Daily Loaf

Locally, the hottest election going is the St. Petersburg Mayor’s race between Bill Foster and Kathleen Ford.

Nationally there are two elections that political observers are (probably) over analyzing right  now- the two off-year gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia. Originally, the GOP candidates looked pretty solid, setting off stories of them being possible referendums on Barack Obama’s first year in office (the same things were written before September 11th, 2001 about our then new President).  In New Jersey, recent polls suggest that Democrat Jon Corzine might squeeze though, thanks to a 3rd party candidate squeezing votes from Republican Chris Christie.

In any event, last night Fox News analyst and former Bush senior political strategist Karl Rove said on The O’Reilly Factor that he believes that the reason that President Obama and his team are taking their time on making a decision about troop levels in Afghanistan (or “dithering” in the words of Dick Cheney) is because the news that he will increase troops there  will upset liberals/Democrats, and the White House does not want to do that before those elections, fearing a depressed electorate.

I hadn’t heard that theory before, and am not sure what to think about it.  The White House doesn’t appreciate Cheney’s comments of course.  They say they are taking their deliberate time to make the right moves, unlike the previous administration.

Media speculation from our leading Washington bloviators has been that Obama will definitely increase troops from the current 68,000  level, but that it won’t be the 40,000 (or more) that General Stanley McChrystal says he wants.

Say what you will about Rove (and there is plenty to say).  He’s been famously off the mark on some of his predictions (who could forget his argument with NPR’s Robert Siegel heading into the 2006 Congressional elections when he argued with the public news reporter about the math going into that election, with Rove declaring, “I’m looking at the math”- no you weren’t, Karl), but these elections are only 11 days away.  Obama is going to make his announcement soon – maybe it won’t be until after November 3rd.

Meanwhile, the NY Times has another story on the White House Fox News feud. New details include a report that political advisor David Axerod met recently with Fox’s Roger Ailes about the rising tensions between the administration and the conservative cable news network.

The key parts of the story come at the conclusion:

Fox News Channel certainly seems to be enjoying a row it considers ratings candy, having devoted hours of news coverage and commentary to the fight.

But White House officials said they were happy to have at least started a public debate about Fox.

“This is a discussion that probably had to be had about their approach to things,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Our concern is other media not follow their lead.”

Let’s face it – the media (and not just Fox) love talking about this story.  But it is golden for the Murdoch led network.  The only show I ever watch on the network is O’Reilly.  Until recently, he’s distinguished himself for not descending into the rabid animosity towards Obama as has Hannity and Beck.  But this past week his show seems to be following in their footsteps.

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