0 ever in the whole history of the dow. it came within 15 points of the record. now, the record was set in october 2007. notably, before the financial crisis. before the american economy imploded and almost took the world down with it. the dow today came within spitting distance of prefinancial crisis record highs, the highest of all time. amazing. and of course the stock market on any given day is not an indicator of the general health of the economy as a whole. but that race to the top at the stock market today comes alongside a bunch of other good and surprising economic news. today we learned, for example, that the number of americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 22,000. so fewer people on unemployment. that s a good thing. it is a good sign. it means the job market may be picking up. also today, news that american businesses are placing more orders and revving up production because they think the economy into effect. this is a self-imposed horrible idea that is horrible o
0 the crisis that we must avert. that congress must take action to avoid. and if they don t, crash, horrible consequences. congress, save us. tomorrow is the deadline. we are officially in the 11th hour. this is the last minute. this is the moment when everything is supposed to be getting fixed, when congress is supposed to be up all night sweating it out. actually, today congress went home 2:07 p.m. and 13 seconds the house stands adjourned until monday. 6:30 p.m. and 20 seconds, the senate stands adjourned until monday. they re gone. the whole point was to make them fight with each other and fix this thing down to the wire. they left in the afternoon. to be clear, they did not go home because they fixed it or because they decided that we wouldn t do this thing or because they decided actually this thing is no big deal. it is still the same looming thing that they all say we shouldn t do. $85 billion. boom. austerity. all at once. the pentagon is supposed to absorb half of those cuts.
but b, the bloomberg group has still been inescapable in the form of mailers to people they have been sending out in the district. lots and lots of mailers. quote, debbie halvorson put the nra before our family s safety. and debbie halvorson, a from the nra, f from illinois families. and debbie halvorson s views on guns earned an a from the nra. if the nra says yes, we should say no. but the bloomberg pac ad onslaught making the nra and guns a big issue in this race, one of the formally pro nra candidates decided that she would drop out. state senator toi hutchinson left the race 48 hours after the bloomberg pac started advertising against her by name as well. gun reform was not all that big an issue at the beginning. but now that mike bloomberg has spent more than $2 million on this race, being seen as once an ally of the nra is apparently enough to get you to quit the
race. and now tonight on the eve of the election, whether that all is enough to determine the winner of the primary, we do not know. and the hints about what is going to happen tomorrow are all wobbly, and therefore very interesting. one poll shows debbie halvorson with a four-point lead even after all that bloomberg spending against her. now this poll i should tell you is the work of a local radio host and republican strategist, who was convicted a few years ago for falsifying signatures. he told us today we should not hold that against him. he just got caught on the wrong end of a political prosecution. anyway, his poll shows debbie halvorson leading the pro-gun reform candidate who was endorsed by the bloomberg pac, that s robin kelly. a different poll from we ask america shows a very different result in the same race. in that poll, robin kelly leads by 18 points. now on this one i should tell you that the folks who conducted this survey describe it as an automated poll they did for
the election, whether that all is enough to determine the winner of the primary, we do not know. and the hints about what is going to happen tomorrow are all wobbly, and therefore very interesting. one poll shows debbie haverson with a four-point lead even after all that bloomberg spending against her. now this poll i should tell you is the work of a local radio host and republican strategist, who was convicted a few years ago for falsifying signatures. he told us today we should not hold that against him. he just got caught on the wrong end of a political prosecution. anyway, his poll shows debbie haverson leading the pro-gun reform candidate who was endorsed by the bloomberg pac, that s robin kelly. a different poll from we ask america shows a very different result in the same race. in that poll, robin kelly leads by 18 points. now on this one i should tell you that the folks who conducted this survey describe it as an automated poll they did for a local political website.