Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, has blamed Barack Obama and the United States for the decline in British public support for the war in Afghanistan.
Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban.

A “period of hiatus” in Washington – and a lack of clear direction – had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said.

My next question focused on judges, since, as a U.S. Senator, she would not only vote on U.S. Supreme Court nominees, but have a hand in selecting or blocking federal judicial candidates in California.

I asked her what she would look for in prospective California nominees for the district courts and appellate courts.

"We need judges who interpret the Constitution, not who legislate from the bench," Fiorina said. "I would favor judge in the mold of [U.S. Supreme Court Justices [John Roberts and Samuel Alito."

Fiorina as critical of Boxer for blocking the judicial nominations of former congressmen Chris Cox annd Jim Rogan, saying we "shouldn't impose litmus tests, but instead look at qualifications."

"My dad was appointed by Richard Nixon to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. I think that will give you some idea of how my views on the judiciary."
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Matt conducted a good interview with good answers by Carly Fiorina. She discussed the federal judiciary, abortion, trade and taxes.

Carly Fiorina’s conservatism notwithstanding, Chuck DeVore is bound and determined to make the contest for the opportunity to defeat perhaps the most partisan U.S. Senator one between a conservative and liberal Republican. To do that, his campaign has had to twist the former HP CEO’s positions so they match those of Dede Scozzafava.

Only problem is that the Carly has made clear she opposes many of the policies DeVore says she supports. In a press release yesterday, his campaign said, “Carly Fiorina supported the Obama stimulus.” In fact, she made her opposition to that budget-busting boondoggle crystal clear. He says she can’t decide whether or not “she opposes cap-and-tax.” The week she announced for U.S. Senate, she called the bill a “job killer for small businesses [and] farmers.” Last week, she repeated this description of the legislation on the Kudlow Report, saying she would not vote for the bill.

A new Zogby IVR poll finds Rudy Giuliani (R) just edging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in a potential 2010 match up, 45% to 43%.

In another potential match-up, Gillibrand holds a slight lead over former Gov. George Pataki (R), 43% to 38%.

If they were to face off in a Republican primary, likely voters would pick Giuliani over Pataki, 72% to 28%.

According to the government's broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994.

The number dwarfs the statistic most people pay attention to—the U-3 rate—which most recently showed unemployment at 10.2 percent for October, the highest it has been since June 1983.

The difference is that what is traditionally referred to as the "unemployment rate" only measures those out of work who are still looking for jobs. Discouraged workers who have quit trying to find a job, as well as those working part-time but looking for full-time work or who are otherwise underemployed, count in the U-6 rate.

With such a large portion of Americans experiencing employment struggles, economists worry that an extended period of slow or flat growth lies ahead.

One of the things that emerged from that was this comment about your primary against Chuck DeVore. You made a remark that you are a better candidate in part because Sen. Boxer has beaten white men before. He’s responded to that, but I’m wondering if you could elaborate what you meant by that.

There are some things that are very similar between Chuck DeVore and I. We share many conservative values. I have a very different set of experiences than Chuck DeVore has. I’m not from the political world. I’m a business person. I’ve traveled around the world. So I just bring a different set of experiences to Washington than he would. And I talked about all of that, but I also made the comment that Barbara Boxer as a candidate has in many ways taken the women’s vote for granted in all of her bids for election or re-election. And as a woman candidate, she will not be able to do that running against me. I think that’s important to an ability to beat her.

Mike Murphy, the blunt-spoken, sharp-tongued, smart aleck Republican strategist who has advised such clients as John McCain, Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger, is joining Meg Whitman’s campaign for governor, two reliable sources told Calbuzz.

Whitman, who has already spent more than $20 milllion, decided to shake up her campaign on Friday, Nov. 13, one source told us, and add another layer to her consultant-rich organization.

Murphy is widely known in the business for his skill in dealing with the media, which could help eMeg’s dreadful relations with much of the California press; although she has enjoyed a host of often fawning profiles in national publications, she has strained relations with many of the state’s major media outlets. Most recently, the Wall Street Journal described her “thin skinned” attitude towards the press, a charge she answered by saying many of the newspapers seeking access to her would soon be out of business.

Comes the news that Democratic Congressman Dennis Moore of the 3rd district of Kansas is not running for reelection. Interesting. Congressman Moore was reelected by a 56%-40% margin in 2008, and Barack Obama carried his district 51%-48%, while losing the other three congressional districts in Kansas.

There could be many plausible reasons for Moore to retire from Congress. He turns 65 in 2010 and at the end of his term will have served 12 years in Congress. He served 12 years as Johnson County District Attorney in 1976-88, and so he’s devoted more than half his working lifetime to public service. Serving in Congress means having to go back and forth between your district and Washington all the time (and a quick look at a travel website shows only two flights per day between Reagan National and Kansas City International), constantly being reachable by your constituents, etc., etc.

All that said, this still seems an ominous sign for congressional Democrats.

President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he's called "a war of necessity" in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told McClatchy.

Obama is expected to announce his long-awaited decision on Dec. 1, followed by meetings on Capitol Hill aimed at winning congressional support amid opposition by some Democrats who are worried about the strain on the U.S. Treasury and whether Afghanistan has become a quagmire, the officials said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today said on The Jay Leno Show that he would appoint Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado to fill the vacant lieutenant governor's job, perhaps setting off a partisan squabble over his confirmation.

Maldonado, 42, of Santa Maria, has been one of the few GOP allies the Republican governor has in the Legislature. He provided a key vote this year to help Democrats and Schwarzenegger push through tax increases and a budget plan over the objections of most Republican lawmakers.

Leno asked the governor who he was going to appoint. Schwarzenegger said Maldonado "makes decisions based on what's best for the people rather than what's best for the party," according to an NBC transcript. "He has helped us, many times, pass a budget, which was very important."
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But, will Republicans vote to confirm him?

$12,000 for Chuck DeVore's race in California pays for postage stamps, but not for a mailing itself. And two Senators just as conservative as DeMint — Sen. James Inhofe and Coburn, both of Oklahoma, are backing the NRSC-backed Carly Fiorina. In Politico, though anti-establishment Republican challenger Patrick Hughes has picked up some grassroots support as of late, he is still virtually unknown, even to Republicans, and he has virtually no money to spend. He may wind up becoming the next anti-establishment It Boy, but he has less than 70 days to go from zero to hero. DeMint is reportedly considering an endorsement.

"In the wake of the special election in New York's 23 CD, it's become fashionable to push a GOP civil war narrative, but the reality — if you take a close look at these races on a race-by-race basis — is more prosaic," a GOP strategist who follows these races closely says.

Well, today, she gets her facts right in a piece on Carly Fiorina, but makes a very poor comparison, contending that that conservative woman is channeling in “her Dede Scozzafava” when she levels (what Malkin calls) her “strongest argument against DeVore [that he's] a white man and she’s not.“

While I support Carly, I agree that this was not the best argument for her to make. Fiorina is as much a mainstream conservative as DeVore. Indeed, to compare the former HP CEO to Scozzafava only shows how different the two women are. Fiorina opposed the “stimulus” and is against “card check” legislation, two items on the Democratic agenda the New York Republican backed. On every major issue on which the Californian has offered an opinion, she has shown herself to be in the mainstream of American conservatism, even, alas, in her support for Proposition 8.

No wonder such Senate conservatives as Tom Coburn, Jon Kyl and James Inhofe I have backed her.

I depart from Michelle Malkin on this particular point.

I think it's perfectly acceptable to play the "gender card" as regards electability. Whether or not electability matters all that much, and whether someone's gender really has a big influence on electability, is a side question, which people can figure out for themselves.

But to merely make mention of it? That's dirty pool?

I don't think it is. Fiorina isn't exactly playing identity politics. She's not saying, as Sotomayor did, that she's better qualified due to her sex. Instead, she's saying that her sex might make her more appealing to female voters. That's not claiming superiority in the way we usually speak of it. She's saying that people vote for candidates for all sorts of reasons — being "just like me" being one of them — and that this will be helpful.

Grass-roots conservatives, your attention, please: The NRCC and GOP dumped $1 million of your hard-earned money into radical Leftist Republican Dede Scozzafava’s NY-23’s campaign — money that was squandered trashing mainstream conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, who lost the race by less than 3,400 votes.

Now, the GOP elite Senate candidate in California, Carly Fiorina, is running against Democrat Barbara Boxer by…trashing mainstream conservative GOP rival Chuck DeVore.

Fiorina’s strongest argument against DeVore? He’s a white man and she’s not.
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I'll have more on this tomorrow but Michelle Malkin plain and simple is wrong on this one.

The powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan — sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy."
"There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to pay for it."

The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true.
But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer.

Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.

Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages.

Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's a male Democrat genius.

But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening.

And Barack Obama's are sliding.

Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40's.

Depending, of course, on which recent set of numbers you peruse and how the questions are phrased, 307 days into his allotted 1,461 the 44th president's approval rating among Americans has slid to 49% or 48%, showing no popularity bounce from his many happy trips, foreign and domestic.
Riding the wave of immense publicity and symbiotic media interest over her new book, "Going Rogue," and the accompanying promotional tour, Palin's favorable ratings are now at 43%, according to ABC. That's up from 40% in July.
One poll even gives her a 47% favorable.