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The conventional wisdom in Washington is even more demented than usual in its confident prediction of an Obama victory. The fact is that a careful analysis of the polling suggests that he faces the likelihood that his political base will underperform in the 2012 election, voting with their feet by staying home. An enthusiasm gap is hurting Obama’s candidacy and his reelection chances. RealClearPolitics.com helpfully lists all of the test match-ups 
between Obama and Romney. Of the last 12 polls, going back to March 11, 10 tested their relative strength among registered voters. The average of these 10 polls gave...

Denver — More than 750,000 Coloradans have already voted in Tuesday's off-year Elections. The Colorado Secretary of State's office said Monday that ballots have been returned from 315,333 registered Republicans and 251,765 registered Democrats. There have been 183,866 ballots from unaffiliated voters Last year, about 1.8 million Coloradans cast ballots for a turnout of about 73 percent. Turnout for the 2011 is likely to remain much lower because the only statewide matter is a school tax question. Also, Colorado is unusual because it holds state races the first Tuesday in November, even if Halloween falls the day before, as it...

As the 2012 election draws closer, Democrats are getting less — not more — enthusiastic about the prospect of voting for president. In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll just more than four in 10 (42 percent) Democrats said they were either “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about the 2012 vote. Those numbers compare unfavorably to Democratic enthusiasm number in CNN surveys from the spring and summer, when 56 percent and 55 percent of Democrats, respectively, described themselves as either “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about voting next year. By contrast, the level of Republican enthusiasm has been high and steady for...

Democrats are turning to black voters for help in next week's midterm elections, hoping they can be the jolt of energy needed to stem projected lossesby winning key competitive congressional and gubernatorial races. Democratic strategists say huge turnout from black voters, the party's most loyal supporters, could help unseat Gov. Rick Perry in Texas, push the Florida gubernatorial race into the Democratic column, defend Senate seats in Nevada, Illinois and Pennsylvania and even potentially spoil the GOP's efforts to capture the 39 seats they need to take over the House. But former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder

The enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats has for months been cited as a harbinger to major Republican Party victories in the Nov. 2 mid-term elections. And if early voting is any indication, that barometer appears justified, both locally and across Florida. Through the first three full days of early voting, ending Wednesday, Republicans were dominating Democrats in Sarasota County. That is sending a panic through local Democrats who fear that unless the trend is quickly reversed, they could be looking at wholesale defeats, including a loss for incumbent state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota. Of the 8,600 votes cast early...

By Manning up as they have not done in a decade, White men will be flooding the voting booths to throw liberal Democrats out and provide conservatives with the power they need to start reversing the damage of Obama’s first two years. The newly released results of an extensive survey of voter sentiments found that 41% of men are “very enthusiastic” about voting in November. Since men have shunned the Democrats even in their best years, this bodes very well for Republican candidates aiming to unseat their opponents. What’s still better for the GOP is that while women still favor...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans by a large majority believe President Barack Obama has not focused enough on job creation, as economic fears threaten Democrats ahead of November 2 congressional elections, a Reuters-Ipsos poll found on Tuesday. In a sign of trouble ahead for the Democrats, the poll found evidence of a sizable enthusiasm gap with Republicans more energized about voting in the elections. Americans expressed deep unhappiness with the direction of the economy, which in the poll they identified overwhelmingly as the country's top problem. The U.S. unemployment rate is at a stubbornly high 9.5 percent and Obama has spent...

As the two candidates running in the special Senate election here barnstormed across the state Saturday, the enthusiasm gap between the two parties was on vivid display. Democrat Martha Coakley, Massachusetts’ attorney general, kicked off a series of stops with a morning speech at a Boston union hall, receiving a response more polite than enthusiastic. Coakley and Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late senator, both addressed a crowd of about 100 electrical workers but it fell to a state representative from nearby Dorchester to deliver the closing remarks aimed at firing up the Democrats. “I see there is some...

When you look back over the surges of enthusiasm in the politics of the last two years, you see something like this: The Obama enthusiasts who dominated so much of the 2008 campaign cycle were motivated by style. The tea-party protesters who dominated so much of 2009 were motivated by substance. Remember those rapturous crowds that swooned at Barack Obama's rhetoric. "We are the change we are seeking," he proclaimed. "We will be able to look back and tell our children" that "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to...

Many psephologists — derived from the word for pebbles, which the ancient Greeks used as ballots — study who wins and loses elections. Lately I’ve been looking more closely at turnout. For we live, though most psephologists haven’t stopped to notice it lately, in a decade of vastly increased voter turnout... Going into the 2008 election, Barack Obama’s strategists recognized that their chances of winning hitherto dependably Republican states hinged on enlarging the electorate. They did that, brilliantly, in Indiana and Virginia, New Mexico and Nevada, and most spectacularly in North Carolina, where turnout rose 20 percent, more than in...

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., May 15, 2009 – As acrobatic aircraft buzzed overhead as part of the run-up to the annual air show here this weekend, Air Force Lt. Col. Derek Routt paid more notice to the parked, baby-blue and white business jets on the ground -- aircraft used by the nation’s elected and military leaders. Air Force Lt. Col. Derek Routt, “Thunderbird No. 7,” looks across the flight line on Andrews Air Force Base, Md., May 14, 2009, before an upcoming air show. Routt is a Nevada Air National Guard member in his first season as operations...

In the battle to shape the future of the Republican party, many have suggested a move to the center. In a recent interview, for example, John McCain’s campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, said, “The Republican party wants to, needs to, be able to represent . . . not only conservatives, but centrists as well. And the party that controls the center is the party that controls the American electorate.” Also, David Frum wrote that the GOP must move away from its traditional positions on issues such as abortion and the environment, and adopt a style and tone that is “less overtly...

Sarah Palin: northern star injects new life into lumbering campaign An extraordinary display of raw political talent could trump Obama’s ‘pretty speeches’ and rally the religious right Sarah Baxter in Detroit The enthusiasm generated by Sarah Palin, the Republican party’s new “northern star”, on her first tour of Middle America this weekend has revived Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign to such a remarkable extent that she is outshining her running mate. It is an unprecedented position of power for a vice-presidential candidate that carries great risks and rewards for McCain as he adjusts to operating in the shadow of a...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will appear at around 30 fund-raising events in the next two months leading up to Election Day – about one every two days on average, officials with Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign said today. “She is proving as much in demand as Sen. McCain,” said former Commerce Department Secretary Bob Mosbacher, general chairman of the McCain campaign and a top fundraiser. Some Republican fund-raisers had a wait-and-see attitude toward the little known Palin after her surprise selection as McCain’s running mate last week, Mosbacher said. But any doubts were “laid to rest” after her acceptance speech...

FORT HUACHUCA — The shadows of snow clouds steadily built and enveloped the Huachucas, but never quite managed to engulf hangar No. 3 at Libby Army Airfield late Monday afternoon. There was already enough precipitation flowing as the families, friends, a few pets, and comrades-in-arms gathered for two all-too-brief hours to say a goodbye with a kiss, hug or gentle touch that must last 15 months. “I gave him a present on his birthday,” said Chief Warrant Officer Ramona Hill, indicating little Wilson Hill, born on Oct. 25, held by his daddy with whom he will always share a birthday,...

R.I.P: Steve Irwin's body isn't yet cold and already the Pecksniffs are out, tut-tutting the late crocodile hunter's risky encounters with wild beasts. They miss the point: Irwin's life was about enriching humans. Irwin, who died over the weekend after a freak attack by a stingray, did not live a riskless life. In fact, for those who've watched his Animal Planet shows, some wonder why a fatal encounter hadn't happened earlier. But it's indisputable that he mastered nature with a rare talent — a talent that took him to the edge of possibility. For the sake of the rest of...

The Lord's Work What men want in doing the Lord's work is (1) Courage, (2) Enthusiasm, (3) Perseverance, (4) Sympathy. 1. Courage. - The man who is afraid, who holds down his head like a bulrush, is not the worker whom God will bless; but God gives courage to him whom He means to use. I have been all along with young men, and a great portion of my work these fifteen years has been among them, and I find that they generally fail for want of courage. There is any quantity of young men in Edinburgh just now...

The Real Story Behind ThanksgivingDid you know that the first [Plymouth Colony Pilgrim's] Thanksgiving was a celebration of the triumph of private property and individual initiative?William Bradford was the governor of the original Pilgrim colony, founded at Plymouth in 1621. The colony was first organized on a communal basis, as their financiers required. Land was owned in common. The Pilgrims farmed communally, too, following the "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" precept.The results were disastrous. Communism didn't work any better 400 years ago than it does today. By 1623, the colony had suffered...