Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post weighs in U.S. House races. 4. Arkansas’ 2nd district (D): Former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin (R) is a strong favorite to claim the seat of retiring Rep. Vic Snyder (D). State Sen. Joyce Elliott was the weaker of the two potential Democratic nominees as she is probably too liberal [...]

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I have column coming out at some point today understanding the similarities and differences in the circumstances leading up to the 1982 midterms and 2010. One of the points that I argue is that presidential approval can be an important indicator of how a political party will fare in the midterms. Gallup has the numbers:

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Gov. Mike Beebe has more than $3 million cash-on-hand according to his campaign’s financial disclosures. The Mike Beebe for Governor campaign will file its monthly financial report with the Secretary of State’s Office today for the month of July. The report reflects $3,034,437.53 cash on hand and a year-to-date total of $3,798,627.85 raised, including $41,482.63 of [...]

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From Roger Ebert’s blog: As it happened, a day or two before I learned of Hitchens’ illness, I’d finished reading his new memoir, Hitch-22. The man can write. He has lived a life. He has seen for himself, making it a point to travel regularly to dangerous and wretched nations. He has been a man of [...]

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Roby Brock of Talk Business was on-hand for the joint appearance by Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Rep. John Boozman in Hot Springs today. The event was organized by the Association of Arkansas Counties.  From his report, it sounds like both candidates did a good job sticking to their talking points.

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Chuck Todd and the political team at MSNBC have rated the 64 congressional races likely to flip parties in 2010. In order of likelihood, Arkansas’s U.S. House, Dist. 2 previously occupied by Democrat Vic Snyder is No. 5 and U.S. House, Dist. 1 previously occupied by Democrat Marion Berry is No. 38.

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Tunku Varadarajan of The Daily Beast elaborates: But if the GOP gets its act together—if Chris Christie rises to supra-Jersey heights, for example—or Obama implodes, the Democrats will need a frame to hold the party together. Hillary Clinton would be that frame. The way things are going, there is every likelihood that there will be a [...]

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Talk Business, a venture by Roby Brock, is teaming up with Hendrix College to launch a research and polling division. From Mr. Brock’s website: “Talk Business plans to ramp up its polling activity between now and this November’s general election with a number of looks at this year’s major state and federal races,” Brock said. Talk Business [...]

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A non-partisan study group has concluded that the Republican tax plan, which includes extended all of the Bush tax cuts for all income brackets, would add an additional $36 billion to the federal deficit in 2011 on top of what the Democrats have proposed. From The Washington Post: Republicans want to extend all the cuts, which would [...]

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Yesterday, President Bill Clinton spoke to a private, non-profit group in Springdale called Economics Arkansas. Suzi Parker, writing for Politics Daily, noted this in his speech: Clinton did not say he supported another stimulus package, but strongly cautioned Washington about passing another one, considering the size of the national debt. Government bonds are bought by China [...]

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