Washington Post-ABC News Poll Has Obama Up 6 in Ohio

Read the Post article.

September Job Loss Worse So Far in 2008: 159,000 Jobs

We have updated our chart showing the number of jobs lost in 2008, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. As you can see, the job loss in September was particularly bad. In a bad year, September managed to be the worst so far, with 159,000 jobs bleeding out of our economy.

This statistic is, of course, real bad news for the McCain campaign. Americans are waking up to the fact that the trickle-down approach of the Bushies is not working, if it ever did, and they are looking for something different. What is McCain offering? Just more of the same.



You can view the page which contains the data which we used to make the 2008 Job Losses Chart here.

Boccieri Leads in SurveyUSA Poll

SurveyUSA did a automated poll on September 19 through September 21 of likely voters in the 16th Congressional District in Ohio. In that poll, State Senator John Boccieri led his Republican opponent, State Representative Kurt Schuring, by a 8 point margin. The internals of the poll showed that while the two candidates were tied among male voters, Boccieri led by 15 points among female voters. Boccieri also led among three of the four age groups broken out in the poll. The only age group that Schuring led was in the 35-49 age group. The economy was picked as the most important issue by 54% of the respondents with health care as the second most important issue by 10% of the respondents. A newspaper article about the poll can be read here.

Democratic Presidents Outperform Republicans on Job Growth

David Fiderer, a former banker who now works as a journalist, wrote an article for Huffington Post that points out that job creation under Democratic Presidents far exceeds job creation under Republicans. Here is a quote from his article:

No Republican President -- not Eisenhower, not Nixon, not Reagan, not Bush -- has ever created more jobs, or created jobs at a faster rate, than his Democratic predecessor. It's not even close. The contrast has been especially stark over the past 16 years, when 23.1 million jobs were created under Clinton and less than 5 million were created under Bush. On average, job growth under Democrats is more than twice that under Republicans.

What makes this statistic even more impressive is that since 1948, Democratic presidents have been in office 24 years compared to 36 years for Republicans. Here is a graphic example of the difference in total job creation:



Parents all over America are worried about their kids getting jobs when they get out of school. Democrats need to spread this simple message: "Our policies create more jobs than Republican policies."

Reader Submission Comparing McCain and Obama Tax Plans

Here is an article that a reader sent us. Check out the cool graphic in the article that illustrates the difference between the tax plans of Obama and McCain.

So Who's Middle Class?
by Hall Cary

If enacted, Obama and McCain tax plans will have radically different effects on the distribution of tax burdens in the United States. The Obama tax plan is progressive giving large tax breaks to those at the bottom of the income scale and raising taxes significantly on upper-income earners.

While McCain claims that his tax plan benefits middle-class families, his plan remains regressive. It’s regressive even when compared to a plan where 2001–06 Bush tax cuts are made permanent. It gives little tax relief to those at the bottom of the income scale but provides huge tax cuts to the wealthiest households. To see how the two plans will effect your income, check out the following chart.



Of interest also, according to the Tax Policy Center, the Obama Plan contributes $1 trillion more to the revenue stream than the McCain Plan. This revenue stream is of major concern what with the swelling of the National Debt under the Bush regime.

If you want to join McCain’s “middle-class”, I suggest that you follow his example and marry a millionaire.

Is the Celebrity Ad Concept Really Working for McCain?

The conventional wisdom among pundits and political reporters is that it is working. Certainly the McCain campaign believes it is working since they have put out three ads using this concept. Yet, as the poll results set forth in the graph above point out, it may not be doing McCain that much good.

Gallup runs a poll every day of registered voters. As can be seen above, over the last two weeks, McCain's numbers went up, then went back down. The poll for July 25, 2008 was before the first celebrity ad using Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The second poll, on August 1, was right after those ads, and the third poll was about a week after the first ad appeared. Based on these three snapshots over a two week period, the McCain ads produced some initial movement for McCain, but then the race settled back down to about where it had been before the first celebrity ad.

Now, of course, there are some caveats here. The first is that the Gallup daily tracking poll is a poll of registered voters, not "likely" voters. The second is that it is a national poll, not a state by state poll, while the U.S. presidential election, because of the electoral college, is really 50 separate state elections, not one big national election.

Still, even keeping in mind those caveats, it is interesting that the "convential wisdom" of pundits and political journalits is not necessarily supported by the evidence.

You can view the whole Gallup daily tracking poll here.

Iraq Runs 79 Billion Dollar Surplus While USA Runs Record Deficit

Are we the only ones who find this rather bizarre? While the USA under Bush is running a record-setting deficit this year, the Iraqi government is set to run a 79 billion dollar surplus. Of course one reason why they are running this surplus is that we are paying for a significant amount of their reconstruction.

At the start of the run-up to the Iraq War, Colin Powell was reported to have told Bush that "Pottery Barn rules will apply. If you break it, you pay for it." So, on the one hand, if you invade a country under false premises, remove its government, and, in the process destroy a lot of its infrastructure, then maybe you should pay for its reconstruction. On the other hand, its their country, so shouldn't the Iraqis use some of their oil money to pay for part of their own country's reconstruction? Just one more example of how hard-working Americans are having their tax money hi-jacked by this Republican administration.

NYT Charts States Going Blue

The chart above was prepared from figures contained in a New York Times article. The article was about the changes in party registeration since the 2004 election. During that time, according to the NYT, more than half of the 29 states that allow registration by party had an increase in the number of Democrats. The top seven are shown in the chart.

This is a quote from the article:

In several states, including the traditional battlegrounds of Nevada and Iowa, Democrats have surprised their own party officials with significant gains in registration. In both of those states, there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans, a flip from 2004. No states have switched to the Republicans over the same period, according to data from 26 of the 29 states in which voters register by party. (Three of the states did not have complete data.)

In six states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, the Democratic piece of the registration pie grew more than three percentage points, while the Republican share declined. In only three states — Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma — did Republican registration rise while Democratic registration fell, but the Republican increase was less than a percentage point in Kentucky and Oklahoma. Louisiana was the only state to register a gain of more than one percentage point for Republicans as Democratic numbers declined.

You can read the Times article here.

Look at Jobs Lost in 2008 and You See Why McCain Wants to Talk About Britney & Paris

The graph above shows the monthly job loss for 2008. The figures are from the Federal Government's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job loss for June and July, which the graph shows at 51,000 for both months, is a projection.

The Bush Record: Surplus to Record Making Deficit

So, how do you go from a 86.4 billion dollar surplus in fiscal year 2000 to a record setting deficit in fiscal year 2008? Well, first you elect George "Frat Boy" Bush as President. Next, you give him a GOP Congress that can't say no. You follow that up with reckless tax cuts for the wealthy and you add a needless war with Iraq. Viola! You go from the Federal Government being in the black under Bill Clinton to bleeding red ink under "Frat Boy". See, it really was pretty simple. All you needed was a bunch of Republicans running, or should we say, ruining, our country.

More U.S. Troops in Iraq AFTER the Surge than BEFORE

Bush has consistently told the American public that "as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." Bush has also consistently told the American public that the "surge" is working. Yet, according to the Associated Press, the surge is now officially over, and yet there are more American troops in Iraq AFTER the surge than BEFORE the surge.

This is true even though Iraqi on Iraqi violence is down and even though more and more Iraqi units are becoming better equipped and trained. This is from the AP article on the number of American troops in Iraq post-surge:

The military surge into Iraq that began more than 18 months ago has ended. But 150,000 U.S. troops remain, as many as 15,000 more than before the buildup began.

In recent days, the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade, the last of the five additional combat brigades sent in by President Bush last year, left the country.

You can read the whole article here.

USA Daily Oil Use Compared to China, Japan, and Russia

The United States, China, Japan and Russia are the world's four biggest users of oil. Daily the USA uses over 21 million barrels of oil, China uses over 7 million, Japan a little over 5 million and the Russians a little over 3 million barrels per day. When Bush and Republicans talk about the US drilling itself out of its energy problems, they very seldom, if ever, talk about how much oil we use compared to other countries.