Quotas are not conservative. They are an inept or intellectually lazy means of assessment. If people are not committing crimes, we shouldn’t arrest folks just to meet a quota. And when everyone has a job, we don’t need to prioritize job creation or criticize the leader for “failing to create jobs.”

At the end of Mitt Romney’s term as Governor, MA had a healthy unemployment rate of 4.7 (below 4 becomes unhealthy). There was no job problem, and no need for an artificial “fix.” When Romney took office, the state faced a massive budget problem, which Romney successfully solved.

So why does Rick Perry point out that Romney didn’t create many jobs? Because many people are confused. We are now in a jobs crisis, nationally, and people are thinking in terms of the need to create jobs.

The only way MA could have created more jobs under Romney is if the population in MA had increased. But MA is the third most densely populated state, right behind RI and NJ. Texas has 26 times the area of MA. That means, unlike MA, Texas has room for sprawl (which it has seen in excess) – meaning cheap land for people as well as businesses building stores and factories, equaling jobs.

Logistically, TX is a frontier. And because of its central placement, temperate climate and sophisticated urban variety, it is a hub. Combine this with its conservative laws (pre-dating Rick Perry) and built-in natural resources, and Texas is an obvious place for people to move.

Still, as Mitt Romney pointed out, a much higher percentage of jobs were created in TX under both Richards and Bush than under Perry. This may indicate that suburban TX is finally beginning to see some saturation after the massive population increase of the last 20 years.

The bottom line is that Texas has had room for bringing in new people. MA population has seen little change in 20 years, while TX has had a 40% increase in population over that same period. While Perry would like to take credit for job growth, especially since the recession, recent growth has been demonstrably chaotic rather than ordered. Just as Babe Ruth hit more home runs than anyone else but also struck out more than anyone else, when people have taken their savings and moved to Texas in the last 3 years, they have naturally generated some jobs but also been left with a lot of unemployment.

To illustrate the chaos which Perry takes credit for, consider that a year ago MA and TX had the same unemployment rate, 8.2% (Sept. ’10). Now, MA is down to 7.6 and TX is up to 8.4. Is this the result of Perry’s careful planning and micromanagement? If so, he has failed. If not, he should stop pretending to assume credit for the jobs situation in Texas.

New Mexico candidate Susana Martinez points out that a woman featured in an attack ad against her is married to a man Martinez put in jail for 20 years… ouch.
http://www.susanamartinez2010.com

His first campaign commercial:

Appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live:

“After reading the Constitution, it says ‘we have rights to bear arms against our government,’” Marceaux explained. “If [people] didn’t have [a gun] they couldn’t represent themselves to protect themselves against the government, so, I’ll probably fine them $10 dollars if they don’t.”

“You would fine them?” Kimmel asked.
“I would have these little investigators out in the street with no power and say ‘hey get ‘em to show me your gun’ if they don’t have one, I’m gonna fine them 10 bucks,” Marceaux explained.

Marceaux later illuminated his stance on capital punishment, saying that if troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan were to murder someone, “he’d have no choice” but to kill her.

Pressed by Kimmel to explain his website’s proposal to grant immunity from the law to people who voted for him, Marceaux embarked on a long-winded, bumbling explanation based on “the Supreme Court,” “the Civil Rights Act of 1856″ and a “Freedmen Bureau Agent.”
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“I’m not sure I get that,” Kimmel admitted.
After a bit more floundering, Kimmel finally asked Marceaux if he’d ever consider running for governor in California if his campaign in Tennessee ended unsuccessfully.

“I’ll be a governor any state as long as I can fix it,” Marceaux answered.

The San Francisco mayor makes the decision amid lackluster poll numbers and meager fund-raising receipts. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, expected to run, is left with little Democratic primary opposition.

“At the end of the day, he didn’t resonate,” said David Latterman, a San Francisco political consultant who supported Newsom in both his races for mayor but grew critical in recent months. “The issues he was talking about — high-tech, biotech, green this, environment that — are important. But not for a lot of people at a time the state is a disaster zone.”

Much of Newsom’s campaign was predicated on the notion that he could replicate Barack Obama’s success at riding social-media networks to excite young voters and attract other normally inattentive Californians. He worked hard to build the state’s most expansive electronic grass-roots operation. He raised money online. His events were organized via Facebook. He was a regular on Twitter, even from his wife’s bedside immediately after she gave birth.

Ultimately, however, none of that translated into broad success or financial support for the first-time statewide candidate. A Field Poll released earlier this month showed Newsom far behind Brown, who, at least publicly, all but ignored his challenger. The attorney general had the support of 47% of Democratic voters, compared with just 26% for Newsom. The only voters among whom the mayor was leading were those 18 to 39 — some of the least likely to turn out. With them he had a 9% advantage.

More important, Newsom trailed badly in the money chase. He had $1.2 million in the bank at the end of the last reporting period in June and had raised only $709,000 since. Brown had $7.4 million on June 30 and has raised $1.3 million more since.

Earlier this month, Newsom brought in former President Clinton, an old Brown nemesis, for an endorsement and fund-raising event. But the returns, at least as indicated by partial financial reports, were disappointing.

Creigh Deeds received the endorsement of the Washington Post in his quest for the Virginia governorship. His opponent, Bob McDonnell is sitting on a comfortable lead so Deeds could use the help. The Virginia GOP however has used the endorsement against the candidate

Republican Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial candidates decline Palin’s offer to campaign for them but at least one blogger see’s no ulterior motive in the move:

Romney, Huckabee, Jindal, and Pawlenty have all been to Virginia on McDonnell’s behalf. Proof of a Gillespie vendetta against Palin? Or just basic no-brainer politics in not wanting to “benefit” from a cameo by someone whose favorable rating among independents is 33/59? McDonnell’s sitting on a nine-point lead in a state that broke for Obama last year by six points; why on earth would he risk the upheaval of a Palin appearance, particularly when the Democrats have been trying to caricature him as the same sort of rabid social con that the media caricatured her as?

The hard fact of the matter is that Sarahcuda’s only a clear asset on the trail in a red district where the base isn’t turning out. That’s why she was a good bet in Saxby Chambliss’s run-off in Georgia last year: The GOP knew it had the votes to win the election, they just needed to give dispirited grassroots conservatives a reason to go out and vote. Enter Palin. In purplish states like Virginia (and blue states like New Jersey, needless to say), having her out there becomes a crapshoot because it risks goosing turnout among liberals more than conservatives. In fact, assuming that conservatives stay motivated to send The One a message next year in the midterms, demand for her will probably be low since turnout will be high even without her help. What am I missing here?

California Gubernatorial and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman on health-care reform.

The billionaire co-founder of the Black Entertainment Television mocked Democrat Creigh Deeds’ occasional stuttering at a fundraiser she held for Deeds’ Republican opponent in the governor’s race, Bob McDonnell.

In a YouTube video, Sheila Johnson says Virginia needs a governor “who can really communicate, and Bob McDonnell can communicate.”

Then she tells a small crowd of wealthy donors, “The other people I talk to, especially his op-op-op-o-opponent, di-di-did this all through my interview with him.”

After muted laughter among the guests, she adds, “He could not articulate what needed to be done.”

Jared Leopold, Creigh Deeds’ press secretary, said a YouTube video depicting BET co-founder Sheila Johnson criticizing the candidate on his communication skills was a “divisive personal attack.”

“This is a cheap shot and a new low for this race,” Leopold told FOX 5 in a statement. “Virginians deserve better than personal attacks like this.

“Creigh Deeds isn’t the smoothest speaker in the race, but when he speaks he is authentic and means what he says. That’s what people will respond to, not divisive personal attacks.”