John Sununu is a tough-love kind of guy. His response to citizens from his state that are concerned about high health care costs "stop complaining."
Sununu has been Bush's man in the Senate - stopping the U.S. from importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, supported cutting Medicare payments, and voted against better health care for our military veterans.
George W Bush is leaving Washington soon, it looks like Sununu should leave with him.
John Sununu is trying to subsidize Wall Street - with your Social Security dollars! Not only has he supported the risky privatization of social security in the past, given the recent turmoil in the market, he is still behind this terrible idea.
What Sununu fails to realize is that markets go through cycles of ups and down. This guarantees that every few years, senior citizens will start to draw benefits during a market down-turn, and will receive lower benefits, simply due to the nature of the market.
Does it make sense to arbitrarily risk peoples Social Security benefits just at the point in their lives when risky investments are least recommended?
No.
John Sununu needs to think more about the well-being of senior citizens, instead of the well-being of Wall Street.
I wonder if Steve Marchand and Katrina Swett still think it was a good idea to drop out in New Hampshire. A new ARG poll shows a dramatic turnaround in what had long been considered one of the top four pickup opportunities for Democrats:
A new poll to be released today shows Republican Sen. John Sununu has taken over the lead in next year's possible U.S. Senate race against Democratic former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
The American Research Group polled 558 likely voters Dec. 16-19 and found Sununu with 52 percent, Shaheen with 41 percent and 7 percent undecided. Earlier ARG polls showed Shaheen leading Sununu, most recently by 46 to 41 percent in September.
Sununu's upsurge could be happening for any number of reasons - or this poll could just be an outlier - but there is one particular possibility: That the recent attacks from Jeanne's husband Billy, against Barack Obama's teenage drug use, might have taken a toll on her Senate campaign.
I wonder if that is what we are seeing in New Hampshire now, too. Billy's Shaheen's attacks against Obama could be doing serious damage to his wife's standing among New Hampshire Independents, among whom Obama leads. Even apart from hurting Shaheen in a key voting block, this is the sort of incident that could make her look like another crass politician by engaging in vicious, racially-tinted character attacks through a surrogate. That won't help her among anyone.
Unfortunately for Democrats, two of her three opponents in the Democratic primary, including her two best funded and most experienced opponents, have dropped out. Jay Buckey is the only candidate Shaheen still faces. Now. Buckey's chances aren't probably any better than Shaheen's, but unless this poll is an outlier, they probably aren't any worse than Shaheen's either.
Update: I should emphasize that the possibility of this poll being an outlier is pretty high. The Governor numbers look screwy, too, for example. We'll have to see what's up when the next polls come out...
Sens. John Sununu, Norm Coleman, and George Voinovich all voted for the Law of the Sea in 2004. According to sources in the Senate, all are now reconsidering their votes under heavy pressure from the likes of John Bolton, Frank Gaffney, and their most vocal black helicopter-fearing constituents. If you want to learn more about these opponents, by the way, read Elena Schor's news analysis piece in the Guardian, published yesterday.
The Law of the Sea convention should be a no-brainer. What's more, it should be an opportunity for moderate and old-school conservative Republicans to slam down those in their party who think that the threat of force alone can advance U.S. interests. The votes are still there to pass it on the floor, but now it is becoming a real fight.
These three senators, in particular, need to understand that there are consequences for so transparently choosing politics over principle. Men and women in the Navy and Coast Guard, shipbuilders, fishermen, and others are counting on them to do the right thing. I still think they each will -- but the fact that they are even on the fence speaks to how deeply misinformation about the treaty is taking hold.
The military, oil companies, and environmentalists want this to pass, it's just a matter of getting Harry Reid to schedule it and putting a bit of pressure on Coleman, Sununu, and Voinovich. Remember, getting this treaty done is a precursor to doing anything on climate change. If Reid wants to rebuild some of his shattered credibility, there are worse places to start than a complete marginalization of the black helicopter crowd.
No one else is above 5%, and it is strange how all four candidates end up on round numbers. The odds of that are pretty low, about 1-1024. Also, with a 19.0% lead, that means Clinton has reached the firewall point in New Hampshire, where even in the event that she finishes third in Iowa, she would still (narrowly) be projected to win in New Hampshire. That makes this poll a very big moment for the Clinton campaign, as it is actually the first time since February where she is clearly in the driver's seat for the nomination. For a very long time, she was still vulnerable to a second or third place finish in Iowa, while simultaneously trailing in the Iowa polling average.
In the Senate race, Jean Shaheen leads John Sununu in two new polls, but not by the double digit margins that previous polls had shown:
Rasmussen. 9/16. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (No trend lines)
It should be noted that the incumbent rule does not, and has never, applied in campaigns where the challenger previously held equivalent elected office (Shaheen was once Governor of New Hampshire). This was even noted in the original paper proposing the incumbent rule theory. So, this does in fact look like a reasonably close race, given that two polls confirm the closer campaign at the same time.
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