..according to Rasmussen. They look at "likely voters" where some of the others look at everyone equally. It's a real good thing that he's not running for office again, though I'm sure a lot of people would love to see him lose.

The question now is, just how many seats will the Republicans lose in Congress? Sure, November is a long way off, but between corruption scandals, the war in Iraq and President's performance, things look great for the Democrats to make huge gains.

Will they win the house and the Senate? I thought a few weeks ago that it was unlikely that they would pick up the Senate. But if the election were held today, I can see them picking up seats in PA, MO, MT and mayber VT pretty easily. That's 4 of the 6 they would need for control (the VP would break the tie if it were 50/50).

In the house, I can't imagine that the Republicans can escape the scandals from Abramoff to DeLay to Duke and those who supported him. It's already knocked Katherine Harris out of a Senate race due to ties to Duke's corrupt partners.

But will the Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Maybe.

There are a lot of rumblings about the current leadership - Reid and Pelosi, not to mention Howard Dean - and folks seem greatly uninspired by them. So if they can pull off a victory, and I believe they will, they will have the shakiest of mandates - much like the President's lack of a mandate after the 2004 elections.

More on this in the next post.

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Time to get rid of some of the stuff I accumulated over the winter and just plain don't need.

1) An attitude. I have gotten frustrated with certain things and have harped on them - and sometimes the individuals who were in charge. Not very helpful. Gone.

2) 30 pounds. I started this Nutrisystem for men this week and it's already paying dividends.

3) Office clutter. Too many dusty binders and unnecessary files.

4) Stringy bushes and plants. Got to clip off those runners. This one applies to the undisciplined areas of my life, too.

Guess these would be my "Spring resolutions".

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Has anyone else noticed that this economy has been booming? Apparently not the average Joe. They are convinced we're on the verge of the great depression and are heading in the wrong direction. Thank the biased media.

Job growth? Closing in on 250k a month
GDP growth? Hiccup in the 4Q but a huge rebound since the Clinton recession
Domestic terrorism? Down to nothing since 9/11
Trade Deficit? Huge, but a symptom of a powerful economy
Budget Deficit? Trending right about normal in terms of share of GDP
Home ownership? Highest levels ever
Wealth creation? Homes have added massive wealth to the average Joe and this is not captured in the economic reports about household debt.
Stock Market confidence? Zero when Bush took office. Back on solid ground and building wealth again.
Accounting scandals? Still cleaning up the mess from the 90's, but safeguards in place
Port security? China seems to be doing a pretty good job on the West Coast and the British on the East Coast.

But every time you get some good news, there's a "look over here" that immediately follows on the news.

The news media is determined to offset any good news for this President (and this economy) with some reason for you to think it's the worst of times, not the best of times.

And, by the way, in their haste to blame the President for the hurricane and its aftermath, they've ensured that every future President will send a tsunami of federal dollars at every bad rainstorm and ugly looking cloud. This is not good at all.

But the economy is good. Whether they'll admit it or not.

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Some say they're in one already. Looks like Iran, Syria and a host of other rogue nations would like to see a meltdown in Iraq.

But here's the silver lining.

I think the military (and the administration) is handling this just right. This is not a U.S. policing issue. The threat needs to exist for the U.S. to pull out and the powers that be to have all responsibility. However, we walk a thin and dangerous line with that threat.

I saw Chris Dodd, Senator from Connecticut saying he would give the Iraqi government a few weeks to form (a coalition of Sunnis, Shia, Kurds and non-religious) and then recommend that we begin to pull troops out.

While I understand what he's saying (and it may be a more nuanced message when not for public consumption) the risk is that the bad guys will know they only need to keep up the chaos for a few more weeks and they can rule Iraq - and those bad guys and primarily Iranian and Syrian. Hopefully he's not that short-sighted and myopic. But I sense that many "solutions" coming from the Democratic side are just for public consumption and are far from workable, solid solutions.

I do not totally disagree with Senator Dodd's message to the elected officials in Iraq. But that message would be better served in private, in my opinion.

Not much is done in private these days in politics. What would be the point, right?

Oh, about that silver lining. This may be what had to happen to get the elected Iraqi officials and religious leaders to put their differences aside in order to form a workable Iraqi government and take responsibility for their own country. If they do, I think they'll be the shining light of the Middle east in a few years. And that's just what the terrorists and rogue nations are afraid of.
sharptalk

Apparently the company with the best fit would be...

Haliburton.

Lol.

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