A recent New York Times/CBS Poll was conducted surveying American's attitudes regarding the Affordable Care Act-or what Fox News flogs as Obamacare. The results show marked ambivalence about the law: roughly 36% of Americans approve of the law, while 47% disapprove of it ( Read more... )

A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found that 45% of likely Republican voters in Mississippi believe that Barack Obama is Muslim, and another 41% were "not sure" about his religion. Only 14% believe he is Christian.

Which makes me wonder: do they think he's secretly Muslim, or do they think he's out-and-proud Muslim?

The conservative nutball vote goes to:

• Sarah Palin
• Michele Bachmann
• Ron Paul
• Rick Santorum
• Rick Perry
• Hermann Cain
• Newt Gingrich
• Ron Paul, again
• Newt Gingrich, again
• Rick Santorum, again

Last installment, I recommitted to Newt being the foil until the nomination. I have to say, I'm surprised that Santorum has emerged as an option. I mean sure, he's really ( Read more... )

This election is likely going to be close. The best bet for a Republican candidate right now is to consolidate the conservative support and bring in independents, but the way the primaries are going it's likely to alienate both groups ( Read more... )

Okay, who else* was surprised that Perry bows out and endorses not Santorum, the other religious zealot-but Gingrich, the philandering lout?

* And by "else" I mean, among the precious few of you who bother reading LJ any more.

The conservative nutball vote goes to:

• Sarah Palin
• Michele Bachmann
• Ron Paul
• Rick Santorum
• Rick Perry
• Hermann Cain
• Newt Gingrich
• Ron Paul, again

Last installment, I wrote that Newt will probably be Mitt's foil until he makes some fatal fumble and then some of the fringe goes back to default gadfly Ron Paul. I don't actually recall Newt making an obvious ( Read more... )

There's been a lot of writing lately about how the Republican primary is a dead heat, and there's a lot of ambivalence, and it's anybody's guess what's going to happen. I've even seen some speculation that there could be a brokered convention. Woo! Humdinger of a primary we got ourselves, folks ( Read more... )

The conservative nutball vote goes to:

• Sarah Palin
• Michele Bachmann
• Ron Paul
• Rick Santorum
• Rick Perry
• Hermann Cain
• Newt Gingrich

I think that Newt will probably be Mitt's foil for the primaries, based on the need for the fringe to attach to someone who is Not Mitt. Or anyway, until Newt makes some fatal fumble and then some of the fringe goes back to ( Read more... )

The Occupy Wall Street thing is starting to get on my nerves a bit, and in particular it's starting to feel like the Tea Party of the left. Disorganized, driven mainly by ill-focused outrage, lacking both knowledge regarding the things they're upset about and the interest to, you know, apply critical thinking or apply facts or analyze causality or ( Read more... )

The straw poll in Iowa is a perfect demonstration of how the primary system in this country biases towards political polemics - i.e. really awful results.

Worse yet, it's the parties themselves that control this process, and the parties are controlled by those who demonstrate the most vivid zealotry, so basically? We're fucked.