Recently, the biggest political news other than that Tea Party victories of Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Joe Miller in Alaska, was the 'Contract 2.0' released by the Republican Party. This 'pledge to America' calls for: Permanently extending all the Bush tax cuts, including those on the wealthy; cancel all unspent stimulus money, as of today, about $258 billion of the $814 billion stimulus is unspent; Repealing the Obama health care bill, and replacing it with Republican proposals, including limits on malpractice lawsuits; and blocking Obama's plan to move detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the United States.The new Pledge to America includes five broad categories, including jobs, government reform, spending, national security, and health care.
On the Democrat side, President Obama had another "backyard conversation" in which he walked out into the backyard of Paul and Frances Brayshaw and had an informal and apparently unscripted conversation about the health care bill and more broadly, the economy. This is just one of the many "backyard conversations" that are planned for the campaign season. Pres. Obama plans to have three next week in New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Fellow Democrats praised Obama for having this event be unscripted and informal, while Republicans contended that the view of the cerebral Obama will not be fixed by these "conversations" stating, Mr. Obama "does not look natural in these settings".
In other election news, a CNN/Time Magazine poll revealed that the GOP could sweep in Pennsylvania, with the GOP senate nominee, former Rep. Pat Toomey, holding a 49 to 44 percent lead over Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic nominee.
