Many Big Donors to Democrats Cut Support

Obama and company seem to keep reaping the rewards of failing to deliver on campaign promises and, in the case of the White House, playing kiss up to the GOP which would as soon run over him with a truck than look at him - and that's when they're not claiming he's a Muslim. The New York Times is reporting that a number of major donors have closed their wallets and check books just as many in the LGBT community. Interestingly enough, a number feel that their money is better spent with groups that will actually push for progressive reforms as opposed to the Democratic Party and the White House which talk a good game but which are missing in action when it comes time to actually do something. The post mortem on November 3, 2010 will be most interesting and, if as some predict, it's a Democratic Party disaster, I truly hope much of the blame is hung around Obama's condescending neck. Obama has forgotten the old rule of remembering the ones who brought him to power and that is largely the progressives who helped turned out the vote of the independents. Here are some story highlights:

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Many wealthy Democratic patrons, who in the past have played major roles financing outside groups to help elect the party’s candidates, are largely sitting out these crucial midterm elections. . . Democratic donors like George Soros, the bête noire of the right, and his fellow billionaire Peter B. Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million to Democratic-oriented groups in the 2004 election, appear to be holding back so far.

“Mr. Soros believes that he can be most effective by funding groups that promote progressive policy outcomes in areas such as health care, the environment and foreign policy,” said an adviser, Michael Vachon. “So he has opted to fund those activities.” The absence of these Democratic megadonors is contributing to a huge disparity in spending between pro-Republican and pro-Democratic groups.

In the last week, Republican-leaning groups outspent their Democratic counterparts on television by more than seven to one on Senate races and nearly four to one on House races across the country, according to data from theCampaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising. The gap shows few signs of abating, even with the midterm election season in full swing.

The donors’ reluctance stems from a variety of factors, including pessimism about the party’s prospects in November, but also President Obama’s strong condemnations of this kind of independent activity

[S]ome more ideological donors are also upset that the Obama administration has not been more aggressive in pushing a liberal agenda. Big donors from Wall Street, including hedge fund executives and investment bankers, are also angry at the administration.

NPR Poll Spells Bad News for Democrats

Over the weekend I triggered a bit of a firestorm of debate with a post I did on The Bilerico Project that addressed the continual betrayals of LGBT Americans by President Obama and Congressional Democrats. Regardless of one's views on the merits of LGBT voters sitting out the November, 2010, elections, the issue I raised in terms of the disillusionment of Democrat voters is real - very real in fact. Yet the Democrats refuse to realize that disillusionment is what happens when campaign promises are broken or when the promised legislation ends up as some piss poor reflection of what voters wanted. A new NPR Congressional Battleground Poll ought to be spreading terror among many incumbent Democrats facing serious challengers - yes, Glenn Nye, I mean you in this group - yet elected officials like Virginia's Senator Jim Webb continue to feel that the Democrat base can be lied to and thrown under the bus - often not even graciously. As I have stated before, from my perspective we are now seeing at the national level the same thing that occurred in Virginia in 2009: enthusiastic and motivated Republican base opposed to a disillusioned and apathetic Democrat base. If Democrats refuse to vote and act like Democrats, rightly or wrongly, people only remember the broken campaign promises, not what the GOP opponents MIGHT do. Here are some highlights on the poll findings:
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The results are a wake-up call for Democrats whose loses in the House could well exceed 30 seats. In the named-congressional ballot in the 60 Democratic districts, Democrats trail their Republican opponent, 42 to 47 percent, with only a third saying they want to vote to-relect their member. In the top tier of 30 most competitive seats, the Democratic candidate trails by 9 points (39 to 48 percent) and by 2 points in the next tier of 30 seats (45 to 47 percent). On the other hand, the Republican candidates are running well ahead in their most competitive seats ( 53 to 37 percent). As we saw in the special election in PA-12, Democrats will have to battle on a seat-by-seat basis — that has shifted these kinds of numbers this year.
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The effort by individual campaigns will have to push against walls that seem very hard to move at this point. We tested Democratic and Republican arguments on the economy, health care, financial reform and the big picture for the 2010 election. The results consistently favored the Republicans and closely resembled the vote breakdown. Democrats are hurt by a combined lack of enthusiasm and an anti-incumbent tone.
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Bottom line? The Democrats need to convince their base that having Democrats in office leads to a different result. In the case of LGBT voters, Democrats have delivered almost nothing. Add to that the ineffective health care "reform" passed this year, and there is little reason to be enthusiastic. The Democrat incumbents have no one to blame but themselves.

Obama's Gratuitous Insult To Gay Couples

Due to a social engagement down the street I did not post last night, but that's not to say that I - like many other LGBT Americans - wasn't seething at the nastiness of the Obama Justice Department's brief in support of DOMA. For a nation where allegedly there is a separation of church and state to see what in the final analysis is discrimination based solely on religious belief is disgusting and demonstrates that the USA's self-proclaimed religious freedoms are a false facade. Because LGBT Americans do not live in straight relationships dictated by the Christianist version of the Bible, we are condemned to less than equality. That a [half] black president who ought to understand bigotry and discrimination based on unchosen characteristics allows this to continue makes me sick. John Aravosis at America Blog was among the first to reveal just how badly the Obama Justice Department has betrayed LGBT Americans - we were not only thrown under the bus, but they backed up over us numerous times as well - and even equated gay marriage with incest. One would have thought Peter LaBarbera or Robert Knight had written the brief. Here's some of John's analysis:

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It reads as if it were written by one of George Bush's top political appointees. I cannot state strongly enough how damaging this brief is to us. Obama didn't just argue a technicality about the case, he argued that DOMA is reasonable. That DOMA is constitutional. That DOMA wasn't motivated by any anti-gay animus. He argued why our Supreme Court victories in Roemer and Lawrence shouldn't be interpreted to give us rights in any other area (which hurts us in countless other cases and battles). He argued that DOMA doesn't discriminate against us because it also discriminates about straight unmarried couples (ignoring the fact that they can get married and we can't).

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He actually argued that the courts shouldn't consider Loving v. Virginia, the miscegenation case in which the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to ban interracial marriages, when looking at gay civil rights cases. He told the court, in essence, that blacks deserve more civil rights than gays, that our civil rights are not on the same level.

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And before Obama claims he didn't have a choice, he had a choice. Bush, Reagan and Clinton all filed briefs in court opposing current federal law as being unconstitutional (we'll be posting more about that later). Obama could have done the same. But instead he chose to defend DOMA, denigrate our civil rights, go back on his promises, and contradict his own statements that DOMA was "abhorrent." Folks, Obama's lawyers are even trying to diminish the impact of Roemer and Lawrence, our only two big Supreme Court victories. Obama is quite literally destroying our civil rights gains with this brief. He's taking us down for his own benefit.

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Here in Virginia we are looking a potentially close election in the contest between Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds where the LGBT vote literally could have the potential of deciding the election. And the Obama Justice Department just told us all to go f*ck ourselves. McDonnell as governor would not be a positive but now that Obama has taken a position akin to McDonnell's view of gays, maybe staying home on election day would make no difference.