"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Showing posts with label GOP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GOP. Show all posts

Friday, November 07, 2014

POST-ELECTION STRATEGY


Post-election euphoria on the part of the victors is normal. Euphoria, however, is not governance.

What are the realities of the American political situation once the new Congress takes office in January?

Let's talk specifics — feasible specifics.

Friday, March 01, 2013

OBAMA'S PLAYBOOK

From "Can Obama Be Stopped?" by Daniel Greenfield:
The big mistake of the last election was assuming that public dissatisfaction with Obama would be enough to remove him....

[...]

Obama’s worldview did not win. Not in 2008 or 2012. His tactics did....

[...]

Obama has a very simple playbook. 1. Create anxiety about an issue. 2. Demand action on it. 3. Hammer the Republicans for their inaction. Every morning the news stories are largely a reflection of one of the three phases of that strategy.

In this game, Republicans can either take the initiative or defend their lack of action on the Obama agenda. What we are seeing lately is a Republican Party that is constantly on the defensive, trying to explain why they haven’t yet done what Obama wants them to do and how they would have done it already if he didn’t keep on interrupting them....
Americans SHOULD be able to see that playbook for what it is. But they don't! And the GOP isn't even making a dent in Obama's playbook.  Even people who should know better are whining and running scared as sequestration looms.

From Obama's perspective, the recent sequestration "crisis" is all about destroying the GOP majority in 2014.  If he is successful, we'll see a replay of 2008-2010.  On a bigger scale.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

BOEHNER'S RESPONSE


A good speech, but Boehner should have quoted the real unemployment figures:

Sunday, July 11, 2010

OBAMA'S LEFT WING SPIRAL TRAP

From this essay by Dick Morris RealClearPolitics:
Barack Obama faces about the same problem that confronted Bill Clinton in 1994 when he lost control of Congress. In both cases, the Democratic presidents had alienated moderate and conservative voters and found themselves increasingly isolated with a political base of liberals and minorities. In each instance, the president worried that off-year election turnout among their base would be attenuated both because it always is in non-presidential years and because their policy failings had reduced the enthusiasm they found among their base voters. And both men found themselves forced to escalate their rhetoric and move their ideological positions to the left in order to try to drum up the kind of turnout they needed to keep power in Congress.

Clinton failed and Obama will too.

[...]

In Obama's case, his reliance on minority voters adds to the difficulty as he drives racially fair whites to see him as governing primarily in the interests of minority voters.

[...]

The further Obama moves to the left, the more he has to move to the left.
A trap for Obama, and a trap that the GOP should be able to use to the GOP's advantage.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

BRING ON 2010!

From this February 10, 2010 article in the Washington Post:
In poll, Republicans gaining political ground on Obama

Republicans have significantly narrowed the gap with Democrats on who is trusted to deal with the country's problems and have sharply reduced several of President Obama's main political advantages, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey paints a portrait of a restless and dissatisfied electorate at the beginning of a critical election year. More than seven in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, and as many say they're inclined to look for new congressional representation as said so in 1994 and 2006, the last times that control of Congress shifted.
The opportunity to rock this administration is just a few months away.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

State Sovereignty

On November 3, Virginians will go to the polls to elect various state officials, including a new state attorney general.

Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for attorney general of Virginia, has a rather unique vision for the office.

From this article in the October 19, 2009 edition of the Washington Post:
Cuccinelli's bid puts focus on a job often off the radar
Va. attorney general candidate says there's power in the post


Republican Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a state senator from Fairfax County, hopes to be an entirely different attorney general than what Virginians have grown accustomed to.

...He is ready to sue the federal government if it restricts emissions or expands union powers.
Read the rest at Always On Watch.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

‘Rebranding’ Leaves Conservatives in Vacuum

The long-exposure photo at right, captured by Signaltheorist, shows the 30-minutes-long path of a Roomba® robotic vacuum cleaner. Appearing to have chaos and disorganization at the core of its effort, it reminds this blogger of the recently-announced effort to rebrand the Republican Party which threaten to leave conservative-first party members in a political vacuum.

Read all about it here.

Friday, February 08, 2008

DID BUSH AND MCCAIN MAKE A DEAL IN 2004?

After turning down Kerry's VP offer , McCain wholeheartedly embraced GW Bush, and campaigned his ass off for Dubya; they even hugged in public numerous times.

I think they made a deal: in exchange for McCain's support in 2004, Bush promised he'd do whatever he could BEHIND THE SCENES to help McCain - and the Bush Machine came through in FLORIDA, where McCain essentially clinched the nomination.

McCain and Dubya are both liberals: they both favored amnesty, for example - AND BUSH SIGNED MCCAIN-FEINGOLD. McCain may be tougher on the spending side, and Bush a better tax-cutter. But they're essentially BOTH libs, with McCain being the more liberal of the two.

Anyhow it just seems to me that the GOP machine always wanted McCain and, well er um.... now we got 'em.

Obama and Hilary are worse - though my final decision will come down to who McCain picks.

I have posted before that I think he MUST pick a YOUNG and VERY CONSERVATIVE Southerner. Fred is WAY too old. Demint or Frist or Coburn. Or non-southerner... MITT! (Though I agree with a commenter here, that Mitt would maker GREAT Chairman for the GOP!)

If McCain doesn't pick a true conservative, then I will vote "present" on the presidential line come this Fall.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

GOP DELEGATE COUNT IS MISLEADING: MCCAIN'S ACTUAL NUMBERS ARE NOT SO STRONG OR NATIONAL; MITT'S ARE!

Huckabee is strictly a regional favorite - largely among evangelicals and conservatives skeptical of Mitt and of Mitt's Mormonism.

McCain isn't really doing much better. (All statistics in this post are based on this page at the NYTIMES.)

Sure, he has a high overall delegate count - but let's look at it more closely:

TO DATE, McCain has carried a MAJORITY ONLY in the NE -- where the Rockefeller-wing of the GOP and the left-wing dominated MSM still rule the day: ONLY CT; NY; NJ.

TOTAL: THREE STATES. ALL IN THE NE. ALL DEM STATES IN THE FALL.

McCain did even NOT carry a MAJORITY IN HIS OWN HOME STATE.

Nor did McCain carry a majority in any southern state.

Nor did McCain carry a PLURALITY of GOP or CONSERVATIVE voters in the states he did win by pluralites.

McCain has come out on top in most primaries NOT because he's the most popular candidate in the GOP, but because Democrats and Independents have voted for him.

ALSO: "Nine of the Republican contests were winner take all, and that was where McCain piled up his lead." If the delegates from these states had been proportionately allocated, then the overall delegate count would MORE ACCURATELY reflect McCain's weaknesses and Mitt's strengths. McCain was able to WIN ALL the delegates from a few states IN WHICH HE DID NOT EVEN WIN BY A MAJORITY

NOW LET'S LOOK AT MITT'S PRIMARY RECORD:

Mitt Romney has carried a MAJORITY in 6 (six) states - that's TWICE as many as McCain, and these states are all across the USA: Wyoming; Nevada, Maine; Utah; Massachusetts and Colorado.

And in states where Mitt finished second, he carried a PLURALITY of conservatives and a plurality of Republicans. And these states are ALL ACROSS THE USA: Michigan; Florida; NH, etc.

Additionally, Mitt came in second place in 11 states! (McCain came in second only 9 times.)

What makes McCain's majority-wins even less indicative of any electoral strength in the Fall, is the fact that McCain is strongest where the GOP is LEAST LIKELY to be able to win in the Fall: NJ, CT; NY; CA - these are Dem/lib strongholds.

IOW: McCain might do much better than Bush or Mitt in these states, but LOSE several KEY GOP states because the base won't come out and vote for him. Since we elect presidents with electoral votes and NOT a popular vote, McCain's strength in Dem strongholds DO NOT MAKE IT MORE LIKELY HE WILL WIN THE ELECTION.

McCain might win the GOP nomination, but it is a recipe for defeat in the Fall.

Of the candidates left, Mitt is best positioned to carry the base, keep the GOP states in our column, and even add a few.

As Mark Levin says: when a RINO runs against a Dem lib, the real Dem will win every time. Which is why Lincoln Chafee is a FORMER Senator - and now a registered Dem.

Nominating McCain guarantees a huge GOP loss.

Which would be GREAT for Dems, socialists, greenies and jihadists.

it would as if the GOP nominated the Dem Copperhead McClellan - in 1860!

We must fight to prevent McCain from winning the nomination.

DO WHATEVER IT TAKES.

I have faith we can pull it off.

By "we" I mean conservative and GOP voters - a MAJORITY of whom have NOT voted for McCain.

Despite what the delegate count now looks like. The delegate count is a result of arcane state GOP rules - some states are winner take all, others caucuses, etc.

If you look at the vote count of REPUBLICAN VOTERS, MITT IS IT!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

I JUST DONATED TO MITT - NOW IT'S YOUR TURN

I looked at my W2 and said I can't afford to do this.

Then, I looked in my soul and said I can't afford NOT to.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!

Use the handy-dandy button atop the sidebar.

AND USE IT NOW!

Donate whatever you can.

The money you give will send a very powerful message: conservatism is not dead; we've only just begun to fight!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

NRO'S LOWRY: MITT ON FIRE; MCCAIN ACTING CLINTONIAN, (OUCH)

LOWRY: Romney seems to be shifting into high-gear in terms of his message. He firmly rebutted McCain’s charge on the surge, hit him for being in Washington for 25 years, and pounded away on the economic issue:
BLITZER: What is the biggest difference between you and John McCain when it comes to the economy? A lot of fear, right now, of recession, people are hurting. What is the biggest difference between your strategy and his?

ROMNEY: Well, the list is very long. The last time we had a recession in the Bush years, President Bush recognized the best thing you can do is lower taxes and put forward a tax bill. And John McCain was one of only two Republicans to vote against it, and said he would go back and vote against it again if he could. He does not understand the first lesson of Reaganomics, which is, you cut taxes to grow the economy. And then secondly, right now, one of the things I find extraordinary is he pushes this bill known as McCain-Lieberman. It is a — effectively a tax on all energy in this country. He would raise gasoline prices by about 50 cents a gallon, and that is according to the Energy Information Agency. He would raise electric rates by some 20 percent, put a huge burden on us. And it basically would slow down our economy without helping the environment at all, because major users of energy would take their production to countries like China that wouldn't sign the deal. It is basically saying, the cost of global warming would all be borne by American rate-payers and consumers. He just doesn't understand how the economy works...
MORE LOWRY: McCain's Dishonest Attack
As I've said before, McCain deserves a large part of the credit for the surge—he pushed to have it implemented both in his public advocacy and his behind-the-scenes lobbying of the Bush administration, and he has been its foremost defender. Romney wasn't as enthusiastic about it and in his body language, if nothing else seemed ready to distance himself from it if it failed. This is a perfectly legitimate issue for McCain to raise, and he has, by saying things like Romney was "looking at his shoes" while he was putting it all on the line for the surge.

But that doesn't justify the rank dishonesty of his attack on Romney over the weekend. It's so shamelessly unfair, it's the kind of thing you'd expect of Bill Clinton attacking Barack Obama.
OUCH.
  • THIS ATTACK BY MCCAIN ON MITT WAS DONE IN DESPERATION.
  • AND IT BACKFIRED.
  • IT ALSO PROVES THAT HE HASNLT THE TEMPERAMENT TO BE POTUS.
MITT DOES.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

FLORIDA'S GOVERNOR CRIST ENDORSES MCCAIN


BOTTOM-LINE: I HOPE AND PRAY THAT MITT STAYS IN THE RACE TO THE END - AS LONG AS MCCAIN DOESN'T WIN ENOUGH DELEGATES TO WIN THE NOMINATION ON THE FIRST BALLOT, THEN IT'S NOT REALLY OVER!

*******UPDATE: Two hours later and The Great One agrees:
Where Is Jeb? [Mark R. Levin]

I keep hearing that Jeb Bush quietly supports Romney. Now that Crist has made his last-minute endorsement of McCain, I wonder if Jeb will have the will to endorse Romney. Or maybe Jeb is worried that in a match-up with Crist, he might lose the endorsement game. I would hope he has more confidence than that.

01/26 10:03 PM

Sunday, January 20, 2008

WHY ROMNEY MAY WIN FLORIDA

HEWITT:
In terms of total votes cast in primaries and caucuses to date (excluding Wyoming, for which I don't have a total):

Romney -------530,162
McCain -------510,132
Huckabee -----339,824
Thompson -----103,553
Giuliani -----59,312

Romney has a decisive lead among Republican votes cast to date as McCain's numbers reflect the large majority of Independents' votes he rolled up in New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina.

Florida is open only to Republicans ...

... If the Florida electorate reflects the general opinion of Republicans who have voted thus far, Romney will win in the Sunshine State.
We shall see. I think Rudy takes votes away from McCain - and Mitt wins.

CNN: NO GOP FRONT-RUNNER... YET

BRAVO: CNN GETS IT:
Saturday's results in Nevada and South Carolina did little to establish a clear front-runner in either party's race for presidential nominee.

... Among Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain appears to have a slight edge coming off his win in South Carolina. But only three in 10 voters there who said they voted for McCain characterized themselves as Republicans, raising questions about whether he can capture the party's conservative base.

"Essentially, McCain did it on a personal vote," said CNN analyst Bill Schneider. "It wasn't ideology; it wasn't issues. It was a vote for him personally, which has always been his strongest appeal."

... The Republican contest now heads to Florida, where former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has campaigned extensively. He's hoping the 57 delegates up for grabs in the January 29 vote will propel him into the thick of the race.

... It remains to be seen whether Giuliani's Florida strategy will work with all three of his top rivals coming into the state having claimed victories in earlier contests.
THERE IS NO FRONT-RUNNER.

BUT, THERE IS ONLY ONE CONSERVATIVE LEFT WITH A SHOT AT STOPPING THE LIBERAL MCCAIN: MITT.

REMEMBER: MCCAIN IS EVEN MORE LIBERAL THAN BUSH!

Every time McCain has disagreed with Bush, McCain has been to the LEFT of Bush and on the side of LIBERALS.

He NEVER EVER criticized Bush from the right, or for being too liberal.

By the time he's through, McCain will make "compassionate conservatism" seem like paleo-conservatism.

IMMIGRATION IS SPLITTING THE GOP LIKE THE MAASTRICHT TREATY SPLIT THE TORIES

The Tories still haven't recovered from their split up over the EU and the failed Maastricht Treaty; it's split into europhiles and euro-skeptics. Their inability to enunciate a cohesive and POPULAR euro-policy is one reason they've been doing badly in the polls ever since.

The Tory base is euro-skeptical - as is the general population. YUP: The British people are overwhelmingly against losing their sovereignty to Brussels, and this is one reason PM Brown appears to be reneging on Labour's promise to hold a referendum on it -- he doesn't want it to lose; he and the rest of the British elites have "bought into" the EU: they want Brussels to gain power and Great Britain to lose some.

The elites in the UK - like the elites in Paris and elsewhere in Europe, even Denmark - feel they know better what's in the people's interest than THE PEOPLE do themselves, and they are basically going to approve the Lisbon treaty even though THE PEOPLE don't like it. Instead of holding referendums and letting THE PEOPLE decide, they are planning to approve the Lisbon treaty in their parliaments and have the POLITICIANS decide.

This is VERY similar to how the elitists in Congress have treated the illegal immigration issue in the USA.

Elitists like McCain and Kennedy feel they know better what's in our interest than we do. This is why they tried to RAM AMNESTY DOWN OUR THROATS. But we showed 'em.

Now ...

McCain's recent narrow pluralities in NH and SC seem to some to have made him the front-runner. But this is only because he is LYING about what the Amnesty Bill was all about, and dissembling what he intends to do about it if he's elected president: he will grant amnesty after the border governors "certify" that their borders are "secure" - (what he doesn't say is that they can do this whether there is a wall or not They can just exchange WINKS, if you know what I mean!). He's being very "cute" about this, and demagoguing the issue with bullshit about not wanting to "call up a soldier in Iraq to tell him his mama is being deported." WHAT BS!

One of the two politicians with a real chance to stop McCain - (who is more liberal than MOST people in the GOP and who ONLY won NH and SC because of independent-liberals; McCain did NOT carry a plurality of GOP voters or conservatives!) - is Rudy.

Rudy can stop McCain from winning Florida, (and thereby maybe the nomination).

BUT RUDY IS ALSO WEAK ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION - so this doesn't completely save the party.

And if either of the pro-amnesty candidates - McCain or Rudy - heads up the ticket, then the GOP will probably NOT carry its base and will lose the election.

LOOKIT FOLKS: one of the major MAJOR reasons George W Bush is so so so SO low in the polls is because of his support for amnesty.

BUSH DID NOT SINK IN THE POLLS BECAUSE HE LOST SUPPORT OF LIBERALS OR DEMS - HE NEVER HAS THEIR SUPPORT. Bush lost support of good ol' conservatives - THE BASE OF THE PARTY. And he lost many on amnesty. (He lost many on Miers and Dubai-Ports and on his weak counter-attack on Plame-Wilson. IN SHORT: Bush's decline is a reflection of his liberalness, not his conseravtivenss.)

WHAT SHOULD THE TORIES IN THE UK DO? WHAT SHOULD THE GOP DO?

SIMPLE:

  • The Tories in Great Britain should come out squarely against the Lisbon treaty and DEMAND a referendum.
  • The GOP must come out squarely for a wall and NO AMNESTY.

Both of these great conservative parties are being tested by these two important issues.

If the party leadership goes against the will of their party's base and the general public, they will be consigning themselves to secondary status for years to come.

A MITT & FRED ticket saves the party and the nation.

A ticket headed up by McCain kills the GOP. Rudy is better - not much better.

ALSO: NEVER EVER FORGET THAT MCCAIN IS A LIBERAL ON GITMO AND WATER-BOARDING. And that as a result, we will be LESS SAFE if he is ever elected president.

So you see, my friends, a lot is at stake in Florida and SUPER TUESDAY.

The GOP's future. The place of conservatism. Sovereignty, illegal immigration and the rule of law.

Our nation's future. Perhaps our survival.

America needs to remain strong and free to survive and thrive.

A return to the failed liberal policies of the past will hurt our economy, reduce our liberty, reduce or sovereignty, and make us less safe.

THE GOP NEEDS A STANDARD BEARER WHO IS GRAND - A CONSERVATIVE WHO CAN BRIDGE THE DIVIDES WITHIN THE PARTY.

IT AIN'T MCCAIN: MCCAIN DIVIDES THE PARTY.

So you see my friends: MCCAIN MUST BE STOPPED.

NOW.

In Florida.

THE GOP WILL PROBABLY GET THE NOMINEE IT DESERVES...

... CONSERVATIVES MAY NOT.

I would prefer it in November, if the Dems had to hold their noses when they voted - let's say for a lib hawk like Lieberman.

Why should conservatives have to settle for a lib hawk like McCain!?

THE ANSWER IS: THE MSM - THEY'RE PUSHING MCCAIN DOWN OUR THROATS.

The MSM successfully propagandized for the Dems in 2006.

That GOP election loss was NOT DUE TO IRAQ - as the MSM would have you believe, but "GOP SCANDALS" manufactured by the MSM:

Maccaccagate, Abramoff, and Foleygate:

  • Maccaccagate cost Allen his seat (he lost to the moderately hawkish Webb);
  • Abramoff cost Conrad Burns his seat, (he lost to the moderately hawkish Tester);
  • and Foleygate cost the GOP the House.

The Libs who dominate the MSM know they have this power and they use it everyday, 24hours a day.

We need a national conservative leader who can lead the fight to take on the MSM and take our country back.

It ain't McCain: McCain is a tool of the MSM.

I like the way Romney fought back against that turd Glen Johnson of the AP.

Mitt is our man. He is willing to take on the lib MSM machine.

"BUT WHAT ABOUT SC?!?" you ask..

Er, um... Jesse Jackson won SC, too.

We have to hope that Rudy and McCain will split the GOP moderates, and that Hucksterbee and Thompson split the panhandle, and that this leaves Mitt ALL the conservatives elsewhere. And that this is enough to win.

It would help of Hunter and Thompson would PROVE THEIR CONSERVATIVE CREDS and join Tancredo and endorse Mitt.

IF WE LET MCCAIN WIN FLORIDA, THEN LIBERALS CAN WIN THE NOVEMBER 2008 ELECTION IN FEBRUARY.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

SOUTH CAROLINA PREDICTION: TWO TIED FOR FIRST; TWO TIED FOR SECOND

  • THE LIB MCCAIN AND PREACHER HUCKSTERBEE WILL BE IN A VIRTUAL TIE FOR FIRST.
  • AND MITT AND FRED WILL BE IN A VIRTUAL TIE FOR SECOND.

AND... EVERYONE DECLARES HIMSELF A WINNER.

*******UPDATE - 7PM:

SO FAR... IT LOOKS LIKE MY PREDICTION - (AND I WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD TO MAKE IT) - WAS RIGHT ON:
BASED ON EXIT POLLS, CNN says it's a close race for #1 in South Carolina between McCain and Huckabee and for #3 between Thompson and Romney, but too close to call.

ABC NEWS:
Will the polls closed in South Carolina, Sen. John McCain and former Gov. Mike Huckabee are locked in tight battle for first place in the state's GOP primary, with former Gov. Mitt Romney and former Sen. Fred Thompson battling it out for third.

  • WHY WAS I THE ONLY ONE TO PREDICT THIS?
  • SIMPLE: I'M SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE BEAR.
  • AND SMARTER THAN THE ABOVE AVERAGE BLOGGER.
  • AND I LIKE RASMUSSEN POLLING.
SPREAD THE WORD.

UPDATE #2 - 10PM: LOOKS LIKE I WAS WRONG. SIGH. (UNLESS HUCKERPHONY STARTS DOING BETTER IN A HURRY!)

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

NYTIMES SPINS ROMNEY'S VICTORY INTO A GOP IN DISARRAY

NYTIMES/NAGOURNEY:
Can anyone bring the Republicans together again?

The victory by Mitt Romney in the Michigan primary on Tuesday night means three very different states — with dissimilar electorates driven by distinctive sets of priorities — have embraced three separate candidates in search of someone who can lead the party into a tough election and beyond President Bush.

Mr. Romney won in Michigan, the state where he grew up, with a pointed focus on the slowing economy, which voters overwhelmingly identified as the top issue there. Senator John McCain of Arizona won New Hampshire last week with the backing of independent voters, who are so influential in that state. And Mike Huckabee of Arkansas won the Iowa caucuses powered by social conservatives who make up a substantial part of the population there.

On the most tangible level, the vote on Tuesday was proof from the ballot box of what polls have shown: this is a party that is adrift, unenthusiastic about any of its presidential candidates and unsure of how to counter an energized Democratic Party.
THIS IS PURE LEFTIST PROPAGANDA.
  • ROMNEY HAS WON 2 OF 4 STATEWIDE CONTESTS.
  • ROMNEY LEADS IN DELEGATES BY A HEALTHY MARGIN.
  • ROMNEY LEADS BY 60,000 VOTES.
  • ROMNEY RAN SECOND IN THE STATEWIDE RACES HE DIDN'T WIN.
  • ROMNEY IS THE ONLY GOP CANDIDATE WHO HAS RUN IN ALL THE RACES AND PLEDGES TO RUN A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN.
ROMNEY IS THE FRONT-RUNNER.

AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS HARDLY ENERGIZED:
  • THE PERSONAL ATTACKS THE CANDIDATES HAVE HURLED AT EACH OTHER HAVE VERGED ON THE RACIST AND SEXIST.
  • THEY'RE RUNNING ON CLASS WARFARE, RACE WARFARE AND GENDER WARFARE - DIVIDING THE ELECTORATE IN SHAMEFUL WAYS.
  • AND THE DEMOCRAT CONGRESS HASN'T DONE BUPKUS.
I THINK THE GOP IS IN GOOD SHAPE.

AND IF IRAQ CONTINUES TO IMPROVE THE DEMS DON'T HAVE A CHANCE - UNLESS THEY AND THEIR COMRADES IN THE MSM - CAN CONVINCE THE ELECTORATE THAT RAISING TAXES WILL HELP THE ECONOMY AND AMELIORATE A DOWN-TURN.