Congressman Joe Wilson might be tempted to yell “You lie!” again – this time at a poll that shows the presidential heckler trailing in his reelection bid.

The survey by Public Policy Polling found Democratic challenger Rob Miller leading the five-term Republican lawmaker by 44 percent to 43 percent. The numbers had Democrats cheering, and at least one pollster offering a new view of the contest in the heavily Republican South Carolina district.

 It is all part of the fallout of Wilson yelling “You lie!” at President Barack Obama during his address to Congress on Wednesday night on healthcare reform.

“In a matter of seconds Joe Wilson turned himself from a safe incumbent into one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country for 2010,” said Dean Debnam of Public Policy Polling, which conducted the survey of 747 voters in the congressman’s district.

But Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which tracks congressional races, downplayed the importance of the poll and predicted Wilson would rebound against his liberal challenger in the conservative district.

“This is just a snapshot in time. The bad news for Rob Miller is that the election is 14 months away,” Wasserman said, noting a lot is certain to happen between now and then.

Last year, Wilson defeated Miller, a former Marine turned small businessman, by 54 percent to 46 percent.

Wilson’s verbal attack on Obama provided a big boost to Miller’s fundraising.
In two days, he raked in more $875,000 from 24,000 contributors, according to the House Democratic campaign committee.

But Wilson, who became an overnight hero to many conservatives, has also enjoyed a financial lift. He pulled in about $700,000, said a spokesman for the House Republican campaign committee.

Snared in a political firestorm, Wilson is fighting back. He posted an appeal for support and money on his campaign website that says “Joe Wilson is Under Attack — Stand with Joe Today.”

“I should not have disrespected the president during his speech. But I am not sorry for fighting back against the dangerous policies of liberal Democrats,” Wilson says in the spot.

“Will you stand with me today and help me fight back against liberal attacks by making a donation to my campaign?”

Reuters photo by Jim Young  (Wilson after yelling out “You Lie” during Obama’s speech Sept 9, 2009)

Senator Arlen Specter, who has had some rocky times since switching from the Republican to Democratic party last week, had a really good day on Thursday.

Specter gained some power — the chairmanship of a Senate subcommittee — and lost a potential and powerful reelection foe, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.

“After careful consideration and many conversations with friends and family and the leadership of my party, I have decided not to seek the Republican nomination for Senate,” Ridge said in a statement.

Earlier on Thursday, Senate Democrats, who had stripped Specter of committee seniority this week, turned around and gave him the chairmanship of a Judiciary subcommittee on crime and drugs. 

“I want Senator Specter to feel welcome in our caucus,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, the Democrat who surrendered the chairmanship to make way for Specter. 

“It is something I’d like to do,” Specter said. 

Specter riled members of both parties last week in becoming the chamber’s newest Democrat.

Former Republican colleagues accused him of abandoning them merely to improve his chances for reelection to a sixth term in his increasingly Democratic state.

And Democrats were peeved by some of his initial action as their newest colleague.  Specter voted against President Barack Obama’s $3.4 trillion budget plan and opposed a Democratic bid to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

He also joked that Republican Norm Coleman may end winning the contested Senate race in Minnesota and denied a report he had told President Barack Obama “I’m a loyal Democrat.”

On Tuesday, Democrats stripped Specter of committee seniority and the Pennsylvania Democrat cried foul.

Specter said Senate Majority leader Harry Reid had assured him that he would maintain seniority if he became a Democrat.

Democratic aides, however, insisted Reid told Specter that the matter would be decided by the full Senate Democratic caucus, and would be revisited after the 2010 election.

An upbeat Specter said on Thursday, “I’m confident that the seniority will be restored in due course.”

For more Reuters political coverage, click here

Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst.  (President Barack Obama and Senator Arlen Specter at the White House)

A week after switching parties, former Republican-turned-Democratic U.S. Senator Arlen Specter has suffered the political equivalent of a kick in the pants.

The action — stripping him of Senate seniority — isn’t expected to change the outcome of any pending legislation. But it puts Specter on notice he must earn his Democratic stripes.

The figurative boot in the butt was administered on late Tuesday by Senate Democrats, who have been irritated by many of Specter’s initial moves as a member of their party.

Since leaving the Republican ranks, Specter has voted against President Barack Obama’s $3.4 trillion budget plan and opposed a Democratic bid to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. He also joked that Republican Norm Coleman by end up winning a contested Senate race in Minnesota and denied a report that he had told President Barack Obama “I’m a loyal Democrat.”

“Specter hasn’t done himself any favors the past week,” a top Democrat said.

In changing parties last week, however, Specter, 79, first elected to the Senate in 1980, told reporters he would continue to break party ranks when he sees fit.

He also said that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid had assured him that he would retain his seniority.

But the full Democratic-led Senate, on a voice vote on Tuesday, made Specter the chamber’s most junior Democrat.

“Let’s face it. Specter isn’t a warm and fuzzy guy, the type you go out of your way to help out,” said a top Democrat.”Specter now has a year and a half to make his case to his new Democratic colleagues.”

Senate Democrats have indicated they will revisit Specter’s seniority after the 2010 election, when the Pennsylvanian will be up for a sixth term.

Specter said in a statement on Wednesday: “Some members of the (Senate Democratic) caucus have raised concerns about my seniority, so the caucus will vote on my seniority at the same time subcommittee chairmanships are confirmed after the 2010 election.”

“I am eager to continue my work with my colleagues on the various committees on which I serve and will continue to be a staunch and effective advocate for Pennsylvania’s and the nation’s priorities,” Specter said.

REUTERS/Larry Downing   (Sen. Arlen Specter’s name plate sits on a desk)

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama told an audience at the U.S. mission to the United Nations that she was “thrilled” to be back in New York for the first time since her husband Barack Obama became the 44th U.S. president in January. But she said some things are even more exciting than addressing an audience of 150 U.S. diplomats, military advisers and other government officials.

“I’m thrilled to be here but I was just at ‘Sesame Street’, I’m sorry,” she said, referring to the long-running U.S. children’s television program. “I never thought I’d be on ‘Sesame Street’ with Elmo and Big Bird and I was thrilled. I’m still thrilled. I’m on a high. I think it’s probably the best thing I’ve done so far in the White House.”

One of the biggest rounds of applause during the first lady’s 20-minute appearance at the U.S. mission in midtown Manhattan came when she read a letter the son of one of the mission staffers, Scott Turner, recently sent to the president.  According to Michelle Obama, Turner’s son Jack, a first grader,  wrote to the president:

“Dear Mr. Obama - Can you move to New York? Because people like you in New York. I will help you come to New York and people are doing bad stuff in New York. I will help you get the bad people and when I catch the bad people I will put them in jail. That’s why I want you to move to  New York. From Jack.”

The first lady said she had already found a job for Jack: “Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have identified the new future New York Police Commissioner. Jack is on the case.”

Michelle Obama also thanked a group of 40 employees of the U.S. mission in the audience who have been working for the U.S. government for more than 20 years. One of them, Ivan Ferber, has been with the U.S. mission for 47 years, which she said is “longer than I’ve been alive.”

In sharp contrast to the administration of former President George W. Bush, whose officials were often dismissive and critical of the United Nations and other multilateral organizations, Michelle Obama emphasized that the new administration felt it was vitally important to work with allies.

“As the president has said, the United States is pursuing a new era of engagement when it comes to advancing America’s interests around the world,” she said. “This new policy recognizes that the fact that America’s future is intricately linked to the rest of the world, that the threats facing the global community know no borders and no single country can tackle them alone. We’ve learned this again with the recent
outbreak of the H1N1 virus.”

The first lady also spoke about the important tasks facing U.S. diplomats working with the United Nations to bring aid to the developing world. “Your work links the world to America and American ideals that are beacons of hope for millions of people,” she said.

“The young boy who’s forced to carry a rifle and become a child soldier — he’s counting on you,” she said. “The girl locked out of the schoolhouse or attacked because she had the audacity to want to learn to read or write — she’s counting on you. The mother walking hours each day to find clean water for her children — she’s counting on you. And the father who leaves his family for months or years on end in search of work — he’s counting on you as well.”

The first lady suggested that she, too, might want to get involved in working with poorer countries around the world, but she did not provide any specifics.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold intends to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to end the practice of governors filling vacant Senate seats.

With the Illinois governor charged with having tried to sell President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat — and New York’s governor accused by critics of having held a circus-like review to fill the one formerly held by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Feingold says voters — not governors — should make the call in special elections. 

“The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end,” Feingold said.

Feingold said he will introduce this week what would be just the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the framework for American democracy that has been in effect since 1789.

His proposed amendment would require that all senators, just like all members of the House of Representatives, be elected.

Initially, senators were elected by state legislatures. But the 17th amendment, adopted in 1913, made them elected instead by voters.

A third of the Senate is routinely elected ever two years. But in case of a death or a resignation, governors in most states are empowered to appoint a replacement.

Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, said that as chairman of the Senate Judiciary’s subcommittee on the Constitution, he plans to soon hold a hearing on his proposed amendment.

Untold hundreds of amendments to the Constitution have been proposed. But there’s a reason why just 27 have been approved. To become law, it has to be passed by two-thirds of the House and Senate, and then within a set time period, three-quarters of the states.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Segar - A worker changes a flag at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., which houses the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, during the January 20 inauguration of President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON - Former Republican White House candidate John McCain said on Monday he wished he were taking the presidential oath of office but pledged his support to former rival Barack Obama instead.

McCain, speaking at a dinner in his honor on the eve of Obama’s swearing-in, reflected on his own career of military and public service when mentioning Tuesday’s inauguration.

“I would have preferred to have sworn again tomorrow the oath I first took more than 50 years ago,” he said.

“But it would be an act of stunning ingratitude were I to resent the decision of the American people or dismiss the privilege I still possess: the privilege of serving in some capacity the country that has been so good to me.”

McCain wished the president-elect well even as he said the two may continue to joust in the future.

“We will disagree now and again, but not always and not for personal reasons, and not, I assure you, over the purpose we share: the progress of the nation we love,” he said.

The Arizona senator and Obama, a former senator from Illinois, clashed repeatedly on the 2008 campaign trail over policy in often bitter exchanges. McCain gave a gracious concession speech, however, after his loss on Nov. 4 and met with Obama in Chicago after the election.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama speaks beside U.S. Sen. John McCain during the Bipartisan dinner honoring McCain in Washington on Jan. 19, 2009.

The U.S. Democratic Party has gained a larger following over the past two decades but America's ideological landscape has remained largely unchanged over the past two decades, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. You can see the analysis here.

What is of interest for readers of this blog may be the implications of this "cultural trench warfare" -- with neither side gaining much ground from the other -- for red-hot social issues such as abortion rights and the future prospects for both the Republicans and the Democrats.

"The Democratic Party's advantage in party identification has widened over the past two decades, but the share of Americans who describe their political views as liberal, conservative or moderate has remained stable during the same period. Only about one-in-five Americans currently call themselves liberal (21 percent), while 38 percent say they are conservative and 36 percent describe themselves as moderate. This is virtually unchanged from recent years; when George W. Bush was first elected president, 18 percent of Americans said they were liberal, 36 percent were conservative and 38 percent considered themselves moderate," the report, released late on Tuesday, says.

On the divisive issue of abortion rights, the report, using survey data from October, said 57 percent of Americans believed it should be legal. Breaking opinion up by ideology, it found that 43 percent of conservatives were in favour of it being legal while 77 percent of self-described liberals held that view.

This is not surprising -- there are many Americans who regard themselves as economic or "tough on crime" or national security conservatives who still support abortion rights. What may surprise some is that 19 percent of liberals feel it should be illegal. These could be people influenced by Catholic social teaching or other trends who regard themselves as liberal on most issues but not this one.

For all the talk of an emerging evangelical center, the report says that: "White evangelical Protestants are the most conservative Republicans: 79 percent describe their political views as conservative, compared with 17 percent who say they are moderate and just two percent who call themselves liberal."

This suggests that they will remain a key Republican Party base -- but in an age of cultural trench warfare, can the party rely on this base to propel itself back into power? On the other hand, the survey's findings certainly reinforce the wide perception that America is a "center right" country. Maybe that helps to explain the Democratic Party's subtle shift on abortion rights to an emphasis on reducing the number of abortions and talk of it being a "tragic choice?" If you can't win them outright, do you need to find common ground in the no-man's land between the trenches?

Does it also mean both sides are "dug in" for the long haul as they are winning few ideological converts from the other ? What do you think?

John McCain got his own taste of celebrity last week and evidently liked it — he’s back with a new ad ridiculing Barack Obama’s fame. 

The Republican candidate got a huge boost from accusing Obama of being a big celebrity like Paris Hilton and acting like some sort of political messiah.
 
Until his spate of negative attacks, McCain had been languishing ignored by the media while Obama triumphantly toured the world.
 
But last week McCain nearly tied Obama in the battle for media coverage — the first time that has happened since the start of the general election, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
 
So the Arizona senator is returning ahead of Obama’s weeklong vacation in Hawaii with another advertisement ridiculing his fame. It also paints him as a big-tax Democrat.
 
“Life in the spotlight must be grand,” an announcer says as a camera pans over images of a smiling Obama on the covers of GQ, Vanity Fair and other magazines.
 
“But for the rest of us, times are tough,” the announcer says. “Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000. He promises more taxes. On small business. On seniors. Your life savings. Your family.”
 
“Painful taxes. Hard choices for your budget. Not ready to lead. That’s the real Obama.”
 
Scary stuff, but…
 
A study in mid-July by the Tax Policy Center — a venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution — found that Obama’s tax proposals would lift the after-tax income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans by 5.5 percent.
 
McCain’s plans would provide the poor with “virtually no benefit,” it said.
 
Nearly everyone else does better under Obama’s tax proposals as well.

Only the top 20 percent of U.S. wage earners would do better under McCain than Obama. The richest Americans would see after-tax income rise by 5.9 percent under McCain’s plans, while under Obama their after-tax income would drop by 2.8 percent, the study found.Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Top: Reuters/Bryan Snyder (McCain appears with former President George Bush in Maine July 21); Bottom: Reuters/Rebecca Cook (Obama at a speech in Michigan Aug. 4)

WASHINGTON - With Democrat Barack Obama trying to look presidential abroad and soon to face friendly crowds in the German capital, the Republican National Committee has decided to strike back by appealing to Berliners closer to home.
 
The party will air radio advertisements Thursday in Berlin, Pa., Berlin, Wis., and Berlin, N.H., bashing Obama’s voting record on defense issues, accusing him of choosing “Washington politics over the needs of our military.”
 
“Obama said that nobody wanted to play chicken with our troops on the ground,” an announcer intones. “But when it came time to act, he voted against critical resources: no to individual body armor, no to helicopters, no to ammunition, no to aircraft.”

The ad is a rehash of claims made in a television spot being aired by Obama’s rival Republican presidential candidate John McCain. FactCheck.org, in reviewing those claims, said the statements “are literally true but paint an incomplete picture.”
 
It is true Obama voted against a war-funding bill last year after President George W. Bush initially vetoed a version that contained a date for withdrawal from Iraq, the independent monitoring group said. Before that, Obama had cast at least 10 votes for war-funding bills, it said.

Obama’s campaign dismissed the ad as “distasteful and misleading.”
 
The RNC attacks are unlikely to dampen enthusiasm for Obama when he arrives Thursday in Berlin, Germany. A recent poll by the Bild newspaper found 72 percent of Germans would vote for Obama over McCain if they had a vote in U.S. elections.
 
Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Bush friend who expressed displeasure over electioneering ahead of Obama’s visit, professed herself an admirer, telling reporters she thought the Democratic presidential candidate was “well-equipped — physically, mentally and politically.” 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Johannes Eisele (Obama campaign balloon flies in front of Victory Column (Siegessaeule) in Berlin, where he will speak on Thursday)