When you consider the polarization of politics across the nation, Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal's numbers both in favorabilities and versus any of the candidates in the #GOPsmackdown primary have to be considered ridiculously good across the board:

Blumenthal heavily favored

When Chris Dodd retired last night his seat went from one of the most
vulnerable to one of the safest for Senate Democrats. Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal leads all three of the Republicans in the race by at
least 30 points in polling we conducted Monday and Tuesday night before
Dodd's announcement.

Blumenthal
is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters
like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him to just 19%
who see him negatively. It's no surprise that he's liked by 71% of
Democrats and 60% of independents, but even Republicans view him
favorably by a 37/35 margin. It doesn't take a lot of hands to count
the number of Democratic politicians with positive numbers among GOP
voters these days.

Blumenthal leads Rob Simmons 59-28, Linda
McMahon 60-28, and Peter Schiff 63-23. It would take an epic collapse
for him not to be Connecticut's next Senator.

Calling Blumenthal heavily favored is an understatement.

Regardless of his low favorabilities, if you look at Sen. Dodd's numbers versus the GOP primary candidates polled, he barely loses to Simmons and it is probably within the margin of error since it is only a 4 point gap, ties McMahon and beats Schiff. Any guesses as to whether or not Senator Dodd had acess to these numbers before making his decision last night?

CT-05 Rep. Chris Murphy beats all 3 candidates but his numbers are lower than Blumenthal's, while President Barack Obama and healthcare reform also performed well in this Connecticut poll. Peter Schiff may as well drop out of the race now as all 3 polled Democratic candidates would likely beat him with even Dodd having a 7 point lead against him.

Some of the numbers below the fold.

(x-posted at My Left Nutmeg)
Stranger things have happened, dontcha know?

She does single out some who during the campaign offered support and encouragement, specifically Sen. Joe Lieberman, a close friend of McCain. Prior to a key debate in which the prep advice was becoming overwhelming, Lieberman urged her to “Be yourself,” she writes. Sen. Lieberman then added: “Don’t let these people try to change you. Don’t let them tell you what to say and how to think.”

Then again, that little bit of advice may have actually helped Joe Biden win the debate, wink-wink, and Barack Obama win the campaign. But there is also the reality that Connecticut voters view Joe Lieberman as a Republican by a 2 to 1 margin.

The only thing that could do more to put the final nail in the coffin of the GOP's walking party of the dead? Palin/Bachmann in 2012!

They also discuss issues between India and Pakistan. And this is why Rachel Maddow is among the best news sources on TV. She gets the right person, asks the right questions and gets you information you need to know.

I am betting a lot of the eternal war set are pissed at Eikenberry right now. (Julie Gulden @ dKos has transcripts of the interview for those that have troubles YouTubes)

Parts I and II of Brad Friedman's report from the christening of the second wave of teabagging that has striked stricken struck set out across the country from this departure in Southern California.

Brad allows teabaggers to make their point (which is his point) in a very effective way: repeated invitations to enunciate, for example, the list of freedoms taken away under the Obama Administration, left embarrassing voids or the trailing ellipsis. 

Just a quick message of thanks to everyone that helped this happen from Paul Rieckhoff before he went in to watch President Barack Obama sign IAVA's number one legislative priority for the year into law - advance funding for VA healthcare.

You can dig around here for more of the great things IAVA has been and is still working on.

Stumbled across this interview with Gore Vidal.  Gore Vidal: ‘We’ll have a dictatorship soon in the US’ from the Times Online.

It is a great article ... will post a couple of snippets here, but please discuss!

Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama
during the Democratic nomination process for president. Now, he reveals, he
regrets his change of heart.  [...]

 How does he score the administration on Health Care?

Another notable Obama mis-step has been on healthcare reform. “He f***ed it
up. I don’t know how because the country wanted it. We’ll never see it
happen.”

Brutally honest ... just part of his charm.

This is an open thread ...

In this video, taken on Saturday, September 26th, '09, Senator Chris Dodd makes sense on the situation in Afghanistan. It starts with Nutmegger John Kantrowitz, from My Left Nutmeg and the Conn-Post Blogs, discussing the shades of Vietnam parallels. But there is an 800 pound guerrilla that too many ignore that I try to point out at the end of the video:

Just so you understand what I am talking about at the end of the video, General Petraeus re-wrote the doctrine for dealing with counterinsurgencies:

The first chapter of Petraeus's manual calls for a "force ratio" of 25 counterinsurgents (here meaning US, allied, and Iraqi soldiers and police) per 1,000 residents. In Baghdad that would require a total force of 120,000. But even with the additional 17,500 US troops President Bush has called for, and a reallocation of Iraqi troops from the North to Baghdad, the total force will be approximately 80,000, a full third less than what the manual prescribes.

I was shooting from the hip and based on my faulty memory, but the numbers I was talking about were sufficiently close to make the point. Thinking in terms of the situation in Afghanistan a quick look at the math tells you what you need to know.

The population of Afghanistan is 28,150,000 according to wikipedia - And the math based on 25 soldiers per thousand residents?

703,750

By Genral Petraeus' own standard that is how many soldiers would be needed to effectively stabelize Afghanistan.

Flushing out Boehner's lie on Meet the Press and a David Gregory that doesn't follow politics well enough to be able to call him out on the obvious:

Communists. Socialists!

Boehner is no different then any other Bircher whackjob.

Via the White House Blog:

I greatly admired Michael Jackson. I admire anyone who's the very best at what they do, and Michael Jackson was definitely that. I remember when I first heard him. He was doing a tune called "Who's Lovin' You?" He was a mere child at the time, but his talent was so fully developed, and he sang with so much emotional maturity, I mistook the high pitch of his voice to be that of a very soulful adult female. Then later when he did "Billie Jean" at the Motown reunion, he seemed to literally defy gravity as he Moonwalked across the stage. So yes, this young man was, without a doubt, one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived.

But Michael's life - that shooting star that dazzled humanity with its awesome display, only to burn out much too soon - threatens to serve as a perfect metaphor for America itself. The story of the United States parallels that of Michael Jackson. It is also the story of a precocious child star that dazzled humanity with its awesome display. The United States is undoubtedly a superstar among nations, but we must not let hubris allow us to forget that among those very same nations, we are nothing more than a precocious child.

This is good silliness, a la JibJab:

Apparently, it was shown to President Obama while he attended the America's Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner, and he appeared to enjoy it.

Via the Huffington Post and with a hat-tip to Lordrag of Delphi Forums, here's a clip from CNBC of President Obama personally enforcing the WH "No Fly" zone...

See? No flies. :)

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

by Tim Foley 

New York Times health care policy uber-scribe Robert Pear has a report today on what’s shaping up not only to be the main fault line in the debate in Congress.  A public health insurance option that would compete directly with private insurance was part of the Obama campaign plan, is strongly supported in the House and even more strongly supported in the details that have circulated of Sen. Kennedy’s plan in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.  The Senate Finance Committee is a different story – they’ve gone trigger-happy.

The best quote in the piece is from Sen. Charles Schumer, who says, “It’s pretty certain that Senator Kennedy could not support the Baucus plan, and Senator Baucus could not support the Kennedy plan.”  Such a conflict was going to be inevitable on some detail or other.  The House is considered more progressive than the Senate, but Kennedy’s HELP Committee is traditionally very progressive, reflecting the character of its chairman.  As I wrote earlier this week, the details that leaked from the Kennedy draft, “tilts the emergency health care Congressional consensus away from a watered-down center and decidedly to the left.”  So it was only a matter of time before Kennedy disagreed with Sen. Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee.  Much like its chair, the Finance Committee tends to be more moderate and more consensus-focused.  One gets the impression that getting a health care bill with 75 votes -- or even just one that doesn’t tick off ranking Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley -- is just as important to Baucus as getting the best policy.(continued below)

Via Think Progress:

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is "circulating the outlines of sweeping health-care legislation that would require every American to have insurance and would mandate that employers contribute to workers' coverage." The proposal, which includes a separate public option, also "calls for opening Medicaid to those whose incomes are 500 percent of the federal poverty level, or $110,250 a year for a family of four."

On a conference call with Organizing for America volunteers yesterday, President Obama said it's now or never for health care reform. "If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done," Obama said, urging callers to "work in your communities" to build support for reform. "[W]e've got to get it done this year," Obama repeated.

I haven't read the specifics of Kennedy's plan so I haven't formed an opinion on it, YET!