TODD YOUNG NEEDS YOUR HELP IN INDIANA 9TH DISTRICT!!!!

"Great necessities call out great virtues.” -- Abigail Adams


Friends,
 
I don’t ask for favors often, but our country needs your help.
 
Washington is broken and, for over 20 months now, my family and I have given all we can to restore responsible leadership to our Congress.  Many of you have helped us along the way.  Today, we need your help again.
 
After much hard work and sacrifice, my husband Todd remains positioned to win back the 9th District congressional seat for the people of southern Indiana.  But we must keep the momentum going.  Please respond today so that our campaign can respond to Baron Hill’s latest smear attacks against my husband. 
 
Our family is “all in.”  We’ve skimped on family time.  We’ve slept less than most families.  We’ve forgone income and depleted savings.   We’ve endured mean-spirited negative attacks.  We’ve put our hearts into the cause.  All the while, we’ve believed that we can make a difference, and help keep this the greatest nation on earth for America’s children and grandchildren.
 
Todd and I still believe that we can make a difference . . . but only with your help.  We have just 14 hours before our last quarterly fundraising report of the election.  With another record-setting fundraising report, Washington Republicans will invest significant resources into this race – enough to ensure that our message of fiscal responsibility and principled leadership is heard.
 
Please step up today.  Your financial contribution of $1000, $500, $250, $100 or whatever you can manage just may be the push we need to gain a majority in Congress, and remove Nancy Pelosi from the Speaker’s chair.
 
Together, we can make this time of great necessities a time of great virtues.
 
Yours in service,
 
Jenny

Clinging to Arrogance

From Victor Davis Hanson at RealClearPolitics:

The bookish, twice-unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson once sighed that if most thinking people supported him, it still wouldn't be enough in America because "I need a majority."

For some reason, Democrats have chosen to follow the disastrous model of Stevenson and not that of feisty man-of-the-people Missourian Harry Truman -- though the former nearly wrecked the party and the latter got elected.

Former President Jimmy Carter likewise seems to feel that he's still too smart for us. Carter, who turns 86 on Friday, is hitting the news shows to explain why he remains America's "superior" ex-president -- and why more than 30 years ago he was so successful yet so underappreciated as our chief executive.

Most Americans instead remember a very different President Carter who finished his single term with 18 percent inflation, 18 percent interest rates, 11 percent unemployment, long gas lines, and a world in chaos from hostage-taking in Teheran and Soviet communist aggression inAfghanistan and Central America.

Now, John Kerry -- who failed to win the presidency in 2004 and recently tried to avoid state sales taxes on his new $7 million yacht -- is voicing similar frustrations about Americans' inability to fathom what their betters are trying to do for them. He is furious that an unsophisticated electorate might not return congressional Democratic majorities in 2010. Kerry laments that, "We have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on." Instead it falls for "a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what's happening."

In 2006, Kerry warned students that if they did poorly in school, they could "get stuck in Iraq." He apparently had forgotten that soldiers volunteer for military service, and are overwhelmingly high school graduates.

In the 2008 campaign, Michelle Obama at one point said of her husband's burden, "Barack is one of the smartest people you will ever encounter who will deign to enter this messy thing called politics."

That sense of intellectual superiority was channeled by Barack Obama himself when he later tried to explain why his message was not resonating with less astute rural Pennsylvanians: "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

During the recent Ground Zero mosque controversy, Obama returned to that Carter-Kerry-Obama sort of condescension. When asked about the overwhelming opposition to the mosque, the president felt again that the unthinking hoi polloi had given into their unfounded fears: "I think that at a time when the country is anxious generally and going through a tough time, then fears can surface, suspicions, divisions can surface in a society."

The president often clears his throat with "Let me be perfectly clear" and "Make no mistake about it" -- as if we, his schoolchildren, have to be warned to pay attention to the all-knowing teacher at the front of the class.

Disappointed progressive pundits also resonate this angst over having to deal with childlike Americans. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson recently psychoanalyzed the falling support for the president by claiming that "The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats."

Thomas Frank's best-selling 2004 book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" lamented that uninformed voters were easily tricked into voting against their "real" economic interests.

When America votes for a liberal candidate, it is redeemed by the left as intelligent -- and derided as dense when it does not. We were told not to worry that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner did not pay all his income taxes since we were lucky to have someone so well educated and experienced in high finance.

Note that few Democratic candidates are running on the health-care bill they passed, promising at the time that it would be appreciated by a suspicious American public. More federal borrowing and amnesty are still pushed under the euphemisms "stimulus" and "comprehensive immigration reform." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that the tea party movement was merely a synthetic Astroturf movement. Professors and preachers may like such sermonizing, but for politicians it's a lousy way to get elected. Again, compare the relative fates of the patronizing Adlai Stevenson and the plain-speaking Harry Truman.

But current polls suggest that these clueless and unappreciative Americans apparently believe that an elite education does not ensure their officials can balance a budget, pay their own taxes or speak candidly.

What an outrageous "How dare they!" thought.

Four Weeks Left!

I received this by email and thought I should share it.  It is from a Fellow Patriot who has come to understand the best way to get things done politically - GET INVOLVED!  READ, LEARN AND VOLUNTEER!! IF YOU DON'T WHO WILL?   Call your local GOP committee chairs to find out how you can contribute to your local campaigns.  THE TIME IS NOW!-SP

Fellow 9th District Patriots,

Are you satisfied with your representation in Congress?  If not, continue reading.

Baron Hill voted for Obamacare, the Stimulus Package, and Cap and Trade.  In addition to that, he called folks like you and me "political terrorists."  He arrogantly referred to his town hall as "my town hall" and stated that "I set the rules."  He has forgotten why he was elected - to represent his constituents, you and me.  HE WORKS FOR US.  He likes to claim the title of "Blue Dog Democrat," but he usually ends up in Nancy Pelosi's corner when it comes time to vote.  IT IS TIME FOR BARON HILL TO GO!!!

Unfortunately, Baron Hill has name recognition, and not all voters are as informed and engaged as you and me.  We cannot sit by and just hope that his opponent, Todd Young, is going to get elected without our help.  Todd Young is a great candidate representing the Republican party and will work with Mike Pence and other Conservatives to try to undo the damage done by the liberals in Congress.  He needs your help.  There are still voters in the 9th District who know nothing about Todd and have not even heard of him.  We are running out of time.  If we don't make these changes in 2010, it may not happen.  We desperately need volunteers to go door-to-door for Todd.  If he fails to win this election and Baron Hill gets re-elected, it will be too late to do anything.  I went door-to-door on my own this afternoon and in only 2 hours and 15 minutes I was able to knock on 54 doors.  If we had 10 people, we could hit 500 doors and with 20 people 1000 doors.  What a difference that could make in shifting the Congressional balance from a tax and spend majority to one that is fiscally responsible.

Please volunteer to do this.  Remember, we are trying to save our country!!!.  Thank you. 

Sherry Grimes

Baron Hill Shows His Contempt (AGAIN) For 9th District Voters!! Votes With Pelosi (AGAIN)!

At The Hill:

House Democrats on Wednesday barely won a 210-209 vote to adjourn the House without extending the Bush tax cuts.

Thirty-nine House Democrats voted against adjournment after Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) urged opposition to the motion in a floor speech that said it would be irresponsible for Congress to leave without providing certainty on the tax issue. Dozens of Democrats in tough races voted against adjourning.

"Vote no on this adjournment resolution. Give Congress a chance to vote on extending tax rates," Boehner said. 

Boehner's floor speech turned the vote on adjournment into a referendum on the tax cuts, which has divided Democrats for months. President Obama wants to extend tax cuts for families making less than $250,000, while allowing taxes to rise on income above that threshold. Many centrist Democrats have joined Republicans in arguing for extending all of the tax cuts. 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Wednesday that the House would not vote on the expiring George W. Bush-era tax cuts before lawmakers break for the November midterm elections. The House is expected to conclude its work late Wednesday or early Thursday morning.

The House had been seen as unlikely to vote on the tax measure since the Senate decided last week against acting on it before the election, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not inform lawmakers of a final decision until Wednesday morning, a House leadership aide said. Hoyer and Pelosi had split on the timing of the vote, but the aide said the two party leaders were ultimately on the same page.

Wednesday's vote, however, made it clear that dozens of Democrats were uncomfortable with leaving Washington without a vote on extending the tax cuts. 

The 39 Democrats who voted against adjournment were a mix of centrist Blue Dogs and vulnerable members from Republican-leaning districts. Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.), Gerry Connolly (Va.), Travis Childers (Miss.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Steve Driehaus (Ohio), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.), Frank Kratovil (Md.), Walt Minnick (Idaho) and Tom Perriello (Va.) were among the vulnerable Democrats to vote against ending the work period without voting on the tax cuts. 

Three House Democrats who are running for Senate, Reps. Brad Ellsworth (Ind.), Charlie Melancon (La.) and Joe Sestak (Pa.) also voted against adjournment.

Members who voted to adjourn were "putting their election above the needs of your constituents," Boehner said in his speech. "Vote no on this adjournment resolution. Give Congress the chance to vote on extending tax rates."

Following the vote, Pelosi's office criticized Boehner's speech, saying it did not contain productive solutions to help aid the economic recovery.

"After listening to House Republican Leader John Boehner’s speech on the House floor today, it is clear that Americans face a choice: keep moving America forward—or return to what Republicans themselves call the 'exact same' agenda of failed ideas that favored corporate special interests, pushed us to the brink of economic disaster and left the middle class and small businesses struggling," a release from her office reads. 

The House still has several votes today, including on a measure to keep the federal government operating through Dec. 3, before it adjourns. 

Here's the full list of Democrats who voted against adjournment: 

Rep. John Adler (N.J.)

Rep. Jason Altmire (Pa.)

Rep. Michael Arcuri (N.Y.)

Rep. Melissa Bean (Ill.)

Rep. Tim Bishop (N.Y.)

Rep. Bobby Bright (Ala.)

Rep. Chris Carney (Pa.)

Rep. Travis Childers (Miss.)

Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.)

Rep. Joe Donnelly (Ind.)

Rep. Steve Driehaus (Ohio)

Rep. Chet Edwards (Texas)

Rep. Brad Ellsworth (Ind.)

Rep. Bill Foster (Ill.)

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.)

Rep. Martin Heinrich (N.M.)

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.)

Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (Ohio)

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz.)

Rep. Frank Kratovil (Md.)

Rep. Betsy Markey (Colo.)

Rep. Jim Marshall (Ga.)

Rep. Mike McIntyre (N.C.) 

Rep. Mike McMahon (N.Y.)

Rep. Jerry McNerney (Calif.)

Rep. Charlie Melancon (La.)

Rep. Mike Michaud (Maine)

Rep. Walt Minnick (Idaho)

Rep. Harry Mitchell (Ariz.)

Rep. Patrick Murphy (Pa.)

Rep. Glenn Nye (Va.)

Rep. Tom Perriello (Va.)

Rep. Gary Peters (Mich.)

Rep. Mark Schauer (Mich.)

Rep. Joe Sestak (Pa.)

Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.)

Rep. Zack Space (Ohio)

Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.)

Rep. Dina Titus (Nev.)

You don't see Baron Hill's name on this list, do you?  That means he voted to accede to the wishes of Nancy Pelosi again!  He wanted to get out of Washington so he could come home to march in the Octoberfest parade in Seymour this weekend - to show the hometown folks how concerned he is for everyone here.  We need to all try to show up to march with the Jackson County TEA Party in the same parade, to show him how we REALLY feel about his liberal votes in Congress.  Now is the time to show people how we feel.  PLEASE BE AT THE PARADE IF YOU CAN!!  LET'S SHOW THIS COMMUNITY AND THE CONGRESSMAN THAT WE ARE DONE WITH BUSINESS AS USUAL!  IT IS TIME TO HEAR WE THE PEOPLE!!!!-SP

2010 shows liberal contempt for voters

From Don Surber at Daily Mail Blogs:

My favorite moment in every episode of the V television series is when the flesh veneer of the aliens peels away and the lizard beneath shows through.

The truth comes out at last.

Every time I see the flesh give way, I remember the scene in the “To Serve Man” episode of Twilight Zone where the young lady rushes to the gate to try to stop her boss from boarding the alien ship: “Mr. Chambers. Mr. Chambers, the first page is just a collection of English words with their own translation. But the rest of the book — the rest of the book — It’s a cookbook!”

To Serve Man.

“It’s a cookbook.”

Bwa Ha Ha.

I believe the Kanamits offered free health care, did they not?

And so now as they trudge to the electoral guillotine, Democrats shed their skin and their code is exposed.

They really don’t like us.

Seriously.

They think we are fools. They view our religion as superstition. They label our skepticism as ignorance and our patriotism as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and fattening.

Nothing is worse to a liberal than fat.

The liberal contempt for America is shining through.

President Obama called voters “whiners” in public. Heaven knows what he calls them in private.

Non-president John Kerry portrayed the electorate as dummies who are easily contented with a slick slogan and fancy logo.

Well, maybe in Massachusetts where they elected him to the U.S. Senate 5 times.

I can see why Obama and Kerry have contempt for the electorate. Obama and Kerry figure anyone who voted for them is a dummy. Ha Ha Ha.

But that is how they act in private.

For them to show their contempt so publicly surprised Reagan’s political director, Ed Rollins.

From Ed Rollins: “I have seen many campaigns in my four decades in politics, but this one is the strangest. With a little more than a month to go and many races still very close, the Democratic message to their faithful is mind-boggling.”

He advised Democrats to quit insulting voters.

Noooooooooooo! Encourage them to do so. This is entertaining. I love watching the meltdown.

The public is paying attention this year. That’s a danger for incumbents in a midterm election. Angry mobs don’t storm the castle to sing, “Happy Birthday.”

And so it is this election.

From Ed Rollins: “Much of the communication that goes on between political figures and voters these days is yelling back and forth between the elected officials pontificating on cable television with their voters watching back home, often in disbelief.

“For those voters not closely following the elections, there are a lot of distractions: The baseball playoffs and the World Series, the NFL and the college football season. But I promise you the real rough and tumble is going to be on the political turf, and the outcome will have real consequences for us all.”

Remember when Sally Field told the Academy upon receiving her second Oscar “You love me, you really, really love me!”?

Well, they hate us. They really, really hate us.

Jackson County We The People TEA Party to March this Weekend!

TO ALL IN JACKSON COUNTY INDIANA AND THE 9TH DISTRICT!!!

Fellow TEA PARTY Patriots;

Saturday is the Oktoberfest parade in Seymour. Please try to attend and let us show the folks who we are and who we are not. We have been given the privilege of participating in the parade and have been asked to not do a couple things. PLEASE do not bring any signs that are about Baron Hill, Obama, Pelosi or any other politician. Later in October we will have time to use those signs. They have asked this of us and this is the least we can do for the committee. Obviously, the national main stream media has influenced some to believe we are racists, hateful and violent so we must show exactly the opposite. Let us be the most polite, considerate and congenial group in the parade. Go out of your way to present that image.

Bring American flags

Wear your TEA Party shirts (There will be shirts available for $10 before and after the parade.)

We can not pass out anything at this parade.

Sign suggestions;

Proud to be American, Less Spending, Taxed Enough Already, Repeal Health Care ( Not Obamacare ), Smaller Government, Downsize Government, Big Gov-Stay Out Of Our lives, Defend Our Constitution, Save The Republic, God Bless America, Protect America.

If you keep your signs to a simple 2-4 words, more people will get the message as we pass them in the parade. Keep it positive and we can grow this group and our influence upon the community. The above sayings are things most people can identify with and they will respond positively. If we use negative signs in a parade, we will only alienate some.

The parade starts at 1:30 p.m. but they want us in line by 12:45 p.m.  Although Laura and I have three couples staying with us all weekend, I am going to slip away, get the truck and trailer and will drive the parade route. I will try to be near the high school parking lot around 12:00 noon.

Be at the Seymour High School parking lot (or near it) no later than 1:00 p.m.  Come and have some fun with us ! Bring your kids and grandkids for an educational experience. We need more young folks to get involved. This TEA Party movement has to keep going for decades to protect our Republic.

Someone will take up donations to compensate Mr. Fox for the use of his truck and trailer once again. Thanks again to Fox Farms for the great ride.

For Safety reasons----Once on the trailer, do not try to get off without help.

Please check out our blogspot for interesting information daily----     www.theseymoutpundit.blogspot.com

If you can be there, please do - the more the merrier-SP

Blaming the Voters

From The Wall Street Journal:

Democrats seeking to boost voter turnout this fall are beginning to sound like the late comedian Chris Farley's portrayal of a "motivational speaker" on Saturday Night Live. Farley's character sought to inspire young people by announcing that they wouldn't amount to "jack squat" and would someday be "living in a van down by the river."

This week President Obama chimed in with another uplifting message about the American electorate. Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that the tea party movement is financed and directed by "powerful, special-interest lobbies." But this doesn't mean that tea party groups are composed entirely of corporate puppets. Mr. Obama graciously implied that a small subset of the movement is simply motivated by bigotry.Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who prefers sailing vessels to vans by the river, recently tried out the Farley method. Said Mr. Kerry, "We have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what's happening." Bay State voters are surely thrilled to be represented by a man so respectful of their concerns.

View Full Image

Associated Press

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden

The President said "there are probably some aspects of the Tea Party that are a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the President." The tea party is now supported by a third of the country in some polls.

Perhaps advocates for smaller government shouldn't take Mr. Obama's comments personally. In the new Democratic attacks on the voting public, not even Democrats are spared. Vice President Joe Biden recently urged the party's base to "stop whining" and "buck up," a message echoed by Mr. Obama in his Rolling Stone interview. The President demanded that his supporters "shake off this lethargy," warning that it would be "inexcusable" for liberals to stay home on Election Day.

Mr. Obama added that "if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place." Making the case for left-wing voters to show up in November, Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that he is presiding over "the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward."

We'd agree, but his problem is that most Americans don't like that agenda and millions of voters in both parties wanted him to oversee an economic expansion instead. Blaming the voters is not unheard of among politicians, but usually they wait until after an election.

Taxing the Rich

From John Stossel at RealClearPolitics:

Progressives want to raise taxes on individuals who make more than $200,000 a year because they say it's wrong for the rich to be "given" more money. Sunday's New York Times carries a cartoon showing Uncle Sam handing money to a fat cat. They just don't get it.

As I've said before, a tax cut is not a handout. It simply means government steals less. What progressives want to do is take money from some -- by force -- and spend it on others. It sounds less noble when plainly stated.


That's the moral side of the matter. There's a practical side, too. Taxes discourage wealth creation. That hurts everyone, the lower end of the income scale most of all. An economy that, through freedom, encourages the production of wealth raises the living standards of lower-income people as well as everyone else.

A free society is not a zero-sum game in which every gain is offset by someone's loss. As long as government keeps its thumb off the scales, the "makers" who get rich do so by making others better off. (When the government allocates capital or creates barriers to competition, all bets are off.)

Of course, this is not the prevailing view among the intelligentsia. Columbia University Professor Marc Lamont Hill tells me, "Those who have more should pay more."

But is there a point where they stop producing wealth or leave altogether?

"The rich have always cried wolf like that," Hill says.

But the wolf is here. Maryland created a special tax on rich people that was supposed to bring in $106 million. Instead, the state lost $257 million.

Former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who is running again for his old job, says: "It reminds me of Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown was always surprised when Lucy pulled the football away. And they're always surprised in Washington and state capitals when the dollars never come in."

Some of Maryland's rich left the state. "They're out of here. These people aren't stupid," Ehrlich says.

New York billionaire Tom Golisano isn't stupid, either. With $3,000 and one employee, he started a business that processes paychecks for companies. He created 13,000 jobs.

Then New York state hiked the income tax on millionaires.

"It was the straw that broke the camel's back," he says. "Not that I like to throw the number around, but my personal income tax last year would've been $13,800 a day. Would you like to write a check for $13,800 a day to a state government, as opposed to moving to another state where there's no state income tax or very low state income tax?

He established residence in Florida, which has no personal income tax.

Now Gov. David Paterson may have even seen the light.

"We projected that we would get $4 billion, and we actually got well short of it," he says.

Art Laffer, the economist who has a curve illustrating this point named after him, isn't surprised.

"It's just economics," he says. "People don't work to pay taxes. People work to get what they can after tax. They'll change where they earn their income. They'll change how they earn their income. They'll change how much they earn, when they receive the income. They'll change all of those things to minimize taxes."

We can see it in the statistics. In 1960, federal revenues were 18.6 percent of total output. Over the next 50 years, that percentage has rarely exceeded 20 percent or fallen below 17 percent. As Laffer says, people adjust their activities to the tax burden.

Donald Trump, who knows something about making money, says of course the rich will leave when hit with higher taxes. "I know these people," he told me. "They're international people. Whether they live here or live in a place like Switzerland doesn't really matter to them."

You haven't left, I told him.

"I haven't left yet. ... Look, the rich people are going to leave. And other people are going to leave. You're going to end up with lots of people that don't produce. And then that's the spiral. That's the end."

And that's another good reason for us to get on with reducing the size of government.

60% of Economists: Extend Bush Tax Cuts for Everyone

From CNN via The Tax Prof Blog:

CNN, Economists: Extend Bush Tax Cuts for Everyone:

[A] majority of a panel of leading economists surveyed by CNNMoney.com said that the tax cuts should be renewed for everyone.

John Kerry: Democrats’ woes stem from uninformed voters

At The Daily Caller:

A testy U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday blamed clueless voters with short attention spans for the uphill battle beleaguered Democrats are facing against Republicans across the nation.

“We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening,” Kerry told reporters after touring the Boston Medical Center yesterday.

One of the "educated elite" that thinks he knows what's best for us!!!  PINHEAD!!! -SP

The Big Gov't Crowd-Unholy public-sector coalition

From Steve Malanga at The New York Post:

The Tea Party movement may have arisen to protest rising deficits and increasing federal control of everything from health care to the auto industry -- but the big-government coalition it's fighting wasn't born in Washington. The federal agenda that the movement is now battling to overturn originated in state capitals like Albany, Trenton and Sacramento.

This agenda has been promoted with growing success in the last 50 years by a self-interested coalition of public-sector unions and social-advocacy groups that benefit from bigger government, higher taxes and more public control of the economy. Merely "taking back" Congress on Election Day won't stop the relentless rise of this coalition, which has at its disposal enormous resources.

This is why we must rally as many people as we can to OUR movement.  This "big govt. crowd" is deeply entrenched in state and local organizations and their budgets depend on the Federal dollars.  As a firefighter back in the '70s,  I saw the dangers of unfunded liabilities in the police and fire pension system in Indiana.  And while it has improved for police/fire pensions, teachers pensions and others are in trouble.  That means the taxpayers are in trouble, too.  The TEA Party movement is not just about politics but stands in opposition to the entire "Progressive" agenda that requires the "educated elites" determine what is "right" or "fair" and the rest of us are required to pony up to provide the means to their ends. - SP

Democrats Face Skeptics in Rural Areas

From The Wall Street Journal:

WILLISTON, N.D.—Cliff Wehrman has a new Dodge pickup and the remnants of a tan from a Mexican beach vacation.

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Associated Press

A student pours red Kool-Aid, left, into a pipe in a poster of Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy this month at North Dakota State University in Fargo. The Kool-Aid represents the increase in government debt due to policies allegedly supported by Mr. Pomeroy.

Sluggish economy? Not around here.

In the windswept northwestern corner of North Dakota, an oil boom has pushed the local economy into overdrive. People are pouring in for jobs, with home builders pulling double shifts.

Fat wallets should bode well for incumbents. But Mr. Wehrman, who supported Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy in 2008, says he wants the lawmaker gone.

"I'm disgusted with the entire party," said Mr. Wehrman, a 58-year-old local who helps oil companies lease property for drilling. He is unhappy about government bailouts and the stimulus, saying, "Who do they think is going to pay for all this?"

His anger against incumbent Democrats echoes across the rural Midwest. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last month 55% of Midwesterners disapprove of the job President Barack Obama is doing, six percentage points higher than the rest of the U.S. And 66% of rural Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, five points more than U.S. voters as a whole.

Democratic House incumbents in several sparsely populated Midwestern districts are fighting those headwinds. Among them: Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in South Dakota; Joe Donnelly and Baron Hill in Indiana (emphasis mine); Debbie Halvorson in Illinois; Leonard Boswell in Iowa; John Boccieri in Ohio and Ike Skelton in Missouri.

Read it all and see if your Democrat friends agree.-SP