden achievement (including the bipartisan ones). They are determined to upend, upset and uproot workable government without offering any problem-solving ideas of their own. They have no alternative plan for health care. They have no solutions to address inflation. So what do they do after carving up the federal government? The answer is likely to cut taxes for the rich, but they cannot say so. The result is a void where a governing agenda normally would be. Watch the debate performances by Republican Senate candidates Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah), Herschel Walker (Georgia), Marco Rubio (Fla.) or J.D. Vance (Ohio), and you’ll be hard-pressed to name a policy solution they offered. “Close the border” is not a policy; it is a crudely stated aspiration. “Stop woke Democrats” isn’t even a coherent thought. Stop them from doing what? Instead, many resort to accusing their Democratic opponents of positions they do not hold. After Vance repeatedly attempted to tie Democrat Tim Ryan to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ryan suggested that Vance “move back to San Francisco” to run against her.
Nathan L. Gonzales of Roll Call asks and then answers the question: Why don’t Democrats throw more money at a winnable U.S. Senate race in Ohio?
So why aren’t national Democrats pouring money into the race? It’s not exactly a secret. The parties and partisan outside groups look for the most efficient and strategic places to invest finite resources in their effort to retain or recapture majorities. Even though the North Carolina and Ohio Senate races are in roughly the same position with the two nominees locked in a tight race, the Tar Heel State is structurally easier for Democrats. According to Inside Elections’ Baseline metric, which takes into account all statewide and congressional races over the previous four election cycles, Republicans have a 2.3-point advantage (50.6 percent to 48.3 percent) in North Carolina compared to the GOP’s considerable 11.5-point advantage in Ohio (54.7 percent to 43.2 percent). [...] If resources were infinite, there would be Democratic money spent in Ohio, but that’s not the situation, considering Democrats are also playing defense in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire. Those four seats, combined with Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina, comprise the core of the Senate battleground, and all have ratings of Toss-up or Tilt to one of the parties. Whichever party wins two out of Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania will likely be in control of the Senate next year.
Rachel M. Cohen of Vox writes about a ballot measure in New Mexico that would enshrine a guarantee of early childhood education into the state’s constitution and could be the beginning of a national trend.
This November, after a political fight that stretches back more than a decade, New Mexico voters are poised to approve a ballot measure that would make the Southwestern state the first in the country to guarantee a constitutional right to early childhood education. The measure would authorize lawmakers to draw new money from a state sovereign wealth fund to provide a dedicated funding stream for universal preschool and child care, and bolstering home-visiting programs for new parents. The unique trust fund — the Land Grant Permanent Fund — was created when New Mexico was established in 1912 and is financed by state oil and gas revenue and interest on the fund’s investments; it’s valued today at nearly $26 billion. The state constitution obligates that 5 percent of the fund be withdrawn annually to support public schools, hospitals, and universities. The amendment, if it passes, would authorize withdrawing an additional 1.25 percent annually for education, directing roughly $150 million to early childhood education and another roughly $100 million for K-12. (How exactly the money would be spent would be determined after the amendment passes.) Voters of all political persuasions seem open to the idea: A poll sponsored by the Albuquerque Journal in August found that 69 percent of the state’s likely voters backed the amendment, and just 15 percent opposed it. Those numbers included 79 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of independents, and 56 percent of Republicans.
Fredrecka Schouten of CNN looks at a number of ballot measures in multiple states that will affect the way those states run elections in the future.
A ballot measure in Arizona would add new identification requirements to vote. Nevadans, meanwhile, will weigh in on whether to adopt ranked-choice voting. And voters in Ohio will decide whether to block local governments from allowing non-US citizens to cast ballots. These are among at least eight measures on the ballot this year that will decide how elections will be run in the future. Some, such as the new voter ID rules in Arizona, have sparked intense debate – with opponents arguing it could disenfranchise thousands of voters in a key presidential battleground. The Arizona measure, Proposition 309, springs from Republican legislators’ concerns about the security of the 2020 election – which President Joe Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes out of some 3.4 million cast in the state. There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the Grand Canyon State – or in any other state, for that matter.
Pippa Crerar, Peter Walker, and Aubrey Allegretti of The Guardian report on the resignation of British Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her resignation statement criticizing Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Braverman’s dramatic departure, coming just five days after Truss sacked her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, risks the prime minister experiencing the sort of mass exodus of ministers that forced Boris Johnson to quit. Amid chaotic scenes in the Commons, it was reported that Wendy Morton, the chief whip, and her deputy, Craig Whittaker, were both reported to have left the government. However, after hours of confusion Downing Street released a statement saying the two “remain in post”. , although furious allies on the Conservative right suspect she was forced out by Truss and her new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. In a move first revealed by the Guardian, Braverman announced she was stepping down over the misuse of her personal email , although furious allies on the Conservative right suspect she was forced out by Truss and her new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. In a brutal resignation letter which clearly contrasted her departure with Truss’s decision to sacrifice Kwarteng over the debacle of last month’s mini-budget, Braverman wrote: “Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.”
Accepting responsibility? What a novel idea on either side of the Atlantic.
Mauricio Savarese of the Associated Press reports that Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva published an open letter to Brazil’s evangelical Christians promising to uphold “religious freedoms.”
Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva published an open letter to evangelicals on Wednesday aimed at countering claims he would persecute their faith and at winning votes among a large and growing part of the population. The letter, read at a gathering with evangelical leaders at a Sao Paulo hotel, promised he would respect religious freedoms if elected — as he did during his 2003-2010 presidency. [...] Da Silva’s letter to evangelicals is reminiscent of one he published as candidate in 2002 to assuage financial markets that he posed no threat. That calmed anxiety at the time and helped the leftist former union leader win the presidency. In his first year in office, he signed into law a bill that allows the establishment of private religious organizations, with broad support from evangelicals. He has characterized that act as having enshrined the right to religious freedom.
Lula had to issue a denial that he had ever talked to the devil while Bolsonaro is on the defensive for some awful comments about teenage girls.
Polls are showing that Bolsonaro is slowly but surely improving in the polls into what many commentators are describe as a statistical dead heat. The Brazilian runoff elections take place on Oct. 30.
Finally today, Jon Allsop of the Columbia Journalism Review acknowledges the 100th birthday of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
I began listening to the BBC in the mid-’90s on Chicago’s public radio station, WBEZ. Later in the ‘90s, I watched the BBC every night at 11 on Chicago’s public television station, WYCC.
On Sept. 11, 2001, I got home at around 3 PM seeking any news that I could about the attack on the World Trade Center. I could only stand about 45 minutes of the American news coverage and, sure enough, the BBC was doing around the clock coverage.
I kept it on the BBC for two days of 9/11 coverage.
Plus … what other news theme makes you want to get on the dance floor? I mean, there’s a 13-minute remix of the BBC’s theme, “Countdown.”
Happy 100th Birthday to the British Broadcasting Corporation! Hope you’re around for 100 more!
Have a good day, everyone!
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