Mark Blumenthal has put together an array of polling that shows the influence of the Tea Party on the Republican Party. The bottom line spells dark times for reasonable conservatives. The Tea Party represents a critical mass of Republican primary votes, and a distinct minority of the general electorate. This means one thing short-term and another in the long run. In the short-term, the Tea Party will have undue influence on issues like the debt ceiling negotiations; longer-term, I suspect they’ll prove a virus expelled by the body politic in 2012. I just hope they don’t totally wreck our economy and international standing between now and then.
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Obama’s Persuasive Powers on Gay Marriage Manifest in Maryland
When President Obama endorsed gay marriage earlier this month, the media grappled with two basic political questions: Was his personal “evolution” a case of a politician transparently following a national trend toward accepting same-sex unions (accelerated, perhaps, by his chatty No. 2), and would it hurt his re-election chances by alienating socially conservative voters like black churchgoers? Sure, there was a recognition that it marked a gratifying moment for gay-marriage advocates — as well as some grumbling about the President’s view that it remains a state issue, not a federal one. But by and large, there were few suggestions that one man, even the President, would shift public opinion on the issue or affect public policy. Based on a new Public Policy Polling survey out of Maryland, it seems this possibility was underestimated.
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Cherokee Zero
Apparently, Massachusetts voters don’t mind that Elizabeth Warren foolishly identified herself as a Native American early in her academic career–it was, apparently, a case of family pride and wishful thinking about a Cherokee ancestor. That’s good. Warren may be the best public figure when it comes to explaining the depredations of the financial industry and [...]
