Monday Open Thread [11.26.12]

A new CNN/ORC poll finds 53% of the country has an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, and 58% want the Republican to have less say and influence over the direction of the country over the last two years. And 70% say the GOP has not done enough to cooperate with Obama. Yeah, if we go over the Fiscal Slope, the GOP will be blamed pretty severely.

So Ashley Judd, yes, that Ashley Judd, the movie star, apparently is considering running for office. She calls Kentucky home, and is considering a race against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). Her grandmother, however, is not impressed.

“I don’t think there’s any possibility of that happening… I think Mitch has done more for Ashland than anybody else who has been in there. That means a lot. He’s been here personally, and we don’t always get that from politicians who represent us. […] [Ashley’s] a Hollywood liberal. It would be interesting to see what type of race she would run.”

Now that must have been an interesting Thanksgiving dinner.

Joe Klein: “Has there ever been a less gracious presidential loser than Mitt Romney? I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt during the campaign. I figured he was just dialing for dollars when he massaged the Boca Raton fat cats’ fantasies about the lack of ‘responsibility’ on the part of the 47% who don’t pay income taxes. But it turns out he really believes that stuff.”

Georgia is the next Virginia.

“Obama won Virginia and Florida and narrowly missed victory in North Carolina. But he also polled as well in Georgia as any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, grabbed 44 percent of the vote in deep-red South Carolina and just under that in Mississippi — despite doing no substantive campaigning in any of those states.”

“Much of the post-election analysis has focused on the demographic crisis facing Republicans among Hispanic voters, particularly in Texas. But the results across other parts of the South, where Latinos remain a single-digit minority, point to separate trends among blacks and whites that may also have big implications for the GOP’s future.”

Deep South African Americans are voting, and educated white transplants from the North are beginning to affect elections. That is what happened in Virginia and North Carolina to make them competitive swing states. And the same thing is happening in Georgia, with the added mix of a more substantial Latino vote. Georgia will be a swing state in 2016.