Daily Political Wire 5-23-2010

George Wenschhof

President Obama delivers Commencement Address to West Point graduates.


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Is President Obama doing enough in regard to the Gulf Coast oil disaster? - the question is getting louder as echos of the Katrina disaster still reverberate around the nation. So far, the President has mainly said to BP, it is their responsibility to handle.

The creation of a commission to study federal regulations is more of an attempt to try to get ahead of any negative fall out which may occur relating to action by federal departments which took place under the Obama administration. The NY Times has more on the commission here.

Meanwhile, oil continues to gush into the ocean and is now hitting the shores of Louisiana, threatening devastation to wetlands. Democratic political commentator Chris Matthews and political strategist James Carville are also asking what is Obama doing? Politico.com has more here.

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Republican Charles Djou wins Hawaii Special Election - as expected, the two Democrats on the ballots split the vote, allowing Djou to win with on 39.4%. Two Democrats; state senate President Colleen Hanabusa (30.8%) and former Representative Ed Case (27.6%) were both allowed to run in this special election to fill Neil Abercrombie's seat. Abercrombie had resigned to concentrate on his run for governor of Hawaii. The Honolulu Advertiser has more here.

Sadly, for the Republicans, their first victory out of the last eight special elections will be short lived. In November, with only one Democrat on the ballot, Republicans will not be able to retain this seat.

Chris Van Hollen, chair of the DCCC, wisely withheld spending toward the end, realizing it was better to hold for the November election. Democratic leadership were divided with their support with the two Hawaii U.S. Senators supporting Hanabusa and the DCCC supporting Case.

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