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NEW YORK’S BIG FRAPPLE
It’s been a lucky week for Conservative Party Candidate Doug Hoffman in the scorching race for New York’s 23rd Congressional seat, his poll numbers edging ahead of Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava after conservative outlets criticized her politics and ethics. To date, Scozzy has supported card check in addition to the Obama stimulus package, same-sex marriage, cap-and-trade, and abortion rights; allegations are now surfacing about the possible misuse of campaign funds. Sarah Palin, Steve Forbes, Tim Pawlenty and Glenn Beck all endorsed Hoffman, as Newt Gingrich rushed to Scozzy’s defense. The election will take place on November 3.

LAST WEEK OF VA GOVERNOR’S RACE
Also happening on November 3 is a special gubernatorial election in Virginia, where Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell have been waging a political war that’s all but certain to end with Deeds’ demise. Today’s polls generally put the Republican, a former state attorney general, ten to fifteen points ahead of Deeds, a state legislator. After months of silence, President Obama has made some last-ditch efforts for Deeds in the heavily African-American region of Virginia near Norfolk, and the Deeds campaign has been airing television ads that include the president as well. Analysts are skeptical that he’ll be able to come from behind in a race that, if McDonnell can pull it off, will represent a major Republican victory for a party looking to regain seats in the 2010 elections. McDonnell has defeated Deeds before, during the 2005 election for state attorney general.

NEW JERSEY LIVING
November 3 also will determine the fate of incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine (D), as he goes up against U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R); most analysts are saying the race is a toss-up at this point, with polls pretty split about who leads. The fact that Corzine is even holding his own at this point is amazing, given his lack of popularity in the state and his track record as governor. During his years in office, Corzine increased the sales tax, ended property tax rebates and battled corruption. But by focusing on “not being Corzine,” Christie may have missed his opportunity.

PLANE STUPID
Northwest Airlines Flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis lost contact with air traffic controllers last Thursday, and flew an extra 150 miles past the Minneapolis Airport. The pilots originally claimed they were engrossed in a heated argument about airline policy, but the plane’s tell-all black box revealed only silence during the hours in question. Now, they've admitted to playing on their laptops! Rumor has it that the White House was also concerned about the incident, with senior officials meeting in the Situation Room to monitor the play’s wayward travels.

TEN POINTS FOR THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
After administration officials told Fox they alone would not have access to an interview with White House “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg, ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN refused to participate, effectively usurping White House press officials and chipping away at the war on Fox News that the White House played out in recent weeks. Apparently, these networks agreed with Kelly Boggs of the Baptist Press:
 

While the White House is certainly entitled to its opinion concerning Fox News, it is not entitled to selectively apply the Constitution -- especially the freedom of the press.

MORE AMERICANS SELF-IDENTIFY AS CONSERVATIVE
A new Gallup poll says that 40 percent of Americans identify themselves as “conservative,” whereas only 20 percent call themselves “liberal.” The clincher, it seems, are the thirty six percent call themselves “moderate”… meaning we have to find some way to rein them all in before 2010. More and more Americans have been labeling themselves conservative since Obama took office—a trend which I wholeheartedly support.

DETROIT SUBURBS CAN’T EVEN BE AUCTIONED OFF
It’s been another bad week for Detroit, as the county auctioneer unsuccessfully attempted to sell-off nearly 9,000 rundown homes and empty lots in and around the city. In an auction that lasted at least a full 8-hour day, there were virtually no bids for, uh, anything. The amount of property seized by the tax man roughly equaled the square foot of New York's Central Park, and, also like the park, is now largely being inhabited by squatters.

AFGHANISTAN DELAY
Today marks the 85th day since General Stanley McChrystal asked President Obama for more troops for Afghanistan, with reports that McChrystal wants between 10,000 and 45,000 new troops above the current level of 68,000. “While the situation is serious, success is still achievable,” he said when he first made the announcement. Obama yesterday said that he refused to "rush the solemn decision" about sending reinforcements to Americans already serving abroad.

THANK GOODNESS!
Reports say that “gender equality” has been furthered after President Barack Obama played his 24th round of golf since assuming the Oval Office with a woman (that’s over three times the amount that President George W. Bush played by this point in his presidency). The lucky lady was Obama's chief domestic policy adviser, Melody Barnes, who joined Obama and two other men at Army's Fort Belvoir golf course. No word on her score or the President’s.

A LITTLE BIT PIGGISH
President Obama has declared the swine flu a national emergency, meaning that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius can get health officials to respond to the health threat more quickly. Pig flu has killed over 1,000 people in the United States so far; as a comparison, the regular flu killed over 36,000 Americans last year alone. But because of the increased rates of contracting the illness, officials deem the swine flu a bigger threat.

NUMBERS IN FOR CAP-AND-TRADE: $100 PER YEAR PER U.S. HOUSEHOLD
The Environmental Protection Agency said that the newly unveiled Senate cap-and-trade plan would cost American families $100 per year for additional energy costs alone. That’s about on par with the House version of the bill, passed over the summer, but about $1,000 less than some independent groups estimate. President Obama accused cap-and-trade critics of making “cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence," and said that the bill would create thousands of new jobs. With each American family being taxed over a grand a year, creating new jobs would be a cinch.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Media Matters, after mis-attributing two "racist" statements to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, October 22, 2009:

You know, in fairness to Rush, those two out of literally dozens of racist things were not necessarily accurate. We were never able to find them. We’ve had people call us trying to find it. We don’t know where they came from. They could just be Internet apparitions. But you know, that being said, anyone who wants to know how racist he is, we’re happy to give them other examples.

They've failed to provide the other examples.

- Jillian Bandes
National Political Reporter, Townhall.com

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