Month: November 2009

Gallup: R+4 on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

Yes. Gallup.

(Via AoSHQ) Shift of eight points since July, which for Gallup represents the GOP ‘edging ahead.’ The current numbers are GOP/Democrats 48/44.  And 52/30 among independents.  And this represents registered voters, not likely ones.  Gallup tried to caveat this one every way that it could, but has to conclude:

Since Gallup regularly began using the generic ballot to measure registered voters’ preferences for the House of Representatives in 1950, it has been rare for Republicans to have an advantage over Democrats. This is likely because more Americans usually identify as Democrats than as Republicans, but Republicans can offset this typical Democratic advantage in preferences with greater turnout on Election Day. Most of the prior Republican registered-voter leads on the generic ballot in Gallup polling occurred in 1994 and 2002, two strong years for the GOP.

Particularly interesting is this amusing graph:

wtzl0rgg206gadur_zzjgq

…and yes: the Democratic line does look uncannily like the trajectory of an airplane just after it has lost all power to the engines, mid-flight.  A real shame that this didn’t come out last Friday, huh?  There’s a bunch of Blue Dogs who probably would have appreciated the opportunity to factor this information into their long-term voting strategies.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Christmas in the Heart: a polemic.

Not mine: Andrew Ferguson’s.  Not having purchased Bob Dylan’s Christmas In the Heart, I’m not sure how much of this:

Many of the notices about Christmas in the Heart have been pussyfooting. We should be clear: The record is not irony, or camp. This is not a case of “It’s so bad it’s good.” Dylan is not Florence Foster Jenkins or Tom Waits. This is a case of “It’s so bad I can’t believe it.” Under no one else’s name would a commercial concern like Sony release a product so embarrassing. Yet embarrassing doesn’t quite cover it. For a man as self-aware as Bob Dylan, it’s–what? The conclusion is unavoidable: He’s doing this on purpose. He knows what his record sounds like. It’s not a misstep. It’s not a gag. It’s an affront, a taunt. He’s giving us a choice. He’s saying, Okay, this is what it’s come to: You’ve got two options. You can cover your ears and go running from the room in horror, or you can call me an enigmatic genius who’s daring to plumb heretofore unexplored archetypes of the American imagination. But you can’t do both.

…is righteous anger, and how much of this is a reaction to the music; but I can’t help but note that I didn’t get the joke of this Weird Al video until I actually saw it.

Which may mean that Al just proved Andrew’s point for him.

Moe Lane

The White House and V.

This isn’t a post on whether or not the parallels between the Visitors of the show and the current administration are deliberate or accidental; it’s not even a post on whether the parallels are fair, for given values of ‘fair*.’ It’s a post on whether we’re seriously expected to believe that the White House isn’t monitoring the program.

Please. 14 million people watched it last Tuesday. That’s a number that’s in the same general vicinity of Rush Limbaugh’s weekly numbers (at a guess), and there’s been a buzz for months that this miniseries wasn’t going to be about the hopeandchange.  Expecting us to believe that any administration as obsessed with how it’s perceived as this one is hasn’t kept an eye on V is as about as realistic as expecting us to believe that either the Tea Party movement, or last week’s elections in New Jersey & Virginia, passed without the administration monitoring developments.

Which is to say, it’s not realistic to expect that.

Moe Lane

*In the broadest sense, it’s fairly obvious that the President is not a Reptoid wearing a flesh mask and sporting a desire for anthropophagy**.

**Firefox’s spelling dictionary leaves something to be desired.

Crossposted to RedState.

Gov. Jodi Rell (R, CT) not running for re-election.

This is interesting.

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell says she will not seek re-election next year.

Rell made the announcement in a news conference with reporters Monday at the statehouse in Hartford.

The article indicates that her personal polling has slipped – all the way down to 59%; she was also looking at a Q-poll which had her six points ahead* her most likely Democratic rival. It’s possible that this was enough to trigger her desire to get out of political life, especially in a year that’s starting to look bad for non-conservative incumbents. Then again, it’s possible that this was enough to trigger her desire to switch political gears and enter a race where she’d end up being neither.

Note: that last is a guess.  And a very speculative one, at that.  And it may be the right guess, but the wrong election cycle…

Moe Lane

*Which tells you… pretty much nothing. Quinnipiac hasn’t been at its best this cycle.

Crossposted to RedState.

I got nothing, sorry.

Oddly, I’m not even revolted by this.

After the baby is born and the cooing in the delivery room begins, parents may do a variety of things with the placenta — maybe take a picture, poke it a bit, or just divert their eyes and let the nurse take it away.

Whatever parents do, it probably wouldn’t match London-based designer Alex Green’s idea of turning the baby’s placenta into a teddy bear.

It’s no more bizarre than making things out of human hair, after all*. I’m just bemused that this guy and I are theoretically in the same cultural tradition.

Via @allahpundit.

Moe Lane

*Which is admittedly pretty freaking bizarre.

So, *which* Lynn Woolsey wants to use the IRS to go after the Catholic Church?

Via Jim Geraghty, and note that it’s the title to her article:

Woolsey: IRS should look at bishops

But I’m curious: which Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.) wants to have the IRS investigate the Roman Catholic Church in response to the latter’s support of the Stupak Amendment?

  • Is it the Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.) who is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus?  If so, is it now the CPC’s official position that the IRS should investigate the Roman Catholic Church?
  • Is it the Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.) of California’s Sixth Congressional District?  If so, will she be campaigning next year on the need for investigating the Roman Catholic Church?
  • Or is it just private citizen Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.)?  If so, then why did the Politico think that her opinion on investigating the Roman Catholic Church was relevant?

Moe Lane

PS: Is Rep. Woolsey’s position that the IRS should investigate the Roman Catholic Church shared by Vice President Joseph Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi?

Crossposted to RedState.