Battleground Shift to Blue States

The traditional battleground states are more solid red, while blue states are in jeopardy for Dems.

Wisconsin (and don't the Dems know it) and California are key in remarks on the latest liberal PPP poll:

A couple months ago I thought the Pennsylvanias and Missouris and Ohios of the world were the biggest battlegrounds for 2010 but when you see numbers like this it makes you think it's probably actually the Californias and the Wisconsins and the Washingtons.

Via politicaljunkie Mom at Pundit & Pundette.

And then there's Illinois.

P.S. The issue of military votes is critical in a state like Wisconsin, but the Obama Justice Dept. is dragging its feet:

The Washington Times has called for DOJ to file lawsuits to protect military voters by the end of the week. The first defendant should be Wisconsin, they are among the worst states. Now that the Wisconsin U.S. Senate seat is a toss up and at least three House seats held by Democrats at risk, I don't expect swift and decisive action to cure Wisconsin's failure to protect military voters.

And what makes it concerning is that Wisconsin obviously has no plan to fix the problem.

Milwaukee News Buzz here.

More. Feingold whines. It's all an eeevil conspiracy. Look, Obama's wounds are self-inflicted. Even you started backing away from him last year. (Was Sen. Feingold a tool of Glenn Beck?)

You would think a guy who's relied for years on old leftist Madison anti-war demonstrators as a base wouldn't have a leg to stand on in decrying citizens actually showing up at town meetings alarmed at where this Obama Big Government was taking us.

And while Feingold did not blame Republicans, he did single out "groups" for having looked to take down Obama, and with him, Democrats in Congress.

"I started coming back and telling my staff and my friends -– way back in spring of '09 -– that something is going on out there that is pretty deadly and pretty harsh even before we had any idea what the healthcare bill was going to be," he said. "There appears to be a systematic, conscious attempt to dismantle this president, so I’m less surprised than other people.”

Obama fell off his supposed post-partisan horse early last spring. The Tea Party jelled soon after that.

P.S. In response to the NY Times Zeleny's Q & A:

What explains the difficult political climate for Democrats, considering that President Obama has implemented many policies he campaigned on?

A.

“There are two primary reasons. One is the economy. Human nature is such that people are going to say, ‘I’m frustrated.’ That creates an environment that whoever is in office, whoever is doing anything, is potentially vulnerable to people being unhappy. There’s a second factor that’s more cynical. A conscious decision was made by certain groups to destroy this presidency the minute it started. People say it was the health care bill – no, it wasn’t. I go to every county every year and hold a town meeting. Within days of the president being sworn in, I had people showing up at my town meeting with hats on, with tea bags coming out, saying this is going to be socialism.”

Yes, Russ, it was the healthcare bill. And yes, it is as close as you can get to socialism with the (why stealth?) appointment of that Brit-loving Medicare/Medicaid head.

Politico:

A new poll shows that public support for health care reform dropped sharply in August — a dagger in Democrats’ hopes that their landmark legislation will help them in November’s midterm.

The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll has support for the bill dropping 7 percentage points in August — down to 43 percent — while opposition rose 10 points to 45 percent. That’s the weakest showing since May — and a far cry from the bump proponents had hoped to see as some of the law’s more consumer-friendly provisions kick in.