At Daily Kos Elections, David Jarman’s “Renters make good Democrats, and other demographic observations” offers some useful insights. Lots of interesting discussion in the comments section as well.
Could it be clearer? Even a conservative-commissioned poll shows it. As Alexander Burns reports at Politico, “The YG Network polling, conducted by the GOP firm McLaughlin & Associates, found that 38 percent of Americans name the “economy and jobs” as the issue of greatest importance to them. Twenty percent named “deficit and debt” as their top concern, and 16 percent pointed to health care…”It is important to note that ‘economy and jobs’ is almost twice that of ‘deficit and debt,'” pollster John McLaughlin notes in the report.”
This story probably deserves more attention from both the media and Democratic strategists than it is going to get: A new guest worker proposal under discussion in talks between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and organized labor would link foreign worker visas to the unemployment rate.
Sen Rob Portman’s about-face notwithstanding, Nate Silver reports that ” only 25 percent of Republican voters supported same-sex marriage in Pew’s poll last year, barely changed from 21 percent in 2001.”
Republicans don’t like it. But a pro-Democratic group is launching a new website, C-Quest.org, which “will feature original video and local coverage of the sequester’s effects,” reports Aaron Blake at Post Politics.
Greg Sargent finds “A moment of real clarity in the fiscal debate,” after reporters corner Speaker Boehner and Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy. Sargent concludes from the interviews: “…now sinking in that: 1) Republicans are not getting the entitlement cuts they want without agreeing to new revenues; and 2) Republicans are explicitly confirming that there is no compromise that is acceptable to them to get the cuts they themselves say they want. The GOP position, with no exaggeration, is that the only way Republican leaders will ever agree to paying down the deficit they say is a threat to American civilization is 100 percent their way; they are not willing to concede anything at all to reach any deal involving new revenues to reduce the deficit, or to get the entitlement reform they want, or to avert sequestration they themselves said will gut the military and tank the economy.”
Wonkblog’s Danny Hayes has an insightful post on attitudes toward the death penalty — and the role of the MSM in transforming the way people think about it.
Speaking of the MSM, am I nuts, or is CPAC getting an awful lot of ink, air time and bytes for an organization representing an ideology that was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in the last election? (See, for example, what you get when you click on National Journal’s ‘Politics’ link. Hard to imagine a liberal organization getting equivalent coverage)
E. J. Dionne, Jr. puts the conservative disconnect with political reality in perspective: “Do they honestly think voters will endorse the military spending they seek even as they throw 40 million to 50 million of our fellow citizens off health insurance and weaken health coverage for our elderly? Can they continue to deny that their goal of an internationally influential America demands more revenue than they currently seem willing to provide? Have conservatives on the Supreme Court pondered what eviscerating the Voting Rights Act would do to the image of our democracy around the globe?…Would they rather waste the next three years than make any further concessions to a president the voters just reelected?”
I’m glad someone else noticed.