Scary Numbers

This poll might make Democrats wonder if Obamacare’s problems go way beyond the botched rollout, broken promise and bug-filled website.   The Gallup Poll says that, by 56-42, Americans believer it is NOT the federal government’s responsibility “to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage.”   Now, take this with a caveat. Gallup’s polls famously…

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Not a Vice

Up in the gilded halls of Congress the Tea Partiers went on a tear last month voting against Debt Ceiling increases and budgets that didn’t cut spending but the whole proposition of fighting it out with Obama seemed altogether too risky to the Pachyderm Republicans so after a fortnight they gave up the ghost and…

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Whither Obamacare?

Judging from Obamacare, Democrats can’t make government work. Judging from the October shutdown, Republicans don’t want it to work. What’s a democracy to do?   Obamacare is essentially an old Republican idea, hatched by the Heritage Foundation as an alternative to single-payer health insurance. It’s essentially Romney care. The idea is to put everybody in…

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Tearing Through Georgia

The row started, oddly enough, with a single email. Which got answered. And counter answered. Then, boom, there was a full scale war of emails going on (with me watching copies flying back and forth) that lasted two days.     At first I thought my two friends were arguing over who to support in…

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Why We Like Polls

For all our disagreements, Carter and I agree on one thing: the value of polls. But we constantly have to explain why – and defend ourselves.   Most recent was a delightful dinner discussion with a group of learned and accomplished gentlemen from Chapel Hill. For the first half hour, we were peppered by questions…

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The Same-Old

  The poor Tea Partiers have been getting pounded from pillar to post by the Washington political bosses and reporters and I’ll grant there’s a streak of oddness in the Tea Partiers but they also possess virtues like fighting for lost causes and having the courage of their convictions and besides, when you get right…

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Old Fogey Ways

Last week the newspapers were full of high-sounding stories about the Senate’s gay rights bill. They reported the Senate’s: – Completing the civil rights crusade started fifty years ago. – Letting the bells of freedom ring. – Advancing tolerance. – Barring discrimination.   One Illinois Democrat intoned how happy he was the Senate’s ‘fulfilling Abraham…

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Time to Panic?

Is Senator Kay Hagan overreacting on Obamacare, or should Democrats rush to the lifeboats and abandon ship?   If you go by the N&O website’s headline – “Hagan calls for probe of healthcare website as political support drops” – you’d panic. After all, she had a conference call with reporters to call for investigations of…

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Bosses

Mitch McConnell sounded a lot like an old-fashioned political boss: He sat down with a columnist from the Wall Street Journal, whipped out a knife, and plunged it right into the Tea Party.   To govern, McConnell said, parties must win. And to win they have to run candidates who’re adults.   That was a…

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The Key

  Polymorphous America enjoyed a boom week last week.   The Senate passed a bill to show any fellow who doesn’t cotton to hiring transgenders, bisexuals or gay people the error of his ways. And, overjoyed, the President announced a more tolerant America goes hand in hand with a more prosperous America – as if…

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