Population Changes

At the end of this year, the Census Bureau will report its findings about state population to the government. The data will be used to reassign seats in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College to correctly reflect population. Analysts are estimating that many states in the northeast will lose seats, while the south and Midwest will gain seats. This map reflects those estimates, which will not be final until January 2011.



There is some speculating as to how this is going to affect the 2012 presidential election. President Obama has not officially announced he will run yet, but everyone is expecting that he will. However, the population changes are not good news for him. The states that are losing votes are traditionally Democratic, and the states that are gaining are Republican. This next presidential race should be a close one.

Clinton is the Belle of the Ball

Many Democratic nominees for congress and governor are trying to stay away from President Obama before this midterm election. "Obama" is almost a dirty word, as his approval ratings are so low right now. So what do these candidates do to get a big name endorsement? They seek after former president Bill Clinton. Clinton is traveling across the United States to promote many different candidates, and he is giving priority to those who endorsed his wife's bid for president in 2008. Clinton has been focusing on positive things that the Democrats have done recently, which is making him a very effective speaker to the current audience. He is more popular right now than President Obama, who has been focusing on negative things the Republicans have done wrong.

What I think is interesting is that people are expecting these elections to be similar to the midterm elections of 1994, when Clinton was in his first term, and Democrats lost control of Congress. It's funny to me that Clinton's campaigning didn't really work to keep control then, and it doesn't look like it will this time either, but we will see in November.

Obama vs. Boehner

John Boehner, current Speaker of the House

Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama

Representative John Boehner of Ohio is the House Republican Leader, and many think that if he does get reelected like he is expected to, he will be the new Speaker of the House. At least part of his campaign is attacking President Obama on Iraq, the economy, and other failing aspects of our government. Boehner reminded the country that President Obama fought the surge strategy of the Iraq war, but now he is taking credit for good results. Also in a different speech, Boehner said, “Stimulus spending sprees, permanent bailouts, federal mandates and government takeovers have failed this nation and have failed our veterans." Obviously this strategy of opposing policies of the current administration is to prove Boehner could stand up to the White House and Democratic Congressmen if elected as Speaker.

Healthcare Repeal Already?

President George Bush enabled a Medicare reform while he was in office in 2003. The republican controlled congress created the Medicare prescription drug benefit, emphasized personal Health Savings Accounts, and did other things to promote consumer driven health care. A couple weeks ago, the Obama administration announced that over a million Americans receiving Medicare benefits would be getting $250 rebate checks to help balance the cost of prescription drugs. Democrats are taking credit for these rebates, when really, it was the Republican party that enabled this in the first place.

The new Health care law that President Obama worked so hard to push through is already expected to fail, even though it hasn't fully taken effect yet. Representative Wally Herger of California posted a video on the House Republican Website that said, "We have introduced a bill that would fully repeal Obamacare and replace it with common-sense, incremental solutions that would actually help bring down skyrocketing health care premiums by up to 20 percent."

A drop in health care cost sounds good to me, but it seems strange that when so many people were opposed to the new health care bill, how did it ever get passed in the first place?

Obama Still Rebuilding Iraq

Vice President Biden gave a speech last week that said America was not abandoning Iraq, and we would still help rebuild the country. He spoke at the conventions of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Indianapolis and assured everyone that despite pulling out our troops, we are still going to be helping Iraq. America will be sending in contractors to build Iraq's government, police, and schools. President Obama promised to pull out most troops by August 2011, and is still standing by that promise. Some military officials are guessing that Iraq will need more soldiers that what the president is leaving. I don't know how all of this is going to turn out, but I hope we get our job done in Iraq before leaving.

Also, I think it is interesting that the Obama administration is making this sound like it was their idea, to build Iraq's government and then leave them to it. President Bush was planning this all along. The intention was never to take Iraq as our own and make it a U.S. territory.

Anyway, it sounds like things are still moving forward and that is good news.