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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Political Strategy Notes

Greg Sargent’s Plum Line report on President Obama’s campaign to take the fiscal cliff negotiations to the peeps notes that “A new Post poll out this morning confirms again that the public is on the side of Obama and Dems in this battle. Sixty percent of Americans favor raising taxes on incomes over $250,000. Sixty three percent of independents, 65 percent of moderates, and even 47 percent of conservatives, agree. By contrast, 67 percent of Americans oppose raising the Medicare eligibility age — as do 68 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of conservatives. And a plurality opposes reducing deductions — the preferred GOP approach. ”
Stuart Rothenberg’s “Supermajority Within Reach for Senate Democrats” at Roll Call should provoke some shivers at the NRSCC. But they may find some comfort in Reid Wilson’s “Senate Democrats Face Another Daunting Numbers Game” at the National Journal. Larry J. Sabato and Kyle Kondik get down to individual upcoming senate races at the Crystal ball.
If you haven’t seen it already, take a look at this clip of Pulitzer-Prize journalist Thomas Ricks calling Fox News out on their shilling for the GOP in distorting the Benghazi story. But reports that now he’s dissing MSNBC seem like a pointless exercise in false equivalence.
The “more disturbed than I was before” remarks of Sens. McCain, Graham and Ayotte have the bogus smell of an agreement they made before their interview with Susan Rice, perhaps to justify their call to squander millions of taxpayer dollars on an unnecessary Special Select Committee to hype the Benghazi tragedy. None of them had much to say when dozens of American civilians were killed in Iraq as a result of poor security during the Bush administration. Maddow puts it in perspective right here.
The Daily Texan editorial board has a pretty good overview of the role of the youth vote in the presidential election.
At HuffPo, Ian Gray reports on the controversy surrounding Ex-Florida GOP Chair Jim Greer’s outing of the GOP’s voter suppression: “The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates…It’s done for one reason and one reason only…’We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us.”
Kos makes a persuasive case that the election proves that Democratic victories in the future will be all about working the base and ignoring so-called ‘independents.’
Linda Greenhouse has an interesting opinion piece at The New York Times about the importance of Scotusblog as the unrivaled source for the best reporting on the U.S. Supreme Court — and the irony of its credentialing difficulties. Now that it’s been gobbled up by Bloomberg, the hope is that its quality won’t suffer.
Those who thought the Romney campaign’s election post-mortem statements couldn’t get more bizarre, should read Benjy Sarlin’s Talking Points Memo post, “Top Romney Adviser Brags About Losing Poor, Minority Voters To Obama.”
It would be a good thing if this was more than just making nice, and President Obama found something substantial for Gov. Romney to do. (other than Ambassador to the U.K. or heading the S.E.C.)

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