Just to make it clear what kind of future they envision for America, Republicans have chosen union-busting Governor Mitch Daniels to respond to President Obama’s state of the union address. Meanwhile, workers take their protest against Indiana’s so-called ‘right-to-work’ law to the home of the Republican speaker of the Indiana House, Brian Bosma. Video clip here.
Dana Bash, CNN’s senior congressional correspondent, reports on “GOP angst: Gingrich’s rise could be their downfall.” A typical quote unearthed by Bash “If he’s the nominee, it’s a disaster. There is no way to sugar-coat it,” said one GOP congressional strategist describing the tension after Gingrich won South Carolina.” At CNN, see also James Carville’s memo to the Republican establishment, “You have a disaster on your hands.”
If you wondered if there was something a little, well, odd about the over-the-top audience responses to Newt’s every comment in recent debates, you are not alone, as Rachel Weiner notes in The Fixx.
Democrats don’t have to worry much about losing the Jewish vote, according to Peter Beinhart, writing at The Daily Beast: “Every four years, Republicans vow to use Israel to pry Jews from their nearly century-old allegiance to the Democratic Party. And every four years, they fail. The reason is that only about 10 percent of Jews actually vote on Israel…Most American Jews don’t really vote as Jews at all…They vote as secularists…Jews aren’t that far left on economics, but on the issues where secular and traditionalist Americans clash–abortion, church and state, gay rights–their secularism pushes them into the Democrats’ arms.”
New poll has vulture capitalist and bomb-thrower in stat-tie in Sunshine state. Talking Points Memo average of three polls has Newt ahead by 6.2.
Greg Sargent reports on a new WaPo-ABC news poll which indicates that Romney is tanking with blue collar voters.”…Among whites with incomes of under $50,000: His negative numbers among them have jumped 20 points, from 29 percent to 49 percent. ”
Demos has a new report, updating the status of voter-suppression in Florida and other states, and concluding “Congress, clear-sighted state legislators, the U.S. Department of Justice, election officials, voting rights activists and concerned Americans must continue to fight against vote suppression proposals and for legislation that affirms all citizens’ fundamental right to vote and have those votes counted.”
Susan Saulny’s New York Times article, “As Race Moves to Florida, Facing Political Implications of a Housing Crisis,” discusses how the crisis spells trouble for Mitt and Newt, in particular.
If President Obama is looking for a well-stated idea or two for his SOTU, he could do worse than check out Robert Borosage’s suggestions at his Campaign for America’s Future blog. He should also read Robert Reich’s “Jobs Won’t Come Back to America Until the Government Pushes Greedy Corporate Executives to Invest at Home” at Alternet.