Quote of the Day

"Perhaps he could even take a personal vow of silence for the day and let the people who really know the religious practices of prayer and fasting to lead him, along with his like-minded governors, and the rest of us."

--WILLIAM LAWRENCE, Dean and Professor of American Church History, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University when asked if he would attend Gov. Rick Perry's "solemn day of prayer and fasting for our troubled nation" to be held at Reliant Stadium in Houston on August 6.  Perry has invited 49 of his fellow governors to join him.   

Hope for Dems on Election Eve

Tomorrow is election day and all is not lost for the Democrats.  Seriously!  In Nevada, veteran political reporter Joe Ralston is predicting a win for Harry Reid over crazy Sharron Angle, even though Reid is incredibly unpopular in his home state.  He believes that Reid's campaign did a good job of defining Angle while her campaign could not reconcile her statements on Sharia law in non-existent Texas towns, scary Latinos in ads, Hispanic kids magically becoming Asian, etc, etc, etc. 

In Alaska, Palin-endorsed teabagger fav Joe Miller has become the incredibly shrinking candidate.  A few months ago, he was considered unstoppable and Lisa Murkowski's flirtation with a write-in candidacy was considered crazy.  Well, Murkowski did launch a write-in campaign and she has soared in the polling as Miller has sunk.  Moreover, Democrat Scott McAdams, the unknown Sitka mayor who basically got the nomination because the state Dem convention was held in his town and nobody else wanted it, has seen his support double in the past few weeks.  He has a real shot at it, which is amazing in a bright-red state in what is supposed to be a GOP wave year.  If Murkowski wins, she'll certainly go right back to the Republican fold, but it would be a serious defeat for the over-hyped tea party and Washington will be short one crazy teabagger.  Plus, Murkowski and Palin are enemies (when asked if she would support Palin in a run for President, Murkowski said flatly "I would not.") and Palin has painted herself as the king maker who discovered Miller.  His loss would help reveal Palin as the naked empress she is.

In California, things are looking good for the Dems as Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown are expected to win.  It looks like Meg Whitman's millions won't allow her to buy the governor's office.

In Delaware, it looks like Democrat Chris Coons will defeat the bizarre Christine O'Donnell by a nice margin.  That seat could have easily gone to Republican Mike Castle if the state's Republicans hadn't been in the thrall of the Tea Party, but too bad, so sad, this will be the Dem win that wasn't supposed to happen. 

In New York, teabagger Carl Palladino is quickly becoming a punch line and nothing more. 

In Texas...well, there's not much for a Texas Democrat to hope for.  For a while, it looked like Bill White had a real shot at unseating Rick Perry, but lately Perry's lead has widened.  He has managed to sell himself as an outsider, even though he is the ultimate insider.  I guess he'll be anointed governor for life. 

Big Win for Perry

Gov. Rick Perry easily won the Republican primary for governor yesterday, beating Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison by a wide margin.  A year ago, I was confident that the opposite would happen.  Perry has never been particularly popular and has never won a majority of the vote in a general election for governor.  Kay is was a very popular figure in Texas who holds the distinction of winning the most votes of any candidate in any Texas election ever.  So much for my political acumen.  I think things started going south for Kay in the summer and fall when she started waffling on whether or not she would resign her Senate seat to run for Governor.  She said she would, then she was going to wait until health care was finished, then she was going to wait for other important business to be finished, then she dropped the subject all together and never resigned.  It made her look less than confident and not fully committed to being governor.  Then, of course, the tea partiers asserted themselves and Rick Perry spoke their language.  He talked about secession, he talked about the 10th Amendment (dead wrong about both, but so what?), and he talked about Washington "messin' with Texas."  All he had to do was brand Kay as the Washington candidate and she was done.

On the Democratic side, former Houston mayor Bill White easily won his primary over Farouk Shami.  White's not a Washington guy, either, so Rick might have to refine his message a bit.  I will certainly vote for White, but the general election is Perry's to loose.  Demograhics are changing in Texas, but not fast enough to save us from another term with Rick Perry.