Some random notes

Mayor Bloomberg: Tax Hikes on Rich ‘Drive Out the 1 Percent’

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it “dumb” to raise taxes on the wealthy, and later pointed out they would leave New York, pointing to France as an example.
“You saw in France people moving out when they raised the tax rates,” Bloomberg said, according to the New York Post on Oct. 13. “Whether you like it or not, the wealthy are mobile.”
A few days prior to that – in a press conference before the Columbus Day parade in the city –Bloomberg was asked about candidates for mayor hoping to succeed Bloomberg who are pledging more taxes on the rich.
“It is about as dumb a policy as I can think of,” Bloomberg responded, according to Capital New York on Oct. 8. . . .

Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder is not going to endorse Obama again as he did in 2008.

"They often note that Obama ran as a moderate — and that is the man they threw their support behind in 2008. But some look back and say that he has governed as a left-of-center liberal who did not keep the focus squarely on jobs and economic recovery. 

"Is that group of independent-minded voters enough to swing Virginia's 13 electoral votes away from Obama on Tuesday? The race is so close, we will have to wait until November 6 for a definitive answer. But for a state Obama may need to win, that uncertainty after almost four years on the job cannot be a great comfort to his campaign operatives." . . .

Reminder that Michael Boskin had this piece at the beginning of the year about the election being a referendum on Obama:

Obama and his congressional allies enacted an $800 billion “stimulus” bill that was loaded with programs geared to key Democratic constituencies, such as environmentalists and public employees; adopted a sweeping and highly unpopular health-care reform (whose constitutionality will be determined by the Supreme Court this year); imposed vast new regulations on wide swaths of the economy; embraced an industrial policy that selects certain companies for special treatment; engaged in borrowing and spending at levels exceeded only in World War II; and centralized power in Washington, DC (and, within the federal government, in the executive branch and regulatory agencies). . . . .