From John Zogby at Forbes: “A new poll by Zogby Analytics shows President Barack Obama actually regaining lost ground in his job approval. His approval rating now stands at 53% — the exact percentage he had when he won re-election last November and up 2 points over his rating in early May. His disapproval rating remained at 46%. The poll of 887 likely voters was taken online May 29 and 30.”
At NYT’s The Caucus, Katherine Q. Seelye explains why women are likely a pivotal constituency in Edward Markey’s bid for the U.S. Senate.
And The Fix’s Chris Cillizza has an informative profile of a constituency that is growing in size and influence — single mothers, including this nugget: “…Obama lost to Romney among white voters, 59 percent to 39 percent. But among white single mothers, Obama bested Romney 56 percent to 43 percent. Lower-income voters are another good example. Obama took 60 percent to Romney’s 38 percent in all households making $50,000 or less a year. Among under-$50,000 households that also included a single mother, Obama took a whopping 79 percent to Romney’s 20 percent.”
TNR’s Nate Cohn probes the politics behind R.I. Governor Lincoln Chafee’s party switch.
At Campaigns & Elections, Erik Nilsson has a sobering take on the power of social media in electioneering in his post, “Can Twitter help you raise money? “According to a new study published in Ecommerce Quarterly, social commerce is almost non-existent. Social media generated only 1.55 percent of traffic to e-commerce sites. To make matters worse, only 0.71 percent of that traffic resulted in any kind of financial transaction.”
For some non-electoral visioneering, try Lyle Jeremy Rubin’s review article “A Realistic Radicalism” in Dissent. Rubin culls insights from three books, “America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy” and “What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution” by Gar Alperovitz and “After Capitalism” by David Schweickart. Some provocative insights here, among them: “Alperovitz is most compelling on Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOPs) and worker-owned firms. He brandishes a number of studies that have repeatedly confirmed that both ESOP companies and more ambitious worker-owned firms are often “more profitable, more competitive, and more efficient” than their traditional counterparts…Though there are significant differences in levels of employee participation and democratic decision-making in each setting, the standard is more democratic than its alternative, the trend-line leans in the direction of more democracy, a growing number of unions are coming on board, and proposed bipartisan legislation continues to push for federal tax benefits to ESOP companies operating under a one-person, one-vote system.”
And as long as you’re thinking in terms of transformative societal change, check out Derek Thompson’s data-rich post “How Did Work-Life Balance in the U.S. Get So Awful?” at The Atlantic — which also hints at why working single mothers are a potent demographic asset for Democrats.
If you haven’t been there yet, peruse Progressive Majority’s ‘Message Guide,’ which has useful tips for choosing the best words and phrases for advocating a broad range of progressive reforms.
Oliver Willis takes a perceptive look at conservative websites and observes: “The new generation of conservative media could be the best thing to happen to the left. They make the attacks of Limbaugh, Fox, and company look coherent and solid by comparison…As a liberal who wants conservatism to fail, I thank God for sites like Breitbart.com and Twitchy. They are frustrated conservative rage hubs with little to no application in practical politics or movement advancement.”
Just for fun, read “The 11 Biggest Conservative Scandal Flops” by Ryan Cooper at The Washington Monthly.
