So the reviews have begun to come in for Markos Moulitsas’ book “American Taliban,” which argues that American conservatives are just like the Taliban, and they’re…well, let me start with Jamelle Bouie’s review at the left-wing The American Prospect:

Given the subject matter and his own influence, Moulitsas is sure to find a large audience for American Taliban. This wouldn’t be a problem if the book were a careful comparison of populist nationalist movements, highlighting similarities, underscoring differences, and generally documenting points of congruence between the U.S. conservative movement and populist nationalist groups around the world. But it isn’t.

As Bouie notes, “Moulitsas elides glaring contradictions in his argument and routinely misrepresents his evidence,” and is completely lacking in perspective:

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Promoted from the diaries by Aaron Gardner

Yeah, I am an O’Donnell supporter and I am promoting this. Being a player in politics requires you to be mature, Liberty.Com wasn’t. The ad was atrocious and it may have single handedly destroyed any chance for O’Donnell. I will be writting a small defense of O’Donnell over the weekend, as a contrast to Erick - though I agree with him in large part. Regardless of that, the below needed to be said, and said loudly. And I whole heartedly agree.

I haven’t watched the “Castle is teh gay” ad posted by Liberty.com as their big splashy opening.

And I won’t.

But I know, as anyone should, that bringing that kind of charge into a campaign is bad, no matter with how much class it’s done. “Bad” doesn’t cover it.

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It’s debatable what’s the most loyally Democratic district in the country, but NY’s 15th District would have to be in the running. The district, centered in Harlem, went 87% for Al Gore in 2000, 90% for John Kerry in 2004, and 93% for Barack Obama in 2008, is rated D+41 by Charlie Cook, and in various formats has been represented in Congress since 1971 by arch-liberal Charlie Rangel, who took the seat when his predecessor, Adam Clayton Powell jr., was enveloped by a decade-long series of scandals and ultimately booted from office by the House Democratic caucus after 26 years in office.

But in 2010, with the now scandal-marred Rangel facing a primary challenge from Powell’s grandson, Adam Clayton Powell IV (who he defeated previously in 1994), the NY Daily News finds even the Democratic voters in NY-15 dispirited by their choices, in an article helpfully titled (in the print edition) “Pick Rangel or Powell for Congress? Yuck!”:

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Yesterday we did a brief commentary on the rather extraordinary swan song of Christina Romer, the recently resigned chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, in which she admitted to not only not having the answers but to not fully comprehending the questions.

Today, there is some moderate pushback from the administration trying to counter the air of bovine incomprehension that is beginning to adhere to this administration the way lint welds itself to Velcro.

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Thanks to Media Matters (thought I’d never write anything like that) for highlighting my clip from CNN last night about Joe Miller.

I so totally have a man-crush on this dude. He calls the Democrats ’socialists’, says Barack Obama is ‘bad for America’, and wants to privatize social security.

Wish they’d actually kept it going to the point where I was also praising Jesse Helms.

Yes you have to go there to see it.

The jobs numbers don’t paint a good picture over all. Unemployment went back up slightly.

The number Mr. Obama will want us to pay attention to is private sector job growth. According to the government, private sector jobs went up and the growth of unemployment is attributed to those census workers leaving their jobs.

In fact, I’m already getting emails from Democrats saying I’m being disingenuous to focus on the overall picture.

But there’s a problem for them. When unemployment was going down, it did so because of the hiring of the 500,000 census workers and Mr. Obama and his band of merry socialists were cheering the numbers as a sign of good news.

Live by the temporary census worker jobs. Die by the temporary census worker jobs.

Unemployment went up.

It sounds like that book will get at least one South Carolinian purchaser: Spratt’s campaign manager Wayne Wingate, who is completely behind the idea that Osama bin Laden would receive widespread support from Republicans in SC-05.  An opinion that Spratt apparently shares, given that he didn’t immediately turn on Wingate and lay him out on the ground for saying filthy trash like that about Spratt’s constituents.

Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s the report:

“If Osama bin Laden ran in this district as a Republican, he would get 38 to 40 percent of the vote in any election year,” says Wayne Wingate, Spratt’s communications director, as he walks alongside the congressman at the festival. “This is a very Republican district. So you’ve got that plus this tea party angst against any incumbent in the world right now.”

In point of fact, Mister Wingate - and Mister Spratt - if Osama bin Laden ran in SC-05 as a Republican somebody would come up to bin Laden and put a bullet in his brain.  This does reflect a change from our past methodology of capture and interrogate, but better safe than sorry. After all, since January 2009 there’s been a growing understanding among the American people that the political party running things can’t exactly be trusted with keeping the really bad illegal combatants under wrap.

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I would rather die a thousand times over via crushing by an anaconda while being torn limb from limb by a jaguar than see Mike Castle in the Senate.

I would rather be slowly run over by a road roller while listening to Janeane Garofalo dialogue from The Truth About Cats and Dogs than see Mike Castle in the Senate.

I’d rather see the Democrat get elected than see Mike Castle get elected. Seriously, I know many of you disagree with me, but if the majority depends on Mike Castle, to hell with the majority.

But I’m moving on from Delaware. The Tea Party Express has a poll coming out showing the race within 5 points. I wish Christine O’Donnell the best. I’d rather her than Castle.

But I’m moving on.

If Christine O’Donnell wins it’ll be inspite of the help she has gotten. What has ultimately set me off is the “Mike Castle is gay” stuff, which is nothing more than the Will Folks hour come to Delaware. The failure of the O’Donnell campaign to deal swiftly with this tells me all I need to know.

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RedState Morning Briefing
For September 3, 2010

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

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House.
Senate.
Governorships.

If you don’t feel like clicking through the links, allow me to summarize: ten more House seats shifted in the GOP’s favor, and so did three Senate seats, and so did four Governor’s races.  Only one of them (WY-GOV) is now off the actual board, but Cook is now projecting  a net +6 to +8 GOP in the Governors’ races, a net +7 to +9 GOP in the Senate, and at least a net +35 GOP in the House.  The House is particularly of interest, as there are currently forty-five Toss-Up races listed by Cook right now, and only three of them are Republican seats.

Couple this with the latest set of regional race polls from Republican-leaning American Action Forum, and the truly atrocious (for the other side) enthusiasm gap that Democrat-leaning Public Policy Polling is finding, and Larry Sabato’s needed-to-slam-a-shot of whiskey-first prediction of a lost House and Senate on the edge, and you get… a lot of people blankly staring at their scratch papers or computer screens and thinking This can’t be right.  I must have subtracted where I should have added, or something.  Or maybe I made an assumption that I shouldn’t have.  Things can’t be this bad for the Democratic party.

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It’s a good choice on a variety of levels: Jennifer is a small businesswoman, twenty-year military veteran, state legislator, NRA member, Jeb Bush appointee… and, possibly most importantly, a Bill McCollum supporter. Jennifer was actually on Crist’s short list for a Senate appointment last year; for that matter, she was apparently even considered for the Lt. Gov position four years ago; all of which should help in the awkwardness that is the Senate and Governor’s races in Florida.  On the issues: conservative, with what appears to be on first glance no major problems.  She’s a great balance for Rick Scott, in other words, and a definite asset to the ticket.

Needless to say, the Kendrick Meek campaign despises her. and is trying to use Gov. Crist’s approval of her to shore up Meek’s liberal base in the FL-SEN election.  Alas, that’s a tactic that might work - among progressives, at least - for a very depressing reason…

Moe Lane

I put Nightwister’s post on the frontpage for a reason — Dan Maes needs to disappear.

If he is considering it, I want to publicly encourage him.

I met Dan Maes. When I was in Colorado earlier this year, Maes wanted to meet and asked for mine and RedState’s support. Very few of my friends in Colorado — the same people supporting Buck by and large — thought that would be wise.

We see why. Maes was not ready for prime time. He’s a genuinely nice guy. I liked him immediately. But the Maes campaign is amateur hour. There is a lot riding on strong GOP turnout in November in Colorado. We have a chance to shift that state back toward us.

But Maes is not the guy to lead that shift. His remaining at the top of the ballot jeopardizes the GOP down ballot. His remaining on the ballot jeopardizes turnout for Ken Buck.

Through the Colorado Senate primary I heard over and over from Buck supporters how much they wished Jane Norton were running for Governor. As a former Lt. Governor in the state, she has great executive experience. I’d gladly support her for the job.

It is my hope and prayer that Dan Maes recognizes reality and leaves the race. We can win Colorado. But not with Dan Maes.