I'M WORRIED THAT THE SLEEPING GIANT STILL NEEDS A BIT MORE COFFEE
Public Policy Polling, in association with Daily Kos, has conducted surveys of the eight state Senate districts in Wisconsin where Democrats are trying to recall Republicans, and the results (with each Senate polled against a generic Democrat) seem mixed to me:
Democrat 55
Dan Kapanke 41
Democrat 49
Randy Hopper 44
Democrat 49
Luther Olsen 47
Rob Cowles 45
Democrat 43
Sheila Harsdorf 48
Democrat 44
Alberta Darling 52
Democrat 44
Mary Lazich 56
Democrat 34
Glenn Grothman 60
Democrat 32
Dave Weigel is impressed that Democrats are winning in three of the eight polls:
This is after the raison d'etre for the recall has faded -- if two senators are replaced by Democrats, and a pro-union majority arrives in the body, the budget repair bill is law anyway.
That's not how I see it -- this is when the raison d'etre for the recall has barely begun to fade. The anger is still fresh in people's minds -- and yet Generic Dem has a lead bigger than what I'd assume to be the margin of error in one, maybe two, districts. Can Democrats sustain that? I suppose so -- but they're going to have to work at it.
Sustained rage and a sense of being entitled to get one's own way politically come naturally to the older whites of the Fox/talk radio/tea party crowd. The teabaggers' media outlets fan the flames of rage 24/7, so keeping the intensity up wasn't a problem for them from the first tea party protests in early '09 to November '10. Plus, there are just more angry right-wingers than angry left-wingers.
I'm not saying this is bad news -- but I am saying it's bad news if this is the peak of anti-GOP outrage. That outrage has to be kept up, if not increased. No one should believe that the sleeping giant is awake and victory is going to happen based on mere momentum. It takes a hell of a lot to defeat these bastards. Three Republican senators have to lose to flip the Senate. I hope there's enough juice to get that done.
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UPDATE: More detailed numbers here. The detailed results might be even more disheartening -- only in two of the eight districts does Scott Walker's disapproval rating exceed his approval rating right now. That's not a good sign....