I don’t mind it too much when candidates talk about such things because I read a LOT of American history, and public invoking of the will of the Almighty was a staple of political speeches  in the past days of the Republic. Take a time machine, and most people today would be stunned to hear the extent of religious references in the politics of 1860, for example. The trouble is both sides generally claimed God. Last time I looked, God is not registered to vote, and there is no “Project Vote Smart” on file. People do like to very selectively point to certain passages in the Bible and say they have voted “righteously”, but it seems to me many are forgetting the context of the WHOLE book.

  A person’s beliefs are fine as an internal gyrocompass of what they feel is proper. The problem occurs when someone who disagrees with you  becomes not just wrong, but evil for not sharing your belief. That is dangerous ground indeed, and is a recipe for violence. Americans should view anyone, particularly a candidate for public office, who makes such a claim with strict scrutiny. -Ben Odom

 On health care, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid bungled the process, lost control of the debate early, and should have had one plan and one voice from the get-go. Instead of making everyone feel better and more secure, they have managed to scare the crap out of the independents, give the lie to the campaign pledge that no one’s taxes would be higher than they were under Clinton, and  amazingly they were shocked-shocked!-to discover the GOP at the end of the day did not deliver any votes. As if they ever were. We could have started with a “children only” plan that would not have scared people, and would have put the GOP in a box if they came out against it, but the D.C. team was swinging for the fences on this one. Now it looks like the plan will be massively changed by the next Congress anyway, since most of the provisions don’t kick in for years. Leadership failed us on this one big-time.

 On taxes and regulation the Republicans have been handed the ammo for lots of 30 second spots. Taxes are going to be raised to pay for health care, (the nuance that it is for the higher brackets will NOT be in the 30 second ads),  and there is going to be more federal  oversight on a host of issues.The looming 1099 problem scheduled to occur in 2012 is going to lead to a mountain of new paperwork for small business- millions more 1099s required- hitting the very folks we always say we are for on the campaign trail. Business interests will pump millions into elections this year to show Democrats are the “tax and spend ” crowd.   The Congress has played to every stereotype voters have of us. Worse, someone has convinced the Administration that families that make $200,000 a year are the rich. Look for these HENRYs (High Earners Not Rich Yet) to howl like banshees when they see the taxes go up on their incomes and investments; there are about 5 million of them, and they are suburban swing voters. Blame the bean counters and policy wonks who have never “run for sheriff” as Sam Rayburn would say. You will not have to be a rocket scientist to be a Republican political consultant in the next two cycles. They have a 10 second answer to cutting the deficit-”spend less”. Our 10 second answer is “tax more?”. Which one do you think will get more votes?  Remember President Mondale?

 Immigration is an area where the Democrats  are looking for real solutions and have devoted more resources to the problem, but that is lost in the stupid P.R. move of filing suit against Arizona. That made the administration seem like they were FOR illegal immigration to voters. Could they not have waited until the law took effect, see what problems occurred, and do it after November? Noooo, they had to add another hot-button issue to take us off the jobs message, and another issue where Obama looks “weak”.  Thanks, Eric Holder. At least he hasn’t tried to push through any of his gun control ideas!

 Obama is wrong about giving us a false choice on space-we could easily have done both the old and new plans. Instead we are grounding manned space flight, giving up a lead we have had for years (and the Chinese and Russians get to fill the void) and again we have Obama looking weak. Politically this really only hurts in Florida, but it is an important state. Ask Gore, if you can find him these days. (Yes, I am upset with him. We needed him talking about the environment more than ever, not dealing with a self-inflicted personal crisis and scandal.)

 The gulf spill isn’t helping, but it isn’t hurting the “drill, baby, drill” Republicans like it should either. Obama needs to stay on the offensive on this one. We need to constanly remind voters of the pathetic crawling to BP done by that Texas Republican and others. Call this crisis even so far.

 Now you may be saying “Ben, what is the good news?” The answer is our Oklahoma candidates, whether it be Drew or Jari for Governor, or Ken Corn for Lt. Gov., are excellent, on message, and ae vastly superior to their GOP opponents in every possible objective measurement. Our challenge will be to make the elction about them and Oklahoma, not the tone-deaf Obama administration.

 It is frustrating that a team that did such a good job with message in 2008 has delivered such a poor job on what issues to lead with and how to proceed on them… to the extent we have lost 20 points with swing voters in a year. It is difficult to  both solidify a base AND reach swing voters, but what we are doing clearly is not working. The “change” swing voters wanted was competence, not left-wing ideology. I said in a speech a year ago forget the pros/cons of the policies, Pelosi and Reid are the worst possible leaders on TV for us, and Obama better stop acting like a professor-in-chief and start gut-fighting. That is still my belief today. If we don’t fight like we have never fought before, we are in for a rough night in November. So get busy.-Ben Odom

The GOP may have made a strategic mistake in fielding candidates in some VERY strong Democratic areas, and the incumbent Democrats in those spots are going to run full throttle to get out the vote. This may help the state candidates in a tight race. Add to that places like Cleveland County  where we are going to have 15 (yes, 15!) judicial  candidate campaigns underway for the primary, and  and turnout might be spiked in both the primary contests and the general.

There is a vast difference in how the nominees are selected by the two parties-the GOP contest is really about a 20 county race, the Democrats are selected in a much more rural and eastern Oklahoma setting. Candidates need to focus on where the local races will drive turnout. The end result is some locales will see a lot more of the candidates than others.

The most interesting thing to watch out for this cycle will be independent expenditures, with recent Supreme Court rulings having an impact on corporate America’s ability ro directly impact who gets elected. The voters can resent the “outside” influences if alerted to what is going on, but it takes money to deliver that message also. Does anyone not think the chicken waste polluters are not going to go after Drew Edmondson for his brave battle to save the rivers and lakes of Oklahoma? Hide and watch.

My last thought is I sure wish organized labor and other groups had spent all that money they did in Arkansas against a Democrat  here in Oklahoma against a Republican . They could have run informational ads about what a bad job Tom Coburn  or  some of our GOP House members do in looking out for  the immediate needs of Oklahoma-maybe then we could have put those seats more into play.  Why not pick your fights with people who are NEVER on your side?? We sure could have used the help here in redstateville.

-Ben Odom

On the world stage, North Korea denies sinking a South Korean ship despite parts of one of their torpedoes being found. After their “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes” argument doesn’t carry any weight,  the North then threatens all out war if South Korea responds in any way to this act of, well…war! China in the meantime says the incident is merely “unfortunate”. Doubt that would be their tone if it had been one of their ships sunk. And to top it all off, the leader of Zimbabwe, who ought to get an award for being the most effective person at destroying a once-promising country, is planning on sending numerous animals to the North Korean dictator… who must be planning to divert scarce food resources to his private petting zoo while millions starve.

The denial of reason present in all of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. It is part of the process that has so many frustrated with government on all levels. Humans are not perfect, but some seem more determined than others to prove it. Part of the problem is that it is too easy these days to live in an echo chamber, where only thoughts similar to your own are aired, heard, or discussed. Not healthy in a Republic, and one of the reasons dictatorships always make regime-ending blunders.

One of the best things I have seen about Facebook is that people are once again adding their old friends and classmates to their list of contacts-and then are realizing that not everyone agrees with their ideological postings, sense of  humor, or version of how God works. It is making people think, and that  should lead to reason. And that is what we need more of in this state, nation, and world.

-Ben Odom

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Recent votes in our legislature on social issues have sent a message that we are a hard-right state. National press was given to the abortion bills, and others are now wondering if we are going to “out-Arizona ” Arizona on immigration. Certain legislators will probably try.

There are those who eat this stuff up, but chances are they are not business recruiters who already have to battle the idea of people from around the country that we are a backward state. These legislative antics don’t help. In fact, they can hurt.  The Republicans have always campaigned as being all about  business friendly government. Time for them to tell some in their party to remember that.

-Ben Odom

Barack Obama learned those lessons for 2008. He seemed to forget them for 2009, but now in time for the mid-terms has learned to fight back and set the agenda. Agree with him or not, HE is deciding what is relevant and making some of the GOP leaders look petty and foolish in the process.

On the state level, for years Democrats could ignore GOP attacks-if they just kept enough of their own vote together, they won. Those days ended with television, which leveled the playing field and reduced “safe” areas, as the whole state saw the same commercials. For about 30 years, many Oklahoma Democrats  campaigned in an almost non-partisan manner; Boren, McCurdy, and most recently Brad Carson come to mind. But the voters were hearing all the negatives about Democrats, and none of the positives in return. It was no shocker that the base vote was declining.

But those days are over now. The Republicans control the federal delegation and the legislature, and are often the subjects of national ridicule for their far-out social agenda. They are trying to use the same old tired “talking points” from D.C., and the Rove-Gingrich school of demonizing your opponent as their playbook. They are going to learn in 2010  however that Drew Edmondson, Jari Askins, and Ken Corn know how to retaliate, debate, and show who is really out of touch.  If Mary Fallin tries to send out more snarky press releases or debate either of our two, she had better bring her “A” game. These Democrats fight back, and will have the funds to do so on television. It is going to be the beginning of a new, and much needed, era.

-Ben Odom