Human Events Political Editor John Gizzi offers his final 2012 election predictions. Gizzi explains how he sees the swing states trending and what the Electoral College will look like. We also go through several of the most competitive U.S. Senate races and look at what the balance in the House of Representatives will be in come January.
President Obama’s re-election campaign theme is “Forward” but Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe says Obama has purposefully spent the past four years destroying every institution that makes America great and making life miserable for American businesses of all kinds.
Inhofe says people from his state constantly tell him they feel targeted by government regulations, and he used energy as a prime example.
“They have this war on fossil fuels,” said Inhofe. “He’s doing everything to kill domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal. This is something that is just un-American.”
Inhofe says the track record is similar on defense.
“In his first budget, he destroyed our only fifth generation fighter (the F-22), he destroyed our lift capacity (the C-17), he destroyed our future combat system, he destroyed our Poland operation to stop missiles from coming from Iran to the United States,” he said.
Obama is also guilty of openly ignoring federal laws – particularly when it could damage his electoral chances.
“Not long ago I enumerated eight really massive regulations that would put America out of business,” said Inhofe, noting that Obama has been silent on the impact of these regulations under after the election. “Legally, he was supposed to come out in terms of people, jobs and money of each regulation every six months. The due date was October 31. He just blatantly disrespected the law and did not do it.”
Inhofe noted that Obama violated the law by telling defense contractors not to give 60-day notices of layoffs to those in the defense industry who could very well be out of work if the major defense cuts proceed at scheduled. He says those notices should have gone out Nov. 2. The senator says businesses across the economy see the administration as a threat.
“Every industry thinks they’re being zeroed in on. If you’re out productively employing people and making a living, he’s against you,” said Inhofe.
Inhofe expects a clear victory for Mitt Romney on Tuesday, both in the Electoral College and in the popular vote.
He also predicts a GOP majority in the Senate but is a bit more nervous about that. Inhofe says four huge energy-rich states have Democratic incumbents who ought to be fired for waging war on American energy through their votes, namely Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, Missouri’s Claire McCaskill and Montana’s Jon Tester.
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review offer their final predictions on the razor-close 2012 presidential race and they agree which state (not Ohio) will determine the winner of this election. They also discuss why they believe it will be a good night for the House GOP but not so good for Republican efforts to gain the majority in the Senate. But their predictions don’t decide the winners…your votes do. Be sure to cast an informed ballot on Tuesday.
Democrats lost 63 seats in the House of Representatives and they are fiercely targeting GOP members in key swing districts.
Michigan Rep. Dan Benishek won in 2010 after Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak retired rather than face the voters after providing the final boost for the Obama health care package. Benishek claimed the seat with a double-digit win over longtime Democratic state lawmaker Gary McDowell. But McDowell is back and he’s got several well-funded special interests helping him out.
Benishek is still confident of victory.
“We’re going to win,” said Benishek. “It’s a close race. There’s a lot of outside groups getting involved. They want this seat back. They think they own it. I’m not a career politician. I’m a doctor and I’m just trying to do thisto make sure that our children have an opportunity for the same opportunities we had growing up.”
Benishek says the most pressing needs in Washington are to strip away burdensome regulation, bring certainty to the tax code and stop the rising cost of health care, which he says is only getting worse because of the Obama health care laws.
He also says there is a world of difference between him and McDowell.
“It’s tough for businesses to flourish. Frankly, the number one issue to me is the economy and jobs,” said Benishek. “Gary McDowell was part of the (former Gov. Jennifer) Granholm administration. He was in the state legislature. He voted for the Granholm stimulus. He voted for the Michigan business tax, which was a very onerous tax on business and drove companies into bankruptcy and out of the state. He doesn’t really have a lot of ideas and his allies are just throwing a lot of negative campaign ads at me and we’ve had to respond. You know, it’s been a brutal battle.”
Benishek and the new Republican House majority vowed to crack down on spending and repeal the Obama health plan. Neither has been accomplished, but Benishek says the GOP still has a strong record to run on will be in position to do big things if the election results turn out well for them.
“We put a stop to Mr. Obama’s agenda,” he said. “In the first two years of the Obama administration, they passed a trillion dollar stimulus. They passed the health care law. Frankly, it allowed them to spend more the last two years. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to peel back the spending because we don’t have the Senate of the White House. This is our opportunity to get those two houses and peel back some of the spending and ridiculous spending that this administration is putting forward.”
Benishek also blasts Obama for a lack of leadership, saying he’s never been invited to meet with the president on anything and neither have most Republicans or even the vast majority of Democrats.
The congressman also believes Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has a chance to carry Michigan.
“Everywhere I go, people say the same thing that they think the president’s policies have failed,” said Benishek. “I haven’t spoken to anyone that voted for Mr. McCain tha’s going to vote for Mr. Obama but I know a lot of people that voted for Mr. Obama that say they’re going to vote for Mr. Romney.”
Mitt Romney has a reputation for being a bit square, so the Capitol Steps try to show the more casual side of the GOP nominee. Our guest is Steps Co-Founder Elaina Newport.
Political figures from former Vice President Al Gore to Rep. Henry Waxman claim global warming is responsible for Hurricane Sandy and the havoc she wrought on the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says his late endorsement of President Obama is largely because he believes Obama will do more to combat global warming and help avert storms like the one that just pounded his city.
But while blaming man’s impact on his environment may be the politically trendy explanation for the destructive storms from earlier this week, but climate expert Leighton Steward says the facts simply don’t back up that argument. Steward is a geologist, climate adviser to former NASA astronauts and scientists critical of the agency for embracing the conventional wisdom on climate change and author of a book that breaks down the issues of global warming for the non-scientist.
“I think they’re grasping at anything that might be conceived as empirical evidence since they really have essentially none to back up their catastrophic forecasts,” said Steward, who contends climate change activists are simply trying to instill fear in people. “You can scare a lot of people and scare a lot of money out of their pocket one way or another, and that’s what they’re doing. But the real evidence that you look at and what’s happening with climate today and what has happened to climate over the years shows that carbon dioxide is not having that much of an effect on the climate.”
The alleged consensus of the scientific community is that human activity leads to greater emissions of carbon dioxide which leads to higher temperatures and more extreme climates. Steward says there’s a major problem with that theory.
“The earth has not warmed in 16 years,” he said, noting that data comes from British scientists who are revered in the climate change movement. “All the while, (carbon dioxide) levels been rising, rapidly.”
So if climate change is not responsible for the devastating storm, what does Steward see as the culprit? He says Sandy was barely a Category 1 hurricane, but when she happened to collide with cold weather systems over the east coast, we got this disaster.
Steward says evidence throughout history shows a general warming trend started in 1715, well before the industrial revolution.
Steward also offers advice to the political and media personalities looking to turn this tragedy into a legislative victory.
“Instead of our current administration wasting money trying to prevent Mother Nature from doing these natural occurring effects, they need to be thinking what they need to do when these impacts do hit us,” said Steward, noting that tax dollars should be spent on burying power lines and raising seawalls.
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are largely impressed with Mitt Romney’s closing message. They groan as the latest jobs report reveals the economy is still stuck in neutral. And they slam New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for stressing global warming in his endorsement of Obama and for pressing forward with the New York City Marathon when so many residents are still without power, fuel and even food.
Two-term Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly is under heavy fire for allegedly suggesting that time spent serving in local government better qualifies a person to serve in Congress than years of military service.
The controversy stems from comments Connolly made at the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, where he touted his time serving in local government in Fairfax County, Virginia.
“He’s reacting to a comment that I made that you can’t run for federal office on you local political record no matter how good that might be,” said retired U.S. Army Col Chris Perkins, who is the Republican challenger to Connolly in this year’s campaign. “It’s less convenient to talk about your votes on Obamacare and your vote on sequestration – these big defense cuts.”
Connolly’s comments at the Chamber of Commerce event were designed to defend his time in local government. But the congressman also took the opportunity to suggest his opponent has been invisible in his community.
“I hope that (my) experience and that sweat equity that I’ve put in in elective life for the past 18 years – and before that for 15 years as a civic activist – will count for something,” said Connolly at the event. “I hope you’ll measure that against somebody who wore the uniform and honored his country and I honor him for that service. But in the 10 years since he retired, he hasn’t shown up. He has no local credentials. In fact, more often than not, he hasn’t voted.”
Perkins is not amused.
“The more I realized how much this disenfranchises all veterans, it really got me annoyed,” he said, noting the comments have fired up many voters in a district full of active duty personnel and veterans. Perkins notes that Connolly succeeded in getting a more favorable district when the lines were redrawn, but while the district skews more Democratic it also includes more people connected with the military.
“What he did not factor in is that he brought in a number of veterans up in the Reston area and the Dumfries area down in the South. So, we have the highest density of veterans in the 11th district of Virginia. And they’re mad.”
So what experience does Perkins bring to the race and potentially to Congress?
“I moved here in 1991 when Uncle Sam sent me to Capitol Hill as a Congressional Fellow,” he said. “So I’ve been here for the past 22 years.”
Perkins, a Green Beret and a longtime member of the Army’s Special Forces, is also furious with Connolly for supporting major defense cuts that he says would greatly damage the economy in the district located just a few miles from the Pentagon and the nation’s capital.
“The biggest issue we’re seeing right now is this sequestration issue,” said Perkins. “The 11th district is number one hardest hit of all 435 districts if these defense cuts go forward. Certainly from a small business perspective and even the public sector employees who will be losing their jobs and the defense contractors, these defense cuts that Congressman Connolly has voted in favor of…is the number one issue and we’ve got to fix that. Chairman McKeon of the Armed Services Committee is going to do what he can to get me a slot on that committee so that I can help.”
Perkins says he would also be strong on reducing our deficit and debt, claiming he would only support an increase in the debt ceiling if real, specific cuts were spelled out. He says entitlements are the areas most ripe for cutting since they account for almost half of the federal spending.
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are encouraged that Karl Rove predicts a Romney win after crunching all the numbers. They also frown as the supposedly easy Senate pick-up in Nebraska is suddenly much tighter. And they try to make sense of the many different rumors circulating about the existence of devastating evidence of the Obama administration’s actions on Benghazi.
