Upcoming TV/Radio Appearances 

Week Of March 1, 2021 - March 7, 2021: 

Monday, March 1, 2021:

• Newsmax TV 4:00-5:00 PM ET (TV)

Tuesday, March 2, 2021:

• Fox Business Channel 6:00-7:00 PM ET (TV)

Thursday, March 4, 2021:

• Fox Business Channel 6:00-7:00 PM ET (TV)
• Fox News 92.5 FM 6:30-7:00 PM ET (Radio/SWFL)

***Ford's Media Schedule Changes With Breaking News, So Please Check Back Often.***

U.S. President Barack Obama made a major concession to Republicans Wednesday by calling for cuts in Social Security and Medicare during an ongoing budget battle in Congress.

Signaling a will to compromise, Obama said his new budget plan would cut Social Security, one of the government's big-ticket spending items, by 100 billion U.S. dollars or more over the next decade.

"(The proposal) challenges the long-held Democratic notion that entitlements are sacrosanct," Republican Strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua in an interview Wednesday.

"The fact that the president is catching heat from both sides is relatively a good sign," he said, adding that Obama is seeking middle ground between budgets put forth by both parties.

"He's just not there yet," O'Connell said.

"He's trying to prep his own party for that (cuts in spending) but at the same time he's hitting the Republicans pretty hard on the revenue side," he added.

For their part, if Republicans want to steer the president more in their direction, they will have to convince Obama of their belief that smart deficit reduction will lead to private sector job growth and a stronger dollar, O'Connell said.

But Obama's concessions may not be enough to win over Republicans, as the budget proposal also contains tax increases on upper earners, something GOP lawmakers are dead set against. Some analysts and media predict the bill will be dead on arrival.

Read more at the Global Post

From Charlie Cook at The NationalJournal:

So if Democrats can reliably count on winning the lion’s share of the votes of Democrats and liberals while Republicans can be equally assured of the support of Republicans and conservatives, the question that arises is whether it’s independents or moderates that are decisive.

Last year, while Romney won among the 29 percent of voters who identify themselves as independents by 5 points, 50 to 45 percent, he lost among the much larger group, the 41 percent who self-describe as moderates, by 15 points, 56 to 41 percent. Though congressional Republicans carried the independent vote by 7 points, they lost the moderate vote by 16 points. While conservatives certainly have bragging rights over liberals in terms of self-identification—a 10-point edge—the fact that Republicans do so badly among the largest group, moderates, is more important.

The point of all of this is not to be dismissive of the importance of independent voters and obsessed with moderates, but to show that both of those groups matter and that either party that ignores either of those sectors does so at its own peril.

As we come out of the year-end fiscal-cliff crisis, there are other fights over the next three months that look equally challenging, if not more so. And the public-opinion fight is more likely to be won by whichever party seems to offer the message of balance that appeals to these moderate voters, who are obviously neither liberal nor conservative ideologues, and who are more pragmatic than dogmatic.

Not a "clear" victory for Democrats, but certainly a broad one. Remember, Republicans still control 30 governors' mansions, a majority of state legislatures and control the U.S. House of Representatives. We still live in a center-right country, but now is certainly a time of reflection for the GOP. They must use this time wisely or else Republicans will find itself on the losing end of future elections. From The Economist:

The Democrats won 50.6% of the votes for president, to 47.8% for the Republicans; 53.6% of the votes for the Senate, to 42.9% for the Republicans; and…49% of the votes for the House, to 48.2% for the Republicans (some ballots are still being counted).

 

From The Washington Post:

From Kyle Kondik at Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball:

While there will be major shifts in the House delegations of many states on Election Day, and while more than a handful of incumbents appear likely to lose, the total change in each party’s net total of House seats will probably not be large. That means it’s good to be the Republicans, who already hold a big edge in the House — an edge that we project them to keep. The Crystal Ball can now project that the Republicans will retain their House majority, although we suspect it will be at least a bit smaller than their current 25-seat edge.

Our modest projected gain for the Democrats is pretty similar to our first hard guess as to the net change in the House this cycle — on July 12, we said Democrats would pick up six seats; today, we’re saying Democrats plus five. If Democrats do in fact net five seats, that would make the House 237 Republican to 198 Democratic.

From Mike Shannon and Will Feltus at The NationalJournal's Hotline On Call:

George Washington famously brewed it. James Madison purportedly sought to create a cabinet-level Secretary of Beer. And Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped make it legal to produce and sell (again) by championing legislation repealing Prohibition. Upon signing the bill, he reportedly said, "I think this would be a good time for a beer."

Beer is also a staple on the presidential campaign trail, with candidates often visiting pubs to show they understand the common man. Similarly, pollsters sometimes ask the question, "Who would you rather have a beer with?" to gauge which candidate has the likeability edge.

We've analyzed Scarborough Research data, which includes 200,000 interviews with American adults, to determine the politics of beer drinkers.

Credit: Tracey Robinson, NMRPP

From John McCormick at Bloomberg:

Independent voters are growing in numbers at the expense of Democrats in battleground states most likely to determine this year’s presidential election, a Bloomberg News analysis shows.

The collective total of independents grew by about 443,000 in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina since the 2008 election, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from state election officials.

During the same time, Democrats saw a net decline of about 480,000 in those six states, while Republicans -- boosted in part by a competitive primary earlier this year -- added roughly 38,000 voters in them, the analysis shows.

A Bloomberg survey taken June 15-18 showed 50 percent of independents view the Republican Party unfavorably, while 47 percent say that about the Democratic Party.