This is not the view of Two Steps Left as a whole, but only me, Jaren Love.

(predicted winners in bold)

Ohio:

Sherrod Brown (D) v. Mike DeWine (R)

Pennsylvania:

Bob Casey (D) v. Rick Santorum (R)

New Jersey:

Bob Menendez (D) v. Tom Kean (R)

Virginia:

Jim Webb (D) v. George Allen (R)

Rhode Island:

Sheldon Whitehouse (D) v. Lincoln Chafee (R)

Missouri:

Claire McCaskill (D) v. Jim Talent (R)

Tenessee:

Harold Ford, Jr. (D) v. Bob Corker (R)

Montana:

Jon Tester (D) v. Conrad Burns (R)

Note: I also think a race that is not necessarily in play will surprise us, perhaps Nevada? If any readers have any questions on my logic, which they’re might not be too much rather than gut feelings, comment and we can talk!

Election season is almost over. People have tuned in and the number of undecided voters has become smaller. Why hasn’t either of Pennsylvania’s state races recieved much attention in the news, especially compared to  the predictions that were made pre-election season?

Answer: Swann is unexciting and Santorum is symbolic of the Bush White House and the Republican held congress which assumes people will forget the news of yesteday (most recently seen with the White House denying the rhetoric of ’stay the course’). Let us be honest, the debate between Casey and Santorum spelled out an agreement: you show me your returns i’ll show you mine. Now the agreement has changed. You give me a and b and i’ll give you a. In business this would not fly.

The Santorum, Casey race hasn’t been that exciting becasue Santorum is a negative Washington insider. This is reflected in the fact that Santorum has been chasing Casey’s numbers the whole race. And for good reason, he doesn’t take the voters seriously.

UNBELIEVEABLE! Politicians never seem to have trouble lying to people, especially in the Republican Party. Here’s the latest GOP lie. How about a letter to the registered Democratic Hispanic residents of California’s 47th congressional district written in Spanish telling them that even if they are a LEGAL immigrant that their voting can result in jail time! Forget Foley flirting with kids, forget Hastart shrugging and lying about his involvement, forget Bob Ney taking bribes, and Duke Cunningham stealing money…yes, this is even more of a threat. This is an intimidation of our very democracy.

And how hypocritical! Tan D. Nguyen is an immigrant from Vietnam. Now, his campaign is telling immigrants they can’t vote? It seems Republicans will do just about anything to win. And for what? Are they that convicted to cut taxes for billionaires and start wars in unthreatening nations and lie about the progress? Do they feel it is so important to manipulate their evangelical Christian base into voting for them on the basis of their “moral values” while they have a party that protects child molesters and contains
people within their party getting indicted what seems like every week?

I realize in all fairness Nguyen may have had no knowledge of the letter. But if he did not, he is way too out of touch of the happenings of his own campaign to be considered a good enough candidate anyway. That is why I think the Orange County Republicans have unanimously agreed on calling for him to step down as a candidate. Look, this goes way far beyond partisanship, although as of recently I feel more urged to attack the corruption of the Republicans. But this scandal has to be the worst yet. Hispanic immigrants, both illegal and legal, have been under enormous discrimination lately. I blame a lot on the media for depicting them all as criminals running across the border. I find it shocking that in conversation some people in the area where I live will act as though there is no community of LEGAL Hispanic immigrants. What a concept! A legal immigrant from a nation of Hispanic origin! It just can’t be! Well, IT IS. We need to stop this racism that goes on in our country. This is a prime example. Condescendingly lying to legal American citizens in Spanish that their voting will result in jail time, how low can these people go? They even act as though none of these 14,000 people they sent the letter to can speak English. I am glad officials are taking action against this terrible form of corruption. It sure as heck should not be any legal immigrants going to jail for voting, it should be whatever creep put out this letter going to jail for intimidating Democratic voters into not voting for Loretta Sanchez.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez is being attacked by a racist agenda of hate toward Hispanics. I have a ton of respect for Rep. Loretta Sanchez who has done wonderful service as a representative in congress. And now, it seems her re-election is a sure thing, and rightfully so.

The situation in North Korea with the nuclear weapons testing has been a disturbing annoucement to the whole international community. The unfortunate behavior of American politicians of both parties making it a political story in some instances is deeply troubling. First, Hillary Clinton came out and attacked President Bush and then John “Wishy Washy” McCain came out and attacked President Clinton.

Neither of these assessments will bring progress to this problem nor put us closer to a solution. It is obviously the political intentions of Hillary Clinton and John McCain that put them out on their bully pulpits making statements like this. They both want to rewrite the history books by becoming President of the United States. Clinton wants to be the first woman President so bad that it makes me sick at times. McCain tries so hard to be this maverick reformer all the time that no one even knows what he really stands for.

If anything should be politicized now, play politics with Mark Foley, but not an isolated rogue state possibly successfully becoming a nuclear weapon state. It is a nation that is so mysterious and frightening it has no place for politicizing. It is a nation where people are starving to death, yet they have one of the highest military budgets in the whole world.

With all of this being said, I think the best opinion piece I have read on this whole situation was the op-ed piece written by Jimmy Carter for this morning’s New York Times. I actually did not get the Times today but heard about this piece because Bill O’Reilly accused Carter of Bush-bashing. If you ask me, that could not be farther from the truth. I encourage you to read it here.

Politicizing this situation is not the answer. The United States needs to adopt a serious diplomatic strategy to solve this crisis. Unfortunately, our eyes were on the Middle East way too long and North Korea’s nuclear weapons are a result of this.

I don’t think Dennis Hastert is going to resign.