Via @baseballcrank, promises, promises:

Vice President Joe Biden said today that if Democrats were to lose 35 House seats they currently hold in traditionally Republican districts, it would mean doomsday for President Obama’s agenda.

Biden said Republicans are pinning their political strategy on flipping these seats.

“If they take them back, this the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do,” the vice president said at a fundraiser for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) today in Greenville, Delaware.

Giffords, Giffords, Giffords: where have we heard that name before? Right: she was one of the Democrats who ran and hid from her constituents during the August town halls.  As I recall, she was so scared of them that she only felt safe on a military base - which was an impressive display of cowardice, even for a Blue-in-Red Democratic Member of Congress.

Yes, definitely, she needs to be one of the Thirty-Five.  I’m thinking that it’s going to be Jesse Kelly for this one: his website is here and you can contribute here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

This video by Short for Ordinary (via Breitbart TV) contrasting the sign-acquiring strategies of the folks against health care rationing vs. those of the ones for it:

(For those without ready video: the 1000+ demonstrating against health care rationing at the Tuscon Recess Rally [Giffords*] made their own; the 200 demonstrating for it were generally handed them at about the same time that they got their juice and bagels)

…is illustrative of two things: first, all the creativity and energy seems to be flowing through the folks who are trying to stop health care rationing. The folks brought in to astroturf support for it are… dull**. Second: screaming names at these people doesn’t seem to be stopping them; they instead look like they’re using the insults as a reminder of why they keep going out there to say their piece. Which is as good a reason as any to conclude why they’re not going away.

While I am not of course privy to the thoughts of the President, I suggest that perhaps this is not the community he thought that he’d be organizing once he took office…

Moe Lane

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(H/T Ace of Spades, NewsBusters, & Hot Air) I’m aware that’s kind of an inflammatory statement, but hear me out.

OK, remember last weekend, when there were a bunch of reports of armed people at the Arizona town hall? Lots of stories of bemused reporters trying to get their heads around the notion that in Arizona you can wander around with an AR-15 -

Which is not a fully automatic weapon, by the way. You can’t buy fully automatic weapons in the USA*. I mention this because this is apparently news to our journalistic class.

- anyway, lots of bemused reporters, not least because of this picture (via here):

Health care rationing protester, by the way.  See also this video, and stop at about 0:28.

OK, yup, same guy. Now watch this:

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Website for Jesse Kelly here: contribute here.

AZ-04 is a R+4 district: its current holder (Gabrielle Giffords) picked up the seat as part of the 2006 shellacking. In time-honored Blue Dog fashion, she’s handling the health care rationing controversy by hiding from it: Giffords abruptly canceled two Thursday meetings by ‘combining’ them into a RSVP-only whatever-it-was at a military base. Fairly typical behavior, in other words.

Enter Jesse Kelly: Marine, businessman, and more than happy to go to the canceled town hall and talk, same time, same place. How did he do? Judge for yourself:

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I’m not a fan of John McCain. I was not a fan of his campaign for President. I think he tends to be a bully. But in the grand scheme of things, John McCain does not throw his own party under the bus as much as some of his colleagues in the Republican Conference.

2010 is going to be a tough year for Republicans to rebuild in the Senate. One seat shy of a filibuster proof Senate, we cannot afford losses and need resources to make gains.

I know there are a lot of people who think the GOP is no better than the Democrats. That’s fine. But they are full of crap and they should know it, though most of them don’t. And that is not an audience I’m writing for.

There is a difference and we should always work to refine our side to make the contrast with the Democrats better. But given the limited resources we have facing us heading into 2010, there is only so much we can do.

Given the choice between opposing John McCain with Chris Simcox in a primary or opposing Arlen Specter with Pat Toomey, I think our money is much better spent beating Arlen Specter.

We only have so much money, so many volunteers, etc. that we can put on the battlefield. And i believe, looking at the demographics of both Arizona and Pennsylvania, it is far, far more likely that Pat Toomey could win a general election than Chris Simcox.

It is also a no brainer that in a limited field, we need to pick off the worse of our side, not the guy who is mostly with us, but feels like poison ivy — we can cover ourselves in caladryl dealing with McCain. With Specter, we need to toss him because preparation-H only does so much.

So don’t expect RedState to get on the Chris Simcox bandwagon. I don’t have the energy to chase that rabbit down a losing hole.

The story in the L. A. Times was supposed to be a story of lighter fare, a less hectic sort of human interest story that is supposed to be interesting, but not earth shacking. It’s all about the trials and tribulations of the folks that re-create the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the dusty streets of Tombstone, Arizona.

Apparently a brash new sheriff is in town (really, I do mean the real local lawman) who has decided that the actors and reenactors that portray the original gunfight participants have gotten out of hand and need to be regulated out of existence, or at least scaled back.

The L.A. Times tale is supposed to be about the back and forth between the new laws written to quash their performances and the actors and reenactors involved. It should be a pretty simple set up, present a few paragraphs to set up the history involved and move into today’s conflagration.

And right off the bat, the L.A. Times can’t get history right.

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McCain is raising money for his 2010 run. He’s been damn good on the stimulus issue.

On Tuesday, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee sent out a fundraising solicitation to subscribers to johnmccain.com asking for donations to his 2010 Senate re-election campaign.

Jim Gerlach (R-PA) may run for Governor in 2010:

Rep. Jim Gerlach’s (R-Pa.) possible departure from the House to run for governor in 2010 may finally be the opening that Democrats are looking for to pick up his suburban Philadelphia seat.

That’s probably not a terrible thing, though it could be a Democrat pick up. His district will probably cease to exist in 2011 after the census. Pennsylvania will lose one seat.

Read on for more race roundups.

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