Oct 29, 2010 – 1. The Upstart It was the winter of 2009, and the echoes of "Yes, we can!" still reverberated across the land. Barack Obama had just been elected President with more than 53% of the vote — a huge number for a Democrat, the biggest in more than 40 years. In Congress,...

Oct 29, 2010 – I have fresher numbers on Oregon ballot returns than you'll find on the secretary of state's website, so I'd better share them, right? Bottom line: Republican turnout so far is ahead of the Democrats. Some 36 percent of Republicans had returned their ballot, according to statistics as of...

Oct 29, 2010 – The University of Virginia's Larry Sabato shifted the race between freshman Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick and GOP nominee Raul Labrador from "tossup" to "leans Republican," in "The Crystal Ball's Final Calls," published online on Thursday. Sabato also said GOP Gov. Butch Otter is "likely" to defeat Democrat Keith Allred.

Oct 29, 2010 – So how desperate are the Democrats to keep control of the U.S. Senate? The answer is fairly clear in a story that appeared Thursday evening on Politico.com that quotes spokesmen for former President Bill Clinton claiming he tried to convince Democratic Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek last week to drop his...

Oct 29, 2010 – A new ad from Democratic U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick alleges that Republican Raul Labrador planned to allow his illegal immigrant client to flee to Mexico to avoid facing a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. State Rep. Labrador called the ad “a wild, slanderous, libelous claim that will help...

Oct 29, 2010 – Being the Congressman from Indiana's 9th District is a little like playing political Twister. You've got to keep your left foot firmly planted to the northwest, in your largest city, Bloomington, with its young, Democratic-leaning population around Indiana University. At the same time, you've got to reach southeast with your...

Oct 29, 2010 – Democrats may not lose their Senate majority, but they appear in danger of losing their Senate majority leader. Less than a week before Election Day, Democrat Harry Reid trails Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle in Nevada by 4 points, according to a TIME/CNN/Opinion Research survey that shows the GOP with...

Oct 29, 2010 – A new analysis of more than 550,000 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index interviews conducted over the last year and a half finds that Americans who are the most religious also have the highest levels of wellbeing. The statistically significant relationship between religiousness and wellbeing holds up after controlling for numerous demographic variables....

Oct 29, 2010 – Washington (CNN) -- Several shots have been fired at the National Museum of the Marine Corps building in Virginia, the FBI said Friday. No injuries were reported. It is the second time the Marine Corp museum has been fired upon in recent days. In addition, the Pentagon and...

Oct 29, 2010 – Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korean and South Korean military units exchanged gunfire near their border Friday, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported. The exchange happened after North Korean forces fired two shots at a South Korean military guard post near the border in Hwacheon, South Korea,...

Oct 29, 2010 – (CNN) -- Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek said it was Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and not former President Bill Clinton who asked him to end his Senate bid in Florida. Meek talked Friday about the issue during an interview with CNN's "American Morning." Meek denied published reports that Clinton...

Oct 29, 2010 – Washington (CNN) -- A detention hearing is scheduled Friday for Farooque Ahmed, who is accused of attempting to help men he believed to be militants plot bombings at subway systems in the Washington-area. Some of the allegations against Ahmed were detailed in a search warrant and other documents...

Oct 29, 2010 – Well, a US Senator name Al Gore invented the Internet, so there’s one item to validate Biden’s claim. But after that the “visions don’t succeed without government” examples are fewer and farther between because “government vision” has been an oxymoron for decades if not longer.

Oct 29, 2010 – Post-racial America, we hardly knew you. On the heels of California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez screeching about “the Vietnamese” and GOP challenger Van Tran trying to “take away” her seat in the year’s most embarrassing ethnic card implosion, you would think other California minority politicians would forsake such poisonous...

Oct 29, 2010 – Thurston Heinz III’s swift boat has sprung a leak in the deep end again. Strange — just a couple of years ago the country was brilliant, progressive and in a period of mass awakening, and less that 24 months later that same nation is ignorant and blind to the facts.

Oct 29, 2010 – Incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer still holds a small lead over Republican Carly Fiorina in California’s U.S. Senate race, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports survey of Likely Voters in the state. Boxer, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, now earns 49% support to Fiorina’s 46%. Two percent (2%) prefer...

Oct 29, 2010 – With a huge voter backlash to Democrat Jack Conway’s ad criticizing his opponent’s college antics and questioning his religious faith, Republican Rand Paul has now taken a 12-point lead in Kentucky’s bitter U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state, taken Wednesday night,...

Oct 29, 2010 – California GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman says her former housekeeper should be deported. Whitman — down 10 percentage points in the latest Field Poll after spending over $140 million of her own money on the campaign — said Nicky Diaz should be forced to leave the country for lying about...

Oct 29, 2010 – Five months after losing a Hawaii House seat in a special election, Democrats are spending big bucks trying to win it back. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched a $1.2 million campaign targeting GOP Rep. Charles Djou, the freshman congressman who won a May special election for the Democratic-leaning...

Oct 28, 2010 – With the election five days away, politicians and their backers aren’t holding back. Kentucky Democrats will begin airing an ad over the weekend that features a supporter of Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul stepping on the head of a woman from MoveOn.org. The ad comes on the heels of another...

Oct 28, 2010 – Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) is asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether tea party groups are intimidating black and Hispanic voters in her district. Jackson Lee has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to send poll monitors to her district on Nov. 2 to make sure the King Street...

Oct 28, 2010 – Third-party candidate Tom Tancredo has been camping in Colorado Springs in recent days, courting members of his former party and trashing his two gubernatorial opponents. Asked Tuesday why he’s here so often, he offers a simple reason: “They’re called Republicans.” Tancredo says his only chance to win the governor’s...

Oct 28, 2010 – Republicans in Colorado continue to outpace Democrats in casting votes early so far this election. Republicans have now cast 40,000 more ballots than Democrats, according to numbers released Wednesday by the secretary of state's office. Republicans are also still turning out at a higher rate. So far, about 26 percent...

Oct 28, 2010 – Though polls say voters in Colorado are evenly divided between GOP U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck and his Democrat opponent, Sen. Michael Bennet, both certainly have groupies. And while the margins vary, the supporters break down in much the same way they did in Colorado's 2004 and 2008 U.S. Senate...

Oct 28, 2010 – Colorado's gubernatorial contenders diverge on key issues: managing water resources, minding population growth and balancing industry with environmental protection. One would construct new reservoirs, while another counts on conservation. One takes a hands-off approach to development, while another calls for forums to explore growth limits. One favors reasonable regulation, while...