Money in Politics

Bill Allison, editorial director of the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, talks about Big Money's investment in the 2014 elections and the return on investment indicated by which party won. Here's a chart with the data:

As disheartening as the influence of money in politics may be, Allison points out that power shifts in one or both houses of Congress—in 2006, 2012 and now 2014—show that neither party has figured out how to muster enough money to keep a prolonged hold on power. That could be because neither party has followed an electoral sweep with a pragmatic policy agenda that transcends partisanship.

“Sooner or later, one of the political parties will figure out set of policies that gives them a much longer hold on power,”Allison says.

  Yahoo Finance

That may be too optimistic.

Demographics of the Vote

You could replace "Dems" with "the world" in that statement and still be right.

What the graph indicates is that people under thirty are under the misconception that who is president makes a difference, and people over 60 have been around long enough to know that, at least in their lifetimes, it hasn't.  It could also indicate that the youngsters are more globally minded and the oldsters more locally focused.

Midterms

A show for the ruling class by the ruling class in the presence of the peons.

Debbie Dingell.  Great name for a pol.

What are those?  Dingellberries around her glasses frames?

And things really never change.  Here's Jon Stewart in 2002...

The Daily Show

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h/t God

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Game Goes On

Surely no one is surprised at the results.

Republicans rode a wave of voter discontent to seize control of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, dealing a punishing blow to President Barack Obama that will limit his legislative agenda and may force him to make a course correction for his last two years in office.

  Reuters

Really? What course correction would that be? He has done everything he could to please Republicans throughout his time in office.  Or are you saying that now that he is not virtually, but rather explicitly assured of losing any proposal with a whiff of liberalism or populism in it, he can pretend to fight for it?  But then, why would he even pretend?

Billmon has an interesting take on it:  he says that the thing to notice is how difficult and costly it was for the Republicans to eke out the narrow winning margins that they did.  Of course, you might look at that as more evidence that there isn't two cents worth of difference between the parties.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

2014 Midterms in a Nutshell

Election Time Again

It's All About the Politics

The Obama administration is set to announce another major delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, easing election pressure on Democrats.

As early as this week, according to two sources, the White House will announce a new directive allowing insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s minimum coverage requirements.

Prolonging the “keep your plan” fix will avoid another wave of health policy cancellations otherwise expected this fall.

[...]

The White House is intent on protecting its allies in the Senate, where Democrats face a battle to keep control of the chamber.

“I don’t see how they could have a bunch of these announcements going out in September,” one consultant in the health insurance industry said. “Not when they’re trying to defend the Senate and keep their losses at a minimum in the House. This is not something to have out there right before the election.”

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.