Public Policy Polling tells us that in Missouri, right-wingers (and self-styled "independents" who feel allegiance to the liberal-bashing right-wing tribe) aren't going to allow an appalling remark about rape to take their eyes off the prize:
Missouri voters strongly disagree with the comments Todd Akin made about abortion over the weekend, but it hasn't moved the numbers a whole lot in the Senate race. Akin leads Claire McCaskill by a single point, 44-43. That's basically identical to our last poll of the contest in late May, which found Akin ahead by a 45-44 spread.They hate Obama. They hate liberalism, even of the seriously diluted Obama/McCaskill variety. They hate whatever Fox News tells therm to hate.
It's not that Missouri voters are ok with or supportive of Akin's comments. 75% of voters, including even 64% of Republicans, say they were inappropriate to only 9% who consider them to have been appropriate. 79% of voters say they disagree with what Akin said, including 65% who express 'strong' disagreement with him. 51% of GOP voters say they strongly disagree with him....
But for all of that the overall numbers in the race have moved very little. When we polled in May McCaskill was getting only 8% of the Republican vote, and even with the controversy around Akin she's only pushed up to 10% of it. GOP voters dislike McCaskill so much they're not going to vote for her no matter what their nominee does. Independent voters haven't moved at all either....
But meanwhile, in the blue Northeast:
Scott Brown leads in our new Massachusetts poll...first time since June 2011...that will be out tomorrow
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) August 20, 2012
56% of Massachusetts voters think the GOP is too conservative. But only 30% feel that way about Scott Brown.
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) August 20, 2012
By a 53/36 margin Massachusetts voters want Democrats to have control of the Senate- very interesting tension there
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) August 20, 2012
"Very interesting tension" is one way of putting it. Another way is: Liberals and moderates are too freaking stupid to recognize that the only way to stop the wingnut madness is to vote against all Republicans forever -- even "nice" ones like Scott Brown -- until the party abandons insane, frothing-at-the-mouth radicalism as a governing philosophy.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: In all likelihood, Elizabeth Warren cannot beat Scott Brown. Massachusetts voters like him too much. Warren can -- perhaps -- beat the Republican Party, however. Her best chance of victory is to stop running against Brown and start running against, well, Todd Akin and all his ideological soul mates. On the right, Missouri voters know how this works. On the left and in the center, blue-state voters still don't have a clue.
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UPDATE: Here's PPP's write-up of the Massachusetts poll.
I'm a life-long Democrat, but there were time I voted for Republicans.
ReplyDeleteSane ones, like Jacob Javits, a man I still revere.
Our Country Supervisor since I was in college just retired, and I voted for him almost all of the time - the guy was great at his job, and he didn't let his personal views on things get in the way of doing it.
The Hamilton Fish franchise had almost a two lifetime run as my district's Congressmen. I once voted for Jr. because the Democratic candidate was so god-awful, I had to hold my nose and vote for Fish.
Now, Ham Fish Jr. would seen like a middle of the road Democrat.
And THAT'S the problem - people like me, people my age and a bit younger, who remember Republicans before they got bitten by that rabid Evangelical wolf, and have been frothing-at-the-mouth mad for decades - and getting worse every year.
That, and the fact that the Democrats have abandoned way too many of their core constituents, trying to woo back those, now almost mythical, "Regan Democrats." Look at them when it comes to labor lately. Only during election years do they give any nod to unions.
Today's Democrat is virtually indistinguishable from yesterdays Republican. A whole lot of Northern Republicans were pro Civil Rights and choice only 25 years ago. As loathesome as I find him, George H.W. Bush and his bridge-troll-like wife fit that description.
I will never, ever, vote for a Republican again.
Hell, I don't even want to vote for more than half of the damn Democrats, because they are now the old Republicans - it only encourages them.
Christ, outside of Clinton, Obama is the best Republican President in my lifetime - not counting Ike, who left office when I was not yet three. Give Obama another 4 years, and he may surpass Bill.
And Andrew Cuomo is the best Republican Governor of NY in memory. He's like a Pataki, only with brains.
So, if anyone gets the urge to vote Republican because you remember Javits, or Lowell Weicker, or some other long-gone principled Republican, vote for the Democrat on the ballot - at this point, they're only slightly to the right of those two.
And I wish I lived in MA, I'd volunteer for Warren's campaign in a nanosecond.
SHE GETS IT!
Too bad too many people in MA may not.
The people of Missouri don't hate all Democrats, though. Dem Gov Jay Nixon is cruising to reelection, no?
ReplyDeleteSteve and Victor, I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, PowerLine is claiming the poll is bogus--"Dem" polling firm trying to give Akin incentive to stay in.
ReplyDeleteAs a conservative, Post-Akin, I propose a Sir Bedevere litmus test for all GOP candidates; just demonstrate a basic understanding and acceptance of general post-Enlightenment scientific knowledge.
ReplyDelete"This new learning amazes me Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes."
Going forward, we really need to do a better job of weeding out candidates inclined to go on television and spew medievalism all over themselves and the rest of the party.
http://senatorjohnblutarsky.blogspot.com/2012/08/post-akin-lets-have-sir-bedevere-litmus.html
Dem Gov Jay Nixon is cruising to reelection, no?
ReplyDeleteWell, he was up by 11 in a PPP poll in May and up by 9 in a Mason-Dixon poll in July. He's doing well, but I wouldn't say reelection is a lock.
Wonder how often he praises Obama, or appears with him -- ever? Do his TV ads ever use the word "Democrat"? (This one sure doesn't, and stresses his tax-cuttin', Washington-hatin' bona fides.)
But the Nixon example suggests that Missouri voters might be able to stand a Democrat who boasts of centrism and distance from Obama -- both of which McCaskill does. The sticking point in these states seems to tend to be that the locals don't mind voting for Democrats for local offices, but they're turned against Democrats in the federal government. Thus Democrats who run for federal office bend over backwards to say that they're more like the good kind of local Dems, not like those bad kind of wild-eyed liberals you see on the news, etc.
ReplyDelete"The only way to stop the wingnut madness is to vote against all Republicans forever"
ReplyDeleteTHIS, a million times this. The only good Republican is a former Republican who became a Democrat.