Which is Worse for the Democrats, The Bad Political News or the Bad Economic News

Dems:  Can We Skip This Question

The Political hits and the Economic hits to the White House and the Democratic Party are not letting up.  The Democrats may believe that “things are darkest before the dawn” when in fact “things are darkest before they get completely black”.  Here is all the latest.

Reports are coming out that the White House rushed a loan guarantee to a solar energy company for political purposes and

that a final review of more than $500 million in loan guarantees for Solyndra, a California solar company that recently declared bankruptcy, may have been rushed so that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could announce its approval at a groundbreaking two years ago.

The White House may able to explain this report away, the fact that the company went bankrupt on the taxpayer’s dime, not so easy to explain away.

The loss by Democrats of NY District 9 in a Special Election was not close.  The fact that the Republican tried to make the race about national issues, and apparently succeeded lays out the challenges the Obama team faces in re-election.

In Nevada there  was also a special election to fill a vacant House seat.  The Republican won an overwhelming victory.

The rural district, which includes all of Nevada outside metro Las Vegas, has never elected a Democrat to the House since it was created in 1981.

That fact, along with President Barack Obama’s 33 percent approval rating . . ., led to this race becoming even less competitive than the other Tuesday special election in New York’s heavily Democratic 9th district.

A 33% approval rating?

Retail Sales were unexpectedly flat in August.  No gain, nada, nothing.

Retail and food-services sales were virtually unchanged from the previous month at an adjusted $389.5 billion, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, a sign Americans are increasingly wary to spend as unemployment remains high and the recovery weak.

And how to interpret this news?

The data add to evidence the economy hit a wall last month, when no jobs were added and the unemployment rate was stuck at 9.1%, while inflation moderated. Concerns have risen that the economy could continue to suffer from the government's inability to agree on a jobs stimulus and Europe's deepening debt crisis.

See, if median family income is declining then their spending will not increase and the economy will not grow.  Really, it’s that simple.

The Republican National Committee, nearly bankrupted under its previous chairman raised a lot more money than the Democratic National Committee.

The Republican National Committee raised $8.17 million last month, surpassing the Democratic National Committee’s $5.5 million and registering its best August ever for a nonelection year, according to RNC officials

 The RNC has a full time Chairman, the DNC has a chairperson who also has a full time job as a member of Congress.

Pennsylvania Republicans are considering changing the way the state’s electoral votes are determined.  Currently it is winner take all.  The change would award electoral votes going to the winners of each Congressional District, insuring that even if Mr. Obama won the state the Republicans would get some electoral votes.

Under the Republican plan, if the GOP presidential nominee carries the GOP-leaning districts but Obama carries the state, the GOP nominee would get 12 electoral votes out of Pennsylvania, but Obama would only get eight—six for winning the blue districts, and two (representing the state's two senators) for winning the state. Since Obama would lose 12 electoral votes relative to the winner-take-all baseline, this would have an effect equivalent to flipping a medium-sized winner-take-all state—say, Washington, which has 12 electoral votes—from blue to red.* And Republicans wouldn't even have to do any extra campaigning or spend any extra advertising dollars to do it.

Note that this type of change would only be done in Democratic leaning states.  Expect Texas to enact such a change just after the temperature in hell goes below 32 degrees F.  Yep, right on the day after.

The President’s much heralded (by the President) job’s bill is having trouble getting traction in Congress

Senate Republicans point out that the Senate Democratic majority has yet to set a schedule for the jobs bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nevada, told reporters yesterday that "we've got to get rid of some issues first," including highway and emergency management funding.

"I don't know exactly what I need to do yet with the president's jobs bill," Reid said.

Yes, that the DEMOCRATIC leader of the Senate.  Can’t wait for the Republicans in the House to do their thing?  No really, The Dismal Political Economist cannot wait for that, he has better things to do for the next six months than wait around for Republicans to pass an Obama jobs bill.