Why do people often vote against their own interests?

The Republicans' shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their super majority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get health care reform passed in the US.

Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

Last year, in a series of "town-hall meetings" across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama's proposed healthcare reforms.

What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.

Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of health-care reform - the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state - are often the ones it seems designed to help.

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Two-Faced GOP

President Barack Obama chastised Republican lawmakers for opposing him on taxes, health care and the economic stimulus

In a remarkably sharp face-to-face confrontation, President Barack Obama chastised Republican lawmakers Friday for opposing him on taxes, health care and the economic stimulus, while they accused him in turn of brushing off their ideas and driving up the national debt.

The president and GOP House members took turns questioning and sometimes lecturing each other for more than an hour at a Republican gathering in Baltimore. The Republicans agreed to let TV cameras inside, resulting in an extended, point-by-point interchange that was almost unprecedented in U.S. politics, except perhaps during presidential debates.

With voters angry about partisanship and legislative logjams, both sides were eager to demonstrate they were ready to cooperate, resulting in the GOP invitation and Obama's acceptance. After polite introductions, however, Friday's exchange showed that Obama and the Republicans remain far apart on key issues, and neither side could resist the chance to challenge and even scold the other.

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How Massachusetts Can Turn Out to Be a Blessing for Democrats

If the White House learns the right lessons from this stunning loss, it will turn out to be a blessing. A blessing in a very heavy disguise, I realize, but a blessing nonetheless.

President Obama can still course-correct in time to avoid the looming iceberg that Democrats are headed for in 2010. In the wake of Massachusetts, he should take a step back, take a metaphorical trip to the mountaintop, and reconnect with the reasons why he ran -- and why he got elected.

Since there is no other job that prepares you to be president, the best presidents are the ones with the ability to learn on the job and the willingness to course-correct. First, the Obama White House has to admit it is heading in the wrong direction. Then it needs to bring all hands on deck, toss overboard a few who currently have their hands on the wheel -- and turn hard to change course.

Some, including Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh, are saying that the outcome in Massachusetts is an indication that Obama and the Democrats need to move to the middle and focus on trying to make bipartisan deals. This, of course, is exactly what the Democrats have been doing all year. If they redouble their efforts to curry favor with the Olympia Snowes of the world, they'll be making a grave mistake.

Celinda Lake, Martha Coakley's pollster, spoke the truth yesterday when she said their campaign was hurt by the White House's failure to confront Wall Street. This has left Democratic candidates the targets of angry voters -- especially angry independent voters -- worried about the economy.

For the last 12 months, the administration has been tone-deaf to just how much the economy has impacted Americans' lives. This has allowed populist rage to grow, and put Democrats -- who have been hot and heavy with the big banks and insurance companies all year -- squarely in voters' crosshairs.

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Steele, Palin Take the Money and Run

RNC Chairman Michael Steele is using his role in the Republican Party to generate quite a bit of money for himself, most notably through his outside paid speeches and secretly-written book. Former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin is using her role in the Republican Party to generate quite a bit of money for herself, most notably through her new Fox News gig, her own paid speeches, and her striking payday for a photo shoot.

And, of course, Tea Party organizers are generating quite a bit of money for themselves, putting together a National Tea Party Convention with rather exorbitant ticket prices.

Taken together, the NYT's Frank Rich raises a good point -- we're witnessing "the rise of buckrakers who are exploiting the party's anarchic confusion and divisions to cash in."

Tea partiers hate the G.O.P. establishment and its Wall Street allies, starting with the Bushies who created TARP, almost as much as they do Obama and his Wall Street pals. When Steele and Palin pay lip service to the movement, they are happy to glom on to its anti-tax, anti-Obama, anti-government, anti-big-bank vitriol. But they don't call for any actual action against the bailed-out perpetrators of the financial crisis. They'd never ask for investments to put ordinary Americans back to work. They have no policies to forestall foreclosures or protect health insurance for the tea partiers who've been shafted by hard times. Their only economic principle beside tax cuts is vilification of the stimulus that did save countless jobs for firefighters, police officers and teachers at the state and local level.

The Democrats' efforts to counter the deprivation and bitterness spawned by the Great Recession are indeed timid and imperfect. The right has a point when it says that the Senate health care votes of Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana were bought with pork. But at least their constituents can share the pigout. Hustlers like Steele and Palin take the money and run. All their followers get in exchange is a lousy tea party T-shirt. Or a ghost-written self-promotional book.

Unemployment Rates...Oswego Highest Again!!

Unemployment Rates	Dec. 09	Nov. 09	Dec. 08
Jefferson	9.6	8.6	8.8
Lewis	10.2	8.4	9.1
St. Lawrence	9.9	9.1	8.7
Oswego	10.6	9.3	9.0
New York State	8.8	8.4	6.8

Voters Like Paterson Proposals; Still Do Not Support his Election

Loudonville, NY. While New Yorkers overwhelmingly support Governor David Paterson‟s call for a spending cap and term limits on state officials, and his favorability rating has inched up for the third consecutive month, Paterson continues to remain electorally very weak in a potential Democratic primary and in general election matchups, according to a new Siena (College) Research Institute poll of registered voters. For the first time since she‟s been a United States Senator, more voters now have an unfavorable view of Kirsten Gillibrand than have a favorable view. She maintains a large lead in a potential Democratic primary against former Tennessee Representative Harold Ford, however, now faces a double digit deficit against former Governor George Pataki. As negatively as voters feel about any individuals, they have even greater disdain for the State Legislature.

“Since October, Paterson has seen his favorable rating rise from 27 percent to 38 percent, while his unfavorable rating has fallen from 61 percent to 52 percent. That‟s the good news for the Governor,” said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. “His job performance rating remains three-to-one negative and while 21 percent of voters are prepared to elect him to a full term as Governor, 60 percent would prefer „someone else.‟

“In a potential Democratic primary among Paterson, Cuomo and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Cuomo garners a commanding 59 percent support, with Paterson at 21 percent and Levy at six percent.0110_SNY_PollL

Democrats Look At Bypassing Senate Health Care Vote

A panicky White House and Democratic allies scrambled Sunday for a plan to salvage their hard-fought health care package in case a Republican wins Tuesday's Senate race in Massachusetts, which would enable the GOP to block further Senate action.

The likeliest scenario would require persuading House Democrats to accept a bill the Senate passed last month, despite their objections to several parts.

Aides consulted Sunday amid fears that Republican Scott Brown will defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to fill the late Edward M. Kennedy's seat. A Brown win would give the GOP 41 Senate votes, enough to filibuster and block final passage of the House-Senate compromise on health care now being crafted.

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Chuck Schumer & Bill Owens visit Fort Drum

U.S. Sen. Charles E. "Chuck" Schumer, D-N.Y. and Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, visit Fort Drum to discuss fiscal year 2010 priorities for the military base - as well as the base's reported 30 percent cut to operating expenses. Jan. 11, 201.

Giuliani: My ‘Warped View’ Is That Huge Wall Street Bonuses Are ‘Wonderful’

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the “bank bonus season” that begins this week “will be one of the largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen.” “Despite calls for restraint from Washington and a chafed public, resurgent banks are preparing to pay out bonuses that rival those of the boom years. The haul, in cash and stock, will run into many billions of dollars,” reported the Times.

The reality that banks aren’t “taking immediate steps to reduce bonuses substantially” led former Citigroup CEO John Reed to slam the banks for learning nothing from the financial crisis:

Even some industry veterans warn that such paydays could further tarnish the financial industry’s sullied reputation. John S. Reed, a founder of Citigroup, said Wall Street would not fully regain the public’s trust until banks scaled back bonuses for good — something that, to many, seems a distant prospect.

“There is nothing I’ve seen that gives me the slightest feeling that these people have learned anything from the crisis,” Mr. Reed said. “They just don’t get it. They are off in a different world.”

But some prominent New Yorkers are defending Wall Street’s compensation packages. On Don Imus’ radio show this morning, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani declared that from his point of view giant Wall Street bonuses are “wonderful”:

GIULIANI: I have to tell you. You’re going to get annoyed. I have a different view of bonuses than you do.

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Dems Will Bypass Conference Committee To Get Health Care Passed

Both chambers of Congress will skip a formal "conference committee" and instead negotiate informally on their respective health care bills, confirm Congressional aides and sources outside of government.

In what one health care reform activist calls a "quasi ping-pong" strategy, House and Senate leaders will each have a set of negotiators bounce variations of health care legislation back and forth until the disagreements between the two chambers are hammered out.

"Absent a stunning turn of events, it's true," said one Senate aide. "All of the motions that we need to go into conference with the House are amendable and debatable."

The basis for negotiations will be the Senate bill (which lacks a public option for insurance coverage and contains a tax on expensive health care plans), to which the House can add amendments.

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Hoffman makes The Top 10 weirdest moments of 2009 #6

Doug Hoffman says ACORN stole his election

Of all the strange twists in this year's special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, none may have been odder than the way conservative standard-bearer Doug Hoffman ended his unlikely turn in the national spotlight.

The small-town accountant, who forced moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava from the race as his bid for Congress on the Conservative Party line caught fire, fell narrowly short of beating Democrat Bill Owens at the polls. But after conceding defeat on Nov. 3, Hoffman "un-conceded" a few weeks later and released a statement blaming the community organizing group ACORN for his loss.

"As evidence surfaces, we find out that reported results from election night were far from accurate," Hoffman said. "ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens."

Though it's hardly new for conservatives to take aim at ACORN, Hoffman's claim seemed especially far-fetched in a district that is hardly a hotbed of urban community organizing. He conceded defeat a second time on Nov. 24, hinting at plans for another campaign next year.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30931_Page3.html#ixzz0bfg6OzM6

Soft on terror? Not this president

THERE IS, it seems evident, more than enough blame to go around in the botched handling of the botched Christmas bombing. Not for some Republicans. With former vice president Richard B. Cheney in the lead, they have embarked on an ugly course to use the incident to inflict maximum political damage on President Obama. That's bad enough, but their scurrilous line of attack is even worse. The claim that the incident shows the president's fecklessness in the war on terror is unfounded -- no matter how often it is repeated.

These critics have set up a straw Obama, a weak and naive leader who allegedly takes terrorism lightly, thinks that playing nicely with terrorists will make them stop, and fails to understand the threat that the United States faces from violent extremists. Mr. Cheney said that the incident had made "clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war." Likewise, Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) called on Mr. Obama to "recognize that we are at war with a murderous enemy who will not relent because we heed political correctness, acquiesce to international calls for deference or close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay." Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "and the rest of the Obama administration view their role as law enforcement, first responders dealing with the aftermath of an attack. And we believe in a forward-looking approach to stopping these attacks before they happen."

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Sen. John Ensign was quizzed about ethics allegations that he set up and aided the husband of his mistress with a lobbying gig

Some generally awkward television took place Thursday afternoon when Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) -- invited on CNN to discuss the botched Christmas terrorist attack -- was quizzed about ethics allegations that he set up and aided the husband of his mistress with a lobbying gig.

GOP Opposition To National Security Funds Will Be Issue In 2010

Democratic leadership in Congress is pledging to make Republican votes against key national security and defense funding measures a feature in the upcoming congressional elections, following the botched Christmas Day terrorist attack aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-M.D.) told the Huffington Post on Wednesday that it was the committee's duty to ensure that, come 2010, the American people are aware that House Republicans opposed a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that included funding for airport security.

The 2010 appropriations bill contained Transportation Security Administration funding for explosives detection systems and other security measures -- it was opposed by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) among others.

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