Day: October 5, 2010
Poll: Nearly Half of Tea Baggers Are Christian Extremists
A year ago, the Republicans who astroturfed the tea party phenomenon were adamant that it was a secular “movement” focused on fiscal issues and not on the culture wars. At that point, there was disaffection between the party and its extremist base. The GOP brand had been damaged by the incessant bigotry and invective streaming from the religious right, while the evangelicals and others were disappointed that the GOP had made so little progress on its issues — restricting the right to abortion and the civil rights of gays, for example — during the 12 years it controlled Congress and the eight years of the Bush presidency.
Another unsurprising result: 60 percent of the GOP-tea bagger base say their most trusted source of news is the Fox channel, which broadcasts Republican Party propaganda.
Lately, however, the tea party candidates have been backing away from fiscal issues, the specifics of which are political nonstarters — and trotting out old “culture war” issues from the 1990s. Top Senate tea bagger Jim Demint of South Carolina recently revived his call for banning from the teaching profession women (but not men) who have premarital sex and gays. Five of the tea baggers running for Senate — Sharron Angle of Nevada, Ken Buck of Colorado, Joe Miller of Alaska, Christine O’Donnell of Delaware and Rand Paul of Kentucky — advocate using the government to force women to have babies, even when the father is the woman’s rapist or a family member.
It’s not surprising then that this new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute finds that nearly half of tea baggers are holdovers from the religious extremist base:
Eight out of ten Americans who identified with the Tea Party were Christians and 47 percent said they were part of the Christian conservative movement, the poll found.
But the grassroots movement (sic) remains a small part of the population overall. Christian conservatives make up 22 percent of the population but those who favor the Tea Party only comprise half of that, about 11 percent of the population. An overwhelming majority of Americans, 94 percent, who support the Tea Party movement were white men and more than half were 50 or older, according to the survey.
The poll found overwhelming support, 80 percent, for Sarah Palin, and 75 percent opposition to Pres. Obama.
Another unsurprising result: 60 percent of the GOP-tea bagger base say their most trusted source of news is the Fox channel, which broadcasts Republican Party propaganda.
NV Sen: GOP-Fox Caught Rigging Poll Outcome That Shows Angle Leading Reid by 3 Points
A new poll on the Nevada Senate race from the GOP’s Fox channel finds that tea bagger Sharron Angle is leading Sen. Harry Reid, 49 percent to 46 percent.
“I would look askance on this poll.”
Prof. Mark Peplowski
Prof. Mark Peplowski
And despite the fact that the margin of error in the poll is 3 percentage points, the Republican propaganda network is ready to call the election.
“As voters make up their mind with four weeks to go until Election Day, Angle seems to have the edge,” a poll “analyst” for the GOP-Fox network wrote.
In fact, most polls have shown the race to be tied — as, technically, the Fox poll does, since Angle’s lead is in the margin of error. However, a poll from about week ago by a GOP pollster Public Opinion Strategies found Reid leading Angle, 45 percent to 40 percent.
Now the methodology behing the Fox poll is being called into question by College of Southern Nevada professor Mark Peplowski:
More Adults Have Government Healthcare Now
26.3 percent
American adults who reported having government healthcare in September — more than in any previous month since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in January 2008. Employer-based coverage has held steady at about 45 percent for the past four months, but is down compared with early 2009 and ’08.
Rubio’s Credit Card Bills Show He’s No Fiscal Conservative. They Might Show More.
A new ad from U.S. Senate candidate Gov. Charlie Crist (Fla.-NPA) spotlights the questionable spending practices of self-proclaimed fiscal conservative Tea Party Republican opponent Marco Rubio. The ad focuses on Rubio’s credit card problems, which should be leading Florida news but, since the talking points aren’t matching up to Rubio’s golden boy image, seem so far to be non-issues.
We’d like some answers about Rubio’s spending habits, and in particular, to find out if the reason he fought so hard to keep his full credit card records from becoming public is because of all the travel they show for his legislative aide, healthcare lobbyist Amber Stoner. Stoner, as has been noted, had a habit while Rubio served in the Florida House of either accompanying him or arriving in the same cities and resorts as he did within a day. We’d also like to see if Rubio’s wife, former cheerleader Jeanette C. Dousdebes-Rubio, joined the pair on those trips.
FL Sen: Here’s a Question for Marco Rubio – Why Does Lobbyist Amber Stoner’s Name Appear At Least 10 Times on Your Credit Card Statements?
There will be a debate among the candidates in the Florida U.S. Senate race tomorrow night, Oct. 6, and our friends and colleagues over at the Political Carnival have submitted a question for the frontrunner, the GOP-tea bagger candidate, Marco Rubio:
Just what is going on here between you and health-care lobbyist Amber Stoner?
First of all, for non-Floridians just now tuning in, Marco Rubio is the former state House speaker about whom Sarah Palin said this spring, “I love Marco Rubio. Marco keep up the good work. Call me.” Since then, he’s driven his chief rival, Gov. Charlie Crist, out of the Republican Party — Crist is now challenging him as an independent. In every recent poll, Rubio leads Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek by double digits.
Despite his sunny smile and boyish demeanor, however, Rubio is allegedly just another corrupt conservative. According to CREW, the nonpartisan ethics watchdog group that recently filed a complaint alleging that Delaware GOP tea bagger candidate Christine O’Donnell embezzled campaign donations, Rubio is under investigation by federal authorities:
Verbatim
When your ad starts with “I am not a witch” this is usually not a good sign for you.
Florida politico Steve Schale commenting on Delaware U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s new video message.
Bridge to Nowhere
He can stand in front of the teleprompter and yap,
And dispense platitudes, parables and pap.
But try as he will
Prez Obama can’t fill
That yawning chasm — the Emotion Gap.
