This Sunday Is Different: It’s Two Days Until Midterms

Sunday should be different from another day.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), from Boswell, Journal of the Hebrides


This Sunday is different. It’s two days until midterms. This Sunday I sought to get the lay of the electoral landscape by reviewing my favorite Sunday news sources, Real Clear Politics Sunday and Sunday Review The New York Times.

Real Clear Politics

• Real Clear Politics features a mixed bag of sources – some liberal, some conservative - usually in equal doses – made up of opinion pieces, videos, poll averages, and news, commentary, and analyses from Washington, the White House, and elsewhere.

This Sunday there are 61 pieces in the mix.

The pieces, in my judgment, break down this way.

1. Positive (Good News), for Democrats and the Obama administration, 11( Eleven)

2. Negative (Bad News), for Democrats and the Obama administration, 42 (Forty Two)

3. Neither Positive or Negative (Neutral) for Democrats and the Obama administration, 8( Eight).

The average of national polls break this way.

Battle for the Senate, no toss ups, 47 Democrats, 52 Republicans

Battle for the House, no toss ups, 194 Democrats, 241 Republicans

Battle for Governor , no tossups, 21 Democrats, 28 Republicans

Summary: 42 of 61 entries (42 of 61) are bad news for Democrats, President Obama and his administrative team.

Sunday New York Times

• My second source is the Sunday New York Times.

Here I list those articles relating to the Tuesday November 4, midterm elections. In most instances, the implications of the headlines, and subtitles are self-evident, and I shall not comment on their contents.

1. “ Both Parties See Campaign Tilting to Republicans: Democrats on Defense: Election Day Closing In Battles for 9 Senate Seats”

2. “Braced for Shift in Congress, Obama Is Setting a New Agenda”

3. “Defects Found Before Debut of Health Care Sites for Small Businesses”

4. “Complacency is Common Enemy in Battles for Senate”

5. Colorado, “Republicans Setting Pace in Early Ballots”

6. Iowa, “Endurance Test of a Race for Candidates and Voters.”

7. North Carolina, “Campaigns Play to Dislikes In Effort to Stoke Interest”

8. “Wistful But Having Fun, Obama Gives Last Push”

9. “The Health Care Law As Equalizer. Who Was Helped Most”

10. " American Partisanship, Fro Sports to Disease, Midterm Stakes”

11. “The Painful Whimpers of 2014”

12. “Why a Win This Year Won’t Help the GOP”

13. “How Obama Lost America

14. “If Pigs Could Vote: The Bumpkinification of the Midterms.”

Summary: Serge Schmemann, a member of the New York Times Board of Editors, sums up the situation “There are plenty of prognoses, analyses and prophecies out there, but the basic picture is that Republicans stand to take control of the Senate away from Democrats…President Obama could spend the last two years defending his signature health care reform against inevitable onslaughts and rule by fiat.”

In other words, one man’s signature can be another man’s ligature, so,when you may be out of it, go fiat.