NRCC Morning Reads For Oct. 15, 2014: Nancy Pelosi In Retreat, Dems Called Out For Ebola Lies, and Rahall Continues To Struggle
We’re less than 3 weeks away from Election Day and in these final days, it can be hard to keep track of the all the news. That’s why for the final 20 days, the NRCC blog will compile some morning must-reads both nationally and around the country.
Here’s your first-ever edition of NRCC Morning Reads:
First off this morning, a pair of stories from The New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman and Politico’s Alex Isenstadt on just how disastrous a year this is shaping up to be for House Democrats. It appears the Democrats have a worse offense than the Jacksonville Jaguars and have resigned themselves to a strategy of retreat. As Isenstadt says, “the goal is to minimize losses and keep Republicans from their most dominant hold on the House since Harry Truman’s presidency — potentially expelling Democrats from the speaker’s chair for years to come.”
Via Weisman:
“Democrats need 17 Republican seats to win back the majority, but of the 25 races still on the campaign committee’s battlefield, only seven currently belong to Republicans. That means they are playing defense in 18 districts and offense in seven.”
Next up, the Washington Post Factchecker called out Democrats for their lies about Republicans on ebola, calling them “absurd” and giving them Four Pinocchios (their worst grade). Democrats are without an agenda to run on and are grasping at straws in an attempt to convince voters to give them 2 more years of complete liberal control in Washington.
Let’s also remember last week when DCCC Chairman Steve Israel blamed his own party’s electoral failure on the deadly virus.
Via Business Insider’s Brett LoGuirato:
“And Democrats say it’s hard to grab the public’s attention and focus it on a slowly improving economy with crises popping up at home and abroad.
“‘August was Ebola. It was ISIS. It was Ukraine,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told a small group of reporters Monday morning. ‘Global issues dominated. And in September, those issues continued to dominate. And so, part of the headwind was it did make it a little more difficult for us to break through on those middle-class economic contrasts when people were so focused on global issues.’”
Next up, a new poll out this morning shows not only President Obama with the lowest approval rating of his presidency, but showing Democrats are more unpopular now than they’ve been in the last 30 years.
“Barack Obama and his political party are heading into the midterm elections in trouble. The president’s 40 percent job approval rating in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll is the lowest of his career – and the Democratic Party’s popularity is its weakest in polling back 30 years, with more than half of Americans seeing the party unfavorably for the first time.”
Not only does the poll show Obama and Democrats are unpopular, but likely voters are favoring Republicans on a generic ballot for the House by a margin of 50-43—a staggering lead.
Another story from The Wall Street Journal’s Carol Lee shows a possible reason why President Obama and Democrats are so unpopular: they’ve virtually surrendered their agenda in order to play politics.
Yesterday, The White House announced the president wouldn’t name a new Attorney General until after the midterms. But it isn’t just naming Cabinet members that President Obama has dragged his feet on. Decisions on a host of other issues, namely the Keystone XL pipeline—which could create thousands of American jobs—have been delayed.
Lastly, a story from one of the hottest House races in the country. Down in West Virginia anti-coal Democrat Nick Rahall is in the fight of his political life against Evan Jenkins—a Democrat-turned-Republican who was sick of Rahall and Obama’s war on coal.
They debated last night and Jenkins took aim at Rahall’s support for the House’s progressive budget which included a tax that sought to cripple the coal industry.
“Jenkins suggested Rahall read the progressive budget he supported. The plan, which failed badly in 2013, included a $25 per ton tax on carbon dioxide, according to the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ summary. Rahall insisted it’s not in the budget.
‘Maybe this is like Obamacare, you didn’t read the bill before you passed it,’ said Jenkins, who wants to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.”
We’re 20 days from Election Day 2014 and those are your NRCC Morning Reads.
-Matt