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- Some early results from a forthcoming Washington Post-ABC News poll show that at some level, a majority of the public understands that efforts towards bipartisanship in Washington have largely been at the behest of Barack Obama and the Democrats, and that Republicans have done "too little" to reach across the aisle. The poll also shows that a majority of the public wants Congress to keep working on "comprehensive health-care reform," a sentiment most Republicans disagree with. Meanwhile, Nate Silver looks at 25 policies being pushed by the Democrats and concludes that public opinion is on their side with at least 14 of them, contrary to the conservative canard that the public is rejecting radical liberalism.
- Eventually, the voting public will come to forget how terrible the presidency of George W. Bush was and accept some fabricated mythologization of it designed to rescue "conservatism" from his legacy. Until that day comes, the powers that be in conservative politics will continue testing the whitewash waters with efforts like a billboard in Minnesota that asks drivers whether they "miss" W's reign. This is a corollary to the Conservative Belief in the Eternal Silent Majority Thesis, whereby the most enthusiastic Bush boosters, rather than accept that the public's memory is short, believe the 43rd president was misunderstood in his time, and whose decisions will age well with the public, like fine wine in a cool cellar.
- This is hardly unique to Republicans, but the continuing presence of embarrassing scandals at the state party level is just one more element working against GOP gains in November. Consider the case study of Florida, where moderate Republican Charlie Crist is looking less and less likely to survive a primary challenge from Marco Rubio, and the state GOP is reeling -- in the midst of overall low party donations -- with a money scandal involving its outgoing party chair. If Rubio gets to and wins in the general election, he will do so less with party support and more with being the better candidate. This is simply not replicable across the entire 2010 landscape.
- House liberals see the upcoming health-care summit as their last chance to inject liberal principles into the final reform bill, hoping the added media attention will convince the Democratic leadership to start taking progressives as seriously as they do Blue Dogs and preening Senate centrists. I do not think they will be successful, given the track record, but it did give me a reason to link to this Kevin Drum post from a few days ago in which he both sympathizes with and offers stern words for progressives who feel abandoned by the Democratic Party and the president. In short, progress is frustratingly slow, but taking the first step is incredibly important and might be easier to swallow knowing your fellow liberals are in your corner.
- It's an annoying habit of the press to ask every Republican who suddenly becomes newsworthy whether he or she is considering a run for president in 2012. In the case of Paul Ryan, he wrote an alternative Republican budget that his own party can't walk away from fast enough, and suddenly he's considered a viable presidential candidate. This tendency seems to be born from a belief that political problems can be solved via the will of a great leader, which ignores how little control presidents have over the details of domestic policy and economic conditions. It goes without saying that this is the story of the Barack Obama presidency thus far, noting that candidate Obama tried, rhetorically, to tamp down expectations he could neither fulfill nor ignore to win the election.
- Remainders: Obama "considers" recess appointments unless Republicans start acting like responsible legislators; Copenhagen may not be a total bust after all; Alan Grayson takes on the "liberal" media; and weekend legislative sessions are good, but telling people that Republicans are blocking a job-creation bill would be better.
--Mori Dinauer
