cycle. the white house political operation probably should have given the leadership up on the hill maybe a heads up that the president was going to make those comments. but they didn t. so that s why rahm emanuel s been on the phone, working the phones, talking to democrats, saying simmer down, let s ride this thing out. let s not make it a bigger deal than it is. you saw harry reid s spokesman had to put out this comment yesterday essentially saying he respects the first amendment but thinks the mosque should be built elsewhere. it will be interesting to see how other democrats in really tight races are going to have to walk this issue or whether they can do what some national democratic strategists are saying, say look, it s a local issue. it doesn t affect us here in my district. and at least try and walk away from the controversy. if they can t say what president obama did, then try and avoid it. pat buchanan, i ve got obviously i ve been hearing from democrats and republicans o
and we ve got people like eddie gillespie, karl rove and other republican operatives trying to raise that money to run those ads. and i really do think that s going to be one of the keys to this election. whether or not those business people that we talk to all the time, and they re more frustrated than i ve ever heard them in the last ten years, with democrats, you would think that that money would flow. but so far, there s not a ton of evidence that that money, in fact, is flowing. they just don t trust the national republicans, i think you re right. eddie gillespie will probably have a lot more luck getting money from donors to spend on republicans races than michael still. hey, let s talk about 2012 for a second, mike huckabee has endorsed 11 straight candidates across iowa. that s awfully nice of him for midterms. is this an indication he s going to be running for president again in 2012? i ve been skeptical that he would run. but he basically runs right behind mitt romney. it
reserved $49 million worth of ads in 60 districts which shows a disparity right now between democrats and republicans on money. republicans have significantly less cash, and that could be very significant at the end of these races, because they got republicans have to run ads and they have to mobilize voters to take advantage of this political environment. jim, that is stunning, isn t it? when you have a business community i m not just talking wall street. i m talking fortune 500, main street, small business owners. just seems like almost every business owner i talk to see barack obama and the democrats as hostile to business interests. this usually means the checkbooks open up, the checks fly out, but in this case, republicans aren t closing the deal, aren t they? they re not closing the deal. the one thing to look for, and you and i talked about this before, is whether or not those business men and women invest in these outside groups that could take big, big chunks of money
almost could not avoid the subject. my feeling was that if he had put together what he said saturday and friday together on friday night, i think he would be better off. he would say, look, this is their decision up there whether they should do it or not, but certainly they ve got a constitutional right to do it. i think right now what s going to happen, joe, is that the democratic candidates in all kinds of districts are going to take the harry reid road. they re going to say they ve got a right to do it, but i don t think it should be there and they re going to try to get it behind them. but republicans see this as a real wounding issue on democrats. you ve mentioned the polls. and i think they re going to drive this. i think it is, actually. it s a great opportunity. i think they need to drive it into the ground and claim nazism i know. can you believe harry reid, though, out in nevada. yeah. undercut the president. got out on this issue stay home and run for office. i
minnesota governor tim pawlenty said that the mosque would degrade or disrespect the site. this is pandering and that goes for harry reid, too. a cnn poll showed that 68% of americans oppose, blah, blah, blah. on and on. this is, though, pat buchanan, this isn t just republicans now, who are pandering on this issue. it s democrats who are pandering on this issue. and i guess you look at the poll numbers, they may be rewarded politically for the pandering. well, i think that there s no doubt about it, the right side politically of this issue, in almost any congressional district i can think of, is to say, in effect, look, you ought not to build a mosque on ground that is hallowed ground and sacred, because 3,000 americans were suffocated, burned or crushed to death by islamic fanatics to wlom their muslim faith was critical, both to their mission and their identity. now, joe, under the