Bush's approval hit 44 today on Rasmussen.

Also, consumer confidence hit a 2 year high, while Investor confidence hit a 20 month high.

Budget deficit hit a 4 year low (more than $100 billion below CBO's original estimate)

Gas prices continue to fall (down another .05 last week)

Democrats may have peaked too soon. 

sharp

If U.S. stockpiles grew this week, crude will drop below $57 a barrel (currently at $57.25) and $1.99 gas should follow in many places.

Here in Knoxville we're typically .10 - .15 more than the folks just to the west of us, and we're at $2.07.

Post here if you see the magic sub-$2 price point and let us know where you are.

sharp

USA Today reports that Harry Reid received $1 million for land he hadn't owned in 3 years.

Scandal has been close to Reid in the past - even Democratic Leader Howard Dean made veiled threats to run out people like Reid himself if allegations of contact with Abramoff were true.  And there have been Indian issues with his brother (as I recall) that have left an ethical stain on the leader of the Democrats in the Senate.

According to USA Today, he also had a 1981 Federal Securities complaint against him that was settled out of court.

But now, his dealings, which he hid from Congress, invovled a friend whose name came up in a federal bribery case this summer - USA Today notes.  They apparently hatched a scheme...

"to transfer ownership, legal liability and some tax consequences to Brown's company without public knowledge, but (Reid would) still collect a seven-figure payoff nearly three years later"

 USA Today notes that when an AP reporter asked him about the deal last week - Reid hung up the phone. 

I would consider that an excessive response to a question.  Unless you really, really didn't like the question.  But maybe this explains Dean's fury at Reid and his implication of Reid's misconduct earlier this year when the Democrats wanted to make much of the Republicans Abramoff connections.

Bad news at a bad time for the Democrats.  The risk is that folks will believe that all politicians are corrupt and they just won't vote.  And a the mother of all golden opportunities will be missed.

sharp

The deficit was just reported for the fiscal year. But the bad news for the media is that it was more than $100 billion less than forecast by the CBO. It came in at the lowest level in four years, due to 11.7% growth in tax revenues (READ - TAX CUTS WORK!!)

But a visit to major media websites only found it mentioned on MSNBC and Fox News.  CBS, NYT and CNN failed to bring it up.

To give some perspective, here's what they did find room to report:

CNN:  "Fake Witch Doctor shopped at Wal-Mart"; "Madonna reportedly adopts Malawan boy" and "Do you know your ozone from your GMO?"

CBS: "300 Monkeys to be banished from New Dehli"; "Jay Z visits South Africa" and "Mel hasn't touched poison in 69 days"

NYT: "In God's name" (a series of articles attacking any connection between Christianity and government); "U.S. says blacks in Mississippi supress white votes" (Huh?) and "Police arrest man in possible hate crimes in NYC" (must have been a Republican to merit front page treatment.)

sharp

Well, the deficit is less than predicted, unemployment is dropping and gas prices continue to fall. A Democratic strategist, speaking about the "early" release of rancid IM's from Mark Foley, said they couldn't wait any longer.

He said the President was gaining momentum with terror speeches, the 5th anniversary of 9/11, the strengthening economy and the drop in gas prices.  People were getting in too good a mood for the Democrats purposes.

So they released info that they've apparently sat on since April and which they planned to release around the last week of October when it would dominate the final 10 days of the campaign.  What is really galling about this (besides Mark Foley's behavior) is that they put pages at risk in order to "time" the release for their benefit - and then had the dishonest gall to say the Republicans knew about it and did that very thing.

But remember the fake guard memo from 2004.  These guys overplay their hand frequently and play fast and loose with the truth to their own peril. 

Susan Estrich said that the Democrats wouldn't win this year, but rather the Republicans would lose.  She is probably on to something.  But what a filthy way to gain power.

sharp