Anyone Doubt That McCain is Running in 08'
(posted at Alabama for McCain)
Signs that McCain is loading up the best and brightest for what may be his last political campaign. The first catch is Robert Zoellick, current US Deputy Secretary of State has agreed to work full-time for the 08′ campaign. He will consult on foreign and trade policy issues.
In a more surprising move, Nicco Mele will work on the campaign website. Mele is known for being the webmaster for HoHo Dean’s 2004 White House run. Zoellick and Mele will be joining Mike Connell of New Media Communications. He designed, developed and managed the Bush campaign’s websites in 2000 and 2004. Bush’s media guru, Mark McKinnon, consults for McCain on strategy and the husband-wife team of Mark and Nicole Wallace out of the WhiteHouse and U.N. will consult also.
What this means is McCain is assembling the political equivalent of the New York Yankees for his 2008 run.

10th Anniversary of Welfare Reform

Lee at A Bama Blog discusses the success of welfare reform. I would suggest reading his post and the comments first as I agree with all of it. I only wish to expand on Dr. New's analysis. Dr.New was a professor of mine in graduate school and his class made a profound effect on me.

If the strong economy isn’t responsible for the decline in welfare
caseloads during the past ten years, what is? The Heritage study provides some insights. The strength of state-sanctioning policies, for example, substantially affects the size of state-caseload declines. PRWORA gave states the flexibility to sanction welfare recipients who didn’t comply with mandatory work activities. Some states proceeded to adopt tough sanctions that made welfare recipients ineligible for benefits at the first instance of noncompliance. Conversely, other states imposed weak sanctions that allowed welfare recipients to keep a substantial portion of their welfare benefits regardless of their
conduct.

The results of the Heritage study indicate that these sanctioning policies played a major role in explaining state caseload declines. Holding other factors constant, a state that adopted a strict sanctioning policy for six years would experience a welfare caseload decline more than 18 percentage points greater
than a state that implemented a weak sanction for six years.

From the editors at NRO

Since 1996, welfare rolls have been cut by almost 60 percent; 1.6 million fewer children live in poverty; the formerly persistent and rapid growth in illegitimacy rates has ended; and more single mothers are employed than ever before. States with the strictest work programs have experienced reductions of up to 80 percent in their welfare caseloads. The largest decrease in poverty has been among black children: By 2001, black child poverty was at its lowest level in history. Beginning in 1965, the rate of out-of-wedlock births — then 7.7 percent — grew by about 1 percent a year, rising to 32.2 percent in 1995. By contrast, the rate of increase in recent years has been a fraction of the former growth, and consequently about 1.5 million fewer children have been born out of wedlock than otherwise would have been. And the largest decline in dependency has been among the most disadvantaged single mothers: Employment of never-married mothers has increased by nearly 50 percent, and among the youngest of them (ages 18 to 24) it has almost doubled.

Approval Ratings for all 50 Governors

Gov. Riley comes in 14 from the top with a Approvable Rating of 62%. The Governor's approval has been climbing throughout the summer and Ms. Baxley will need more than a shopping list of topics if she wants to beat the incumbent.

*note the pull down box below "TRACK POINTS" on the Riley page. You can look at the demographics of the poll. Break the sample down by party affiliation,education,etc.

Riley gains ground in new poll.
A month ago the Gov. lead 54-40.
Today= Riley -55%
Baxley- 35%

-Riley's total favorable rating of 72% dwarfs the lt. gov rating of 55%, down from 66% in June.
-Equally depressing is the lt. govs 13% unfavorability rating and 10% of respondents have no opinion of Baxley.

It's Vacation Time

I will be taking a few days off. As you can tell my posting has slacked off a bit. I have a family wedding coming up this weekend so I have decided to take some time off and recharge so I will be ready for the Midterms in the Fall.

World's Best BBQ in Alabama

Dreamland, Jim & Nick's, and Golden Rule are all included.