November 5th, 2009
 
 Yesterday, we had THIS.
 Today, we have THIS.
 A few excerpts:
 When Kirk decided to run for the Senate, it made some sense — Illinois is one of the more reliably “blue” states in the country, but Kirk has generally preferred to keep the far-right, Sarah Palin wing of the Republican Party at arm’s length…
 Why in the world would Kirk sully his reputation like this [by seeking an endorsement from Palin]? Because he’s facing a little-known, underfunded anti-tax activist/political neophyte in a Republican primary, and a right-wing third-party candidate is a possibility in the general election.
November 4th, 2009
 Mark Kirk, the erstwhile moderate Republican congressman from the Chicago suburbs, reportedly is pleading for an endorsement from Sarah Palin in his bid to succeed Roland Burris as the junior U.S. senator from Illinois.
 At least, that what it says HERE.
November 4th, 2009
 
 For 24 years now, the party that holds the White House has lost the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, and such was the case in Tuesday’s voting as Republican candidates carried both states.
 But in the 23rd Congressional District of New York, a far-right-winger who had chased a moderate Republican from the race, lost to a Democrat.
 This was a contest in which a passel of prominent ultra-conservatives — Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Dick Armey, et al — had skin in the game. This was going to be the first great test-case in a nascent campaign by the teabagger crowd  to rid the GOP of its so-called RINOs. And it failed — in a district that hadn’t elected a Democrat to Congress in more than 100 years.
 Republicans would like to think the voting in Virginia and New Jersey was a referendum on Barack Obama, but exit polls show that the president wasn’t a factor (see HERE). In fact, voters in both states said they generally approve of Obama’s performance in office (see HERE).
 Nor will the loss of governorships in Virginia and New Jersey directly affect Obama’s legislative agenda. Governors don’t vote in Congress. But the win in NY-23 gives House Democrats one more member than they had before this election.
 UPDATE: Ruth Marcus WARNS AGAINST over-analyzing the results in Virginia and New Jersey. Read it all. It’s worth your while.
 UPDATE II: Writing before all the votes were counted, E.J. Dionne CORRECTLY NOTED that Democrats need to do a better job of mobilizing young voters than they did this time in Virginia and Jersey.
 UPDATE III: The FUNNIEST STORY from yesterday’s political doings was the one about right-wingers jumping to conclusions over a flat tire on the vehicle of a poll-watcher in NY-23.
October 28th, 2009
 
 There’s BAD NEWS for the former governor of Alaska in a CNN poll released this morning.
 Even among Republicans respondents, nearly half see Palin as unqualified for the presidency.
 And yet, some of our commenters here at Applesauce tell us that Democrats are scared silly of a potential Palin candidacy in 2012.
 Yeah, sure they are.
