Island Dweller writes (and so should you!):

O most dread, awful, omnipotent, omniscent, etc etc . . .

Mother Jones magazine recently published the results of a public opinion poll conducted in part by James Carville. The results of the poll should be unsettling to him, and in fact reinforce your grace’s previously-stated opinions in this very forum. I have naturally included the story below, as reported on “News Busters.”

I was unable to change the wording in the first paragraph to more properly suit your majesty’s inclinations, since in your case it should read “swing a dead peasant.” I apologize.

Since the government shutdown, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some media member claiming Republicans are in a lot of trouble heading into next year’s midterm elections.

Breaking with the trend rather surprisingly Wednesday was the perilously liberal Mother Jones with a piece titled “New Poll Shows Democratic Incumbents in Big Trouble.”

The poll was actually from James Carville and Stan Greenberg’s Democracy Corps and was titled “The Revolt Against Washington and the Republican Congress.”

Despite Carville and Greenberg’s conclusions, author Kevin Drum dug deeper into the specifics to find some contrary nuggets:

In Democratic districts, net incumbent approval has plummeted by 11 points, from +8 approval to +3 disapproval. In Republican districts, incumbent approval has gone down only 4 points. You see the same results when they ask a question about warmth of feeling toward incumbents: It’s down 7 points in Republican districts and 9 points in Democratic districts.

This isn’t good news for Democrats. It’s true that attitudes toward the Republican Party have taken a bigger hit than attitudes toward the Democratic Party, but attitudes toward actual incumbents are exactly the opposite. And in elections, that’s what matters.

Wow! A liberal publication taking a Democratic poll and finding bad news for…Democrats?

I don’t imagine you’ll be hearing THAT on MSNBC any time soon.

Just as was said here, the ACA/Budget situation was a giant s吏恆t sandwich and everyone had to take a bite. The problem for Democrats is, their breath afterward is potentially more repulsive than their Republican opponents.

What bothers me is how people will vote for a first-time Democrat candidate thinking they’ll get something different from the incumbent if s/he’s elected. Stupid, ill/mis/uninformed voters will waste their votes on them. Two things wrong with this:

1. A liberal can’t run as a liberal. They know they’d lose by a landslide if they did. They run as a centrist candidate and change their stripes later.
2. Even if they don’t want to do 1), they will run into Harry Reid or Steny Hoyer who will make up their minds for them, constituents be damned.

ID

Right you are. And it isn’t just James Carville. Reports from our okhrana indicate that the White House is in a full panic over the failure of Obamacare (deservedly so), and that a prominent Democratic party expert sage tutor guru sent an email out that basically concedes the Democrats—down to the state-level—got screwed by Obama. Please note the word screwed had a different phrasing in the original email.

All Republicans have to do is not screw this up themselves, alas. But Democrats need to realize an essential thing: they also trusted Obama, and he ruined things for them, too. Hey Dems—next time, more Jack Kennedy. Less Jack Kerouac.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.