The Republican Party Could Be Hamstrung By Bush For Generations: That’s the view…backed up by solid original research, numbers, and charts …of Nate Silver. Silver notes what some of us have sensed: that the popularity of a President during many young people’s formative years influences how they vote…for years. Here’s a small part of what he writes:
It’s become common knowledge that the younger generation is highly predisposed toward Democrats. (Actually, that’s not quite right — they’re more predisposed against Republicans than they are toward Democrats — but the net effects on their voting behavior are probably about the same.) What’s more remarkable, though, is how sharp the increase in the partisan ID gap becomes at about age 25. People aged 26-34 are pretty Democratic, put people aged 18-25 are really Democratic.
He looks at polling numbers from Harry Truman’s presidency to Barack Obama’s and concludes:
In general, however, this points toward the idea that partisan identification — while not exactly being “hard-wired” — can be quite persistent as the voter moves through her lifecourse. Voters who came of age during the eight years of the Bush Presidency are roughly eight points more Democratic than the rest of the country; that advantage could be worth an extra point or two to Democrats throughout the next half-century.
Read the piece in its entirety. Also read some thoughts on this from Balloon Juice’s Doughj.
Marking 100 Days Of “Silliness”: Of Barack Obama? No — of RNC Chairman Michael Steel (and when you put it together it is fascinating). Meanwhile, the GOP’s internal war is heating up again. Ron Beasley sees a Republican “death spiral.”
So What’s The Early Line On The Supreme Court Nominee? Who’s in the running? Click here.
What do Jackie Moon and President Obama have in common? THIS.
The Bank Stress Tests Are Done but what do they tell us about our economy?
Michael Savage Being Banned From the UK: Even if you (almost violently) disagree with him it is — as noted here — a free speech issue. Also be sure to read PJ Media’s Carol Gould on this issue.
Signs The the Employee Free Choice Act Could Get Passed — due to compromises by Diane Feinstein and (newly minted Democrat) Arlen Specter.
Resettling Gitmo Accused Terrorists In The United States could become a huge issue. Meanwhile, Marc Ambinder says the GOP is right: the Democrats do have a “Gitmo problem.”
A Mini-scandal In Arlen Specter’s Fundraising has been called “Specter-gate” and can be boiled down to the words “buyer beware” when going to a certain website..
What Were Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, John McCain REALLY Like On Saturday Night Live? An SNL bigwig gives us the details.
We Noted Here The Sad News about how the recently sold San Diego Union Tribune newspaper here (where I worked as a staff reporter for 8 years) laid off 192 people within 24 hours of the new owners taking over. What’s going on as papers downsize or close? Are newspapers the victims? Frank Rich argues that the American press is on suicide watch.
Is Positive News About The Economy Being blown out or proportion? A warning from Atrios.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi On Torture? A hypocrite or not?
CBS Sports Commentator David Feherty Has Stepped In It Bigtime with a comment in an attempted satire piece that is so indicative of the undercurrent of personal hatred that infects our partisan politics today. People in the mainstream media who wrote things like this would have been booted on their butts (where apparently their ideas are generated) 10 years ago…on the left and right. It shows how our media standards — and the bar on acceptable political discourse has fallen. Steven Taylor has the details — and a more “moderate” take on this than yours truly.
Is Elizabeth Edwards Starting To Become One More Person Hyping A Book? Dick Polman:
Memo to Elizabeth Edwards: Shut up already.
It’s not easy to declare her the winner of this week’s Joe Biden Gum Flapping Award, given the fact that she’s a good soul worthy of sympathy. She has suffered terribly, starting with the car-accident death of her eldest son. Then came the breast cancer battle, now in its fifth year. Then came her husband’s affair with a ditz whose baby daughter may well be the fruits of that liaison.
Nevertheless, Elizabeth does herself and her husband no favors by embarking on a springtime media blitz (book, Time magazine excerpt, Oprah, Today Show, Larry King). She had been mostly reticent since last August, when John destroyed what was left of his boy-wonder political career by ‘fessing up to what he had long publicly denied. Elizabeth did talk to the Detroit Free Press in September, but when the paper probed for marriage details, she voiced a reluctance to fuel the story any further; as she put it, “I don’t want to feed the monster, if you don’t mind.”
Well, she’s feeding it now.
Read it in its entirety.
Death Risks: A couple to ponder here.
Barack Obama And Hedge Funds: Michelle Malkin looks at the relationship.
Obama’s Budget Cuts: Bold or futile?
The Virginia Governor’s Race is heating up.
The Relaunch Of Star Trek has REALLY TAKEN OFF the launchpad this weekend… But has it launched a massive “nerd war” on the Internet? Here’s a MUST READ REVIEW of the flick by Vodkapundit.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.