Category Archive

Gallup headline: Republican Base Heavily White, Conservative, Religious Democrats are more likely to be moderate or liberal, Hispanic, or black or other races But there is a nice revealing chart:   I'm sure the opposition to Sotomayor's going to help with the GOP's appalling appeal to minorities.

I read your article in Politico.  I see you were trying to strike a theme: Republicans have engaged in some healthy soul-searching since Election Day, trying to come to grips with our minority status and debating the best way forward…. To accomplish this goal Republicans are turning a corner in three important ways: First, the Republican Party will be forward-looking … Read More

Because science hates them.  Here's the abstract from a recent issue of a scholarly journal called Intelligence, describing a study funded by the National Institute of Education: Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated. The evidence is based on 1254 community college students and 1600 foreign students seeking entry to United States' universities. At the individual level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with … Read More

The Republicans are taking it to a whole new level.  It's one thing for a politician or blow-hard Fox News pundit to name-call, but when the party unites to officially rebrand its adversary, that's an entirely different thing: A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, … Read More

I haven't written about it much lately, but I am constantly fascinated by the Republican party's attempts to "re-brand" themselves.  It's really an interesting social-psychological phenomenon. The whole GOP implosion is the result of a rift which simply gets wider as each day progresses. What is going on — in case you're not following it — is a struggle between … Read More

The Washington Post/ABC poll found 21% of Americans identify themselves as Republicans. The NYT/CBS poll put the number at 20%. NBC/WSJ also put the GOP number at 20%. Nate Silver combines these and other polls to show party identification in this telling graph: That's the backdrop for this news from CNN: Coming soon to a battleground state near you: a … Read More

I used to read Charles Johnson of the Little Green Footballs blog.  I stopped because he was, to my mind, just another batshit crazy conservative, and his commenters were often outright racist.  Blatently, unapologetically so. But according to The Washington Independent, something has happened to Charles as of late: But in the early days of Barack Obama’s presidency, LGF has … Read More

Sarah Palin's sister-in-law is arrested for burglary.

Matt Yglesias says all that needs to be said, but the bottom line is this: Sen. Michele Bachmann does not see the difference between China making a recommendation about what currency to use as the reserve currency, and the institution of a sinister One World currency, outlawing the dollar. It was a mistake she made two days ago, when she read about China hoping … Read More

That's the title of Ramesh Ponnuru's column in this week's Time.  I'll let you read it, but there's something in there I particularly note: [T]he debate today has a special charge because, like the similar debate over Alaska Governor Sarah Palin a few months ago, it is tied up with questions about the future of the Republican Party. In one … Read More