Obama’s welcome to hold fundraisers for Baron, of course, so long as they’re far from southern Indiana.

But as for coming here to campaign? Not so much.

I guess we can’t look forward to Obama coming to Bloomington for some campaign rally later this year.

It’s just as well. There’s a lot to suggest (in recent elections in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia) that such campaign rallies don’t help the Democratic candidate any.

Politico:

Moderate House Democrats facing potentially difficult re-elections this fall have a message for President Barack Obama: Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

Interviews with nearly a dozen congressional Democrats on the ballot this year reveal a decided lack of enthusiasm for having Obama come to their districts to campaign for them—the most basic gauge of a president’s popularity.

Some cite the president’s surely busy schedule. Others point to a practice of not bringing in national politicians to appear on their behalf. While these members aren’t necessarily attempting to distance themselves from the administration, there is nevertheless a noticeable reluctance to embrace him by a certain class of incumbent now that the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new low in the latest Gallup survey, 46 percent.

Asked directly whether he would invite the president, [North Dakota Congressman Earl] Pomeroy replied: “If the president of the United States wants to come to North Dakota, he’s always invited.”

Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.) offered the same generic, if unenthusiastic, welcome of Obama to southern Indiana.

“If he wants to come to my district, he’s welcome to come,” said Hill, who could face off against former GOP Rep. Mike Sodrel. “I don’t plan on asking him to come because I know he’s a busy guy.”

Hill did, though, point out that he had already had a fundraiser with Obama.

But when reminded it was in Indianapolis and not his district, he only said, “Uh huh.”

There’s an eager invitation if I’ve ever seen one.

Here is the lead in to your rainy day weekend open thread.

Hat tip to Allah Pundit.

The Indianapolis Tea Party

is calling all Hoosiers to rally & tell Congress to…

KILL the BILL!

Featured Speaker:

US Congressman MIKE PENCE

Join us at the Indiana Statehouse as we make a

LAST Stand Against

Government-Run Health Care!

Monday, March 15

4:30 PM

Indiana Statehouse–South Steps

200 W Washington Street

Indianapolis

Please bring signs, patriotic flags, & loud voices.

Today word came out that the House GOP Conference has just adopted a complete earmark ban for the rest of the year in order to curb spending and hold the Democrats accountable.

Here are what some members of the Republican Study Committee are saying, with two of them being a part of the Indiana Delegation.

Rep. Dan Burton (IN-5)

Because of the irresponsible spending and public outrage over largess in Congress, I have sworn to not request, and to vote against, earmarks since 2007.  Until today, I was one of just thirty-two members of Congress to take that pledge.  Today, with the entire conference of House Republicans adopting our ban on all earmarks, we have sent a clear message to the American people that we are serious about cutting spending, and serious about an ethical appropriations process in Congress

Rep. Mike Pence (IN-6)

No doubt earmarks are being talked about in a different way by the democratic majority. Democrats were cutting “backroom deals” to persuade reluctant House Democrats to vote for the president’s proposal, and said “the American people want us to change business as usual.

Rep. Eric Cantor (VA-7)

Democrats’ promises to clean up Washington politics “is being broken every day.”

Rep. John Boehner (OH-8)

For millions of Americans, the earmark process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington, Today House Republicans took an important step toward showing the American people we’re serious about reform by adopting an immediate, unilateral ban on all earmarks.

You can read the full article here from The Daily Caller and here is the list of t the 32 members in the Republican Study Committee that signed unto this total earmark ban.

Read more after the leap

RedState has the full quote:

“You’ve heard about the controversies, the process about the bill…but I don’t know if you’ve heard that it is legislation for the future – not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America,” she told the National Association of Counties annual legislative conference, which has drawn about 2,000 local officials to Washington. “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it – away from the fog of the controversy.”

Rational and thinking people would want to, you know, know what was in legislation before it got voted on.

From the Rochester Sentinel:

President Barack Obama wants Congress to vote yes or no on a comprehensive reform measure from the Senate. Donnelly likes a lot about the bill, but its language on abortion is a “fatal flaw.” For him, it is a deal breaker. “I would not vote for it,” he said. He figures there will be a vote within a month or so. The abortion language is unpopular with “a significant” number of congressmen. It has the potential to kill the bill, he said.

And then there’s this:

Donnelly says that health reform is needed, and needed soon. The cost of Medicare is an “unsustainable cost burden” that will “overwhelm” the budget if nothing is done, he said. But, he will not vote for the measure approved in the Senate because of that abortion language.

Medicare is going to go bankrupt, and Donnelly’s solution is to expand Federal health care entitlements to be even bigger?

The Indianapolis Star’s Matt Tully titled his Sunday column “Making Sense of Political News Commentary.” In his column, he asks several questions.

Two of them are particularly interesting.

Q: Will Burton survive his primary challenges?

A: The crowded field no doubt helps him. And his once-energized opponents have been quiet of late, with the exception of state Rep. Mike Murphy, a one-man public relations machine. But Burton’s fear of debating his opponents makes clear he sees a serious threat ahead.

Nobody at the Indianapolis Star ever misses a chance to dump on Dan Burton, even at the expense of basic common sense.

A crowded field helps Burton, it’s true.

And the field is so crowded that he doesn’t need to bother to debate any of them.

Dan Burton isn’t avoiding debates with his opponents because he’s afraid of them. He’s avoiding debating them because the challenge to him is so fractured and divided that it can hardly be taken seriously and he doesn’t need to worry about debating them.

When you’re behind, as Burton’s opponents are, you want to debate. When you’re ahead, you don’t need to.

That’s just the way it is. It’s Basic Politics 101. Maybe Matt Tully could see that if he wasn’t trying to spin every mention of Burton to as bad an angle for Burton as possible.

Read more

Congressman Pence was on fire today in his response to the President’s health care speech today.  This is the most worked up I’ve seen Pence.  He assails the president’s call for health care to be rammed through in the next two weeks and reiterates what poll after poll after poll and the election of Scott Brown have said.  And that is American’s don’t want a government run health care system.  But the health care line of the day comes from House GOP Leader, John Boehner said “You can’t add some Republican sprinkles on top of a 2,700 page bill and claim it’s bi-partisan”.

With five candidates running for Senate, fourteen running in the 4th Congressional District and seven in the 5th CD, we’re bound to be in for a lot of poll numbers to come from campaigns over the next nine weeks before the primary.

A few weeks ago, a 5th CD candidate came out with his own poll, from Bellwether Research showing, that Congressman Dan Burton’s re-elect numbers were low.  But when Burton was taken out of the equation, a push poll showed that none of the candidates broke 16%, while “undecided” scored a whopping 43%.  Turns out, that 43% ends up voting for Dan Burton.

Results from a poll taken January 20-21, 2010 and recently released by the Burton Campaign showed:

Congressman Burton currently leads his closest opponent by 34%, as the ballot currently stands at 43% Burton/9% Messer/8% McVey/8% McGoff/4% Murphy/2% Lyons and 26% undecided.

(Read more after the leap)

As if the campaign hasn’t seen enough blasts from the past comes this from the Indy Star:

The most contentious part of the debate came when, in his closing remarks, Coats called out Hostettler for his answer on a previous question, in which he criticized former President George W.Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq.

Hostettler stressed the lack of intelligence to justify that weapons of mass destruction existed under Sadaam Hussein and reminded those in the room he voted against the Iraq war, but backed efforts in Afghanistan, because of the direct link to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

“I started as ambassador (to Germany) two days after 9/11 …

“John, you and I need to have a good debate about Iraq and about weapons of mass destruction, because I fundamentally disagree with you in terms of why we went in there,” Coats told Hostettler. “I started every day in Germany with collection of intelligence from the U.S., German, French, British and even countries that didn’t support us. The evidence that was before us.”

Hostettler countered that it wasn’t and cited Bush’s statement that if he could have one “do-over” of his presidency, it’s that he could have “changed the intelligence” he had about Iraq.

George W. Bush quit trying to make the case for the invasion of Iraq several years ago, so why is Dan Coats trying to make an issue out of it now?

Does he expect Hoosier primary voters to punish John Hostettler today for coming to a judgment that happened to be correct eight years ago (as much as it was unpopular at the time)?

And would not Coats looking to the past to criticize Hostettler for past votes open the door for Hostettler and the other candidates to criticize Coats for past votes he has made (some of which happen to be hugely unpopular with certain elements of the Republican primary electorate)?

Maybe Hostettler brought up Iraq and baited Coats; the article isn’t clear on that and I didn’t attend the debate to be able to say. But if Hostettler brought it up, he might as well have been playing Br’er Rabbit begging not to be thrown into the Briar Patch.