Delaware Liberal Tracking Poll Results — Speaker Gilligan

Delaware enjoys its Democratic House of Representatives, and its Speaker. Bob Gilligan garners a surprisingly high 79% approval rating, making him the most popular politician in the state. This is surprising only because you would think not many people would know who he is, but then again, I am polling the readership of Delaware Liberal, a politically aware subset of the population. I fully expect Speaker Gilligan to brag about these numbers during the upcoming budget negotiations with Governor Markell.

Women Are Not Single Issue Voters And Contraception Is Not A Single Issue

Lately I've heard politicians of all stripes state that women are not single issue voters. This statement appears when the subject of contraception emerges and the two parties use the line for different reasons. The point is... access to affordable contraception encompasses more than a single issue. Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans act like contraception is something that only pertains to a woman looking for a good time on a Friday night - as a way to cut loose without suffering the "consequences." For 99% of women who use, or have used, contraception, the decision to prevent pregnancy is based on economics. Can we afford to have a child at this time? Are we at a point in our lives where having a child would be a responsible financial decision? Do we even want to have children? (That last question has Republicans taking to their fainting couches.) If we were talking about buying a new car and whether we could afford it, or if spending our money on that was responsible when we were struggling to pay other bills, we would be applauded for demonstrating good fiscal sense. In fact, Republicans normally love to wag their fingers at people buying big screen televisions they can't afford. Pointing out how people are irresponsible with their finances is one of the GOP's favorite pass times. So why don't they admit that household economies are directly tied to family planning?

Game Change Live Blog

I sense a number of us will be watching tonight. So here is a thread to discuss it. John Cole over at Balloon Juice has some thoughts on watching tonight. He is not sure he is going to. I am going to watch, but I feel the same way he does about Sarah Palin.

Saturday Open Thread [3.10.12]

Remember, Daylight Saving Time begins tonight. So we "spring" forward, and lose an hour of sleep. Bastards. You know who else are bastards, Republicans. Why? Let Andrew Samwick explain the Republican spin on yesterday's good economic news:
[President Obama] is making inadequate progress getting us out of the hole we dug for you despite our opposition to every program you propose.

The House Limbaugh Built And May Have Burned Down

Premiere Networks, which distributes Limbaugh as well as a host of other right-wing talkers, sent an email out to its affiliates early Friday listing 98 large corporations that have requested their ads appear only on “programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).”

Is that a threat?

ABC News reports that Donald Trump will be recording robo-calls on behalf of Mitt Romney for every state. Said Trump spokesman Michael Cohen: "Citizens of all states should expect a phone call from Mr. Trump endorsing Mitt Romney."

An Open Thread Without Polling Data?!?

I know, I know, most of you are right now writhing on the floor going through withdrawal without the daily dose of polling goodness that usually accompanies our Open Thread. Let me explain what happened. As I was uploading some thumbnail pictures and editing some posts this morning, our server hosting company for some reason thought I was a hacker, and they blocked my IP address. Yes, I was banned from my own blog. The irony. At the time, I thought the whole site went down and we were suffering a server outage. It took most of the morning to track down what happened, and as a result I was not able to post the open thread. But I thank MJ for stepping up, and I thank our IT geek, LiberalGeek, for dealing with my hysterical demands. But now lets feed our addiction.

Friday Open Thread [3.9.12]

Well, we've been having server problems again, so we apologize if you've been unable to post comments on our brilliant posts from the past few hours. First off, we want to wish JP Connor Jr a speedy recovery. He tweeted last night that he had suffered a heart attack. While we disagree with him on his support of a certain elected official, we want him to get better fast. We miss his comments with that silly smiley face at the end of them. Hurry up and get well, JP.

Go Economy!!

The new job numbers exceeded expectations yet again, with the economy adding 233,000 private sector jobs in February. The numbers for January were also revised up to 284,000 jobs.