David Broder, Dean of a political ideology just as suffocating as any “Left” or “Right” demarcation — a stiftifying “Washington Insider Centrist” Ideologue — comes up with Obama’s path to Re-election, taking in stock that his chances are closely connected to the Economy.

But if Obama cannot spur that growth by 2012, he is unlikely to be reelected. The lingering effects of the recession that accompanied him to the White House will probably doom him.
Can Obama harness the forces that might spur new growth? This is the key question for the next two years. […]
What else might affect the economy? The answer is obvious, but its implications are frightening. War and peace influence the economy.
Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.
Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.
I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.
The mind reels.
Wait.  The last President gave us some Wars.  The Economy should be booming right now, right?

WYOMING:  Self Imposed Death Panels.  U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis says some of her Wyoming constituents are so worried about the reinstatement of federal estate taxes that they plan to discontinue dialysis and other life-extending medical treatments so they can die before Dec. 31.

Lummis, a Republican who holds her state’s lone seat in the House, declined to name any of the people who have made the comments.

Okay?
I’d check up to see who Lummis’s challenger is, but really — who cares?

This is an interesting features from the Washington Post.  It’s an easy way to survey the landscape of races, state by state, and what it is that is up.  At the very least, I get a guage on those “interesting races”:

South Dakota .  Hm.  Meet Kristi Noem, South Dakota Republican Congressional candidate. Currently Noem is considered the hottest Republican House candidate, having raised $1.1 million for her campaign in the last three months.[…]  People started comparing Kristi Noem to Sarah Palin as soon as she burst on the scene.

$1.1 Million is Hot.

AND  According to local news reports, Noem’s lifetime driving record includes 20 speeding tickets, three stop sign violations, two seat belt violations, and a citation for failing to carry her driver’s license. She has also received six notices for failing to appear in court and two arrest warrants for failing to pay fines related to her tickets. She was stopped by police earlier this year for driving 94 mph.

Tennessee.  Hello, what’s this?

At least those ads attack Davis’ record in office. Democrats responded with ads digging up decade-old divorce records accusing DesJarlais of pulling the trigger of an unloaded gun outside her bedroom door and holding a gun in his own mouth for three hours.

Huh.  And:

Guns figure prominently in the 7th legislative race, too, where Republican state Rep. Stacey Campfield faces Democrat Randy Walker.
A Democratic flier paints Campfield, a staunch advocate for gun rights, as supporting a measure that would allow rapists to carry firearms legally, a notion misleading at best.
The GOP responded with a flier stating Walker received money from “University of Tennessee professor John Bohstedt, an anti-war protester who the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported specializes in riots.” The ad falls just short of calling Bohstedt, whose career was dedicated (he’s retired) to studying and understanding riots, a terrorist.
That’s particularly disgusting because Bohstedt was a hero amid one of Knoxville’s most horrific crimes in recent years.
Bohstedt was one of four men who tackled Jim David Adkisson after Adkisson opened fire with a sawed-off shotgun in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on July 27, 2008.

New Jersey.  Who is Peter DeStafano, and in the end, is the New Jersey Tea Party Coalition just a front name for the New Jersey Republican Party?
Though if they want to be that, that’s their perogative.

ALASKA.
Basically, the vast majority of Alaskans HATE Joe Miller, but everyone who likes him — to a person everyone who likes him — is going to vote for him.

How can McAdams be so much more popular than Miller yet still be trailing the race? It’s because 92% of the small group of voters that does like Miller is planning to vote for him. But only 56% of the voters with a positive opinion of McAdams are intending to cast their ballots for him, while 31% of them are going for Lisa Murkowski.
The high number of voters who like McAdams, dislike Miller, and are voting for Murkowski place the race in a whole different light than has been thought of the last few months. Murkowski’s campaign, rather than propping herself up at the expense of Miller, may actually end up propping Miller up at the expense of McAdams. You never know how things would have unfolded in a two way race but Murkowski seems to be taking a lot more voters away from McAdams than she is from Miller.
I gather McAdams voters might want to go ahead and vote for McAdams.

Incidentally, let it be known that Andrew Breitbart is a partisan hack who selectively edits and cuts for partisan effect, who nobody should take seriously.  Except, I guess, Sarah Palin.

NEVADA.  Correctly being labelled the blue-print for how Sarah Palin might beat Obama in 2012, with a cratered economy leading to a shrug amongst the electorate.
I guess Obama will just have to follow David Broder’s advice and go to war with Iran, then.

California:  Partisan rancor dissipates.

In California, virtually every politician — including the rivals in marquee races for governor and Senate — has urged defeat of Proposition 19, legalizing recreational marijuana use. Polls ahead of Tuesday’s vote suggest the measure is trailing but the outcome could be close.

KENTUCKY.  I’m pretty sure this is a joke.
In news tangeantal to Rand Paul’s victory tomorrow:

Timothy Mark Profitt, 53, is charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault after he stomped on Lauren Valle’s head and neck. Profitt “intentionally placed his foot on the shoulder/head region on the victim,” a criminal summons says. The newspaper reported that court records say Profitt will be arraigned Nov. 18. Such a charge carries a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail, a $500 fine, or a combination of both, the newspaper reported.
Hm.  So he will get to party down tomorrow watching the returns.  As for the first year of Rand Paul’s term, let Timothy Mark Profitt follow Rand Paul’s sub-committee work from a computer terminal in the jail.

WASHINGTON.  Neat.

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