Ann Friedman finds the GOP Messaging on Women conflicting.
Like Palin before her, [Congresswoman Cathy] McMorris Rodgers [,who gave the official GOP SOTU response], projects the supermom image that is quickly becoming the GOP’s go-to female archetype. Yet there’s a fair chance that even this superficial solidarity won’t resonate with women voters. “For most American women, this is the era of coming to grips with not having it all,” writes Hanna Rosin at Slate. “For Republican politicians, however, it’s the 1980s of the Enjoli, bring-home-the-bacon, 24-hour woman.” Why didn’t the GOP realize this decades earlier? The supermom archetype is perfect for a party whose policies send the message that if you’re not getting ahead, it’s because you aren’t working hard enough.
So, the GOP messaging is 30 years behind the times now? That seems about right.
Dana Millbank on doing away with the two term limit:
“Certainly, many second-term woes have been less about lame-duck status than about hubris, complacency and first-term mistakes catching up with presidents. But when a presidency has a constitutional expiration date, it increases the opposition’s incentive to stall. No wonder modern second terms have been almost uniformly unsuccessful.”
Yeah, but it is necessary. With no presidential term limits, Bill Clinton would likely still be President today. Not that I would mind that, but a 21 year presidency is a bit much.
So Gallup found that 56% of the uninsured population plan on getting insurance through the health insurance exchanges that have been set up by the ACA. But 38% say they are more likely to pay the fine the government assesses if you do not have insurance.
That 38 percent generally approximates the conservative fringe of America, you know, the ones who clung to George W. Bush to the bitter end, the ones who believe Obama was born in Kenya, the ones sickened by America’s creeping communism. There are probably a handful in that 38 percent who are choosing to pay the fine for non-ideological reasons. But there are many more who are doing so to spite the president.
I love the irony. They are willing to put their entire family and financial well being at risk to spite the President by not getting affordable insurance through a government exchange, because FREEDOM!!! and in so doing they will pay a fine that will go to the government to help others get affordable insurance.
It’s your life, you teabaggers. If you want to ruin your lives, have at it.
When Chris Christie Bridgegate scandal broke, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was on air that weekend supporting the New Jersey Governor. Now Giuliani says it is “fifty-fifty” over whether Christie was lying and in fact knew about the bridge closures. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (R) runs a clinic on how to response when you fuck up and are facing criticism: you accept responsibility and apologize rather than blame others and dodge accountability (the path Christie chose).
Deal “called for a top-to-bottom review of the government’s response to the epic traffic jam in the aftermath of Tuesday’s snowfall and he and the state’s top emergency staffer apologized for failing to adequately prepare for the storm.” Said Deal: ‘I am not satisfied with the response. But I am not going to look for a scapegoat. I am the governor, and the buck stops with me.'”
Those that follow Deal’s example tend to survive crisis, and those that follow Christie’s path don’t.
POLLING:
FLORIDA–PRESIDENT–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY–Quinnipiac: Hillary Clinton 64, Joe Biden 9. No other Democrat is above 5.
FLORIDA–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Quinnipiac: Jeb Bush 25, Marco Rubio 16, Rand Paul 11, Ted Cruz 9, Chris Christie 9, Paul Ryan 5
FLORIDA–PRESIDENT–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY–Quinnipiac: Clinton 49, Bush 43; Clinton 51, Rubio 41; Clinton 53, Paul 38; Clinton 52, Ryan 39; Clinton 51, Christie 35; Clinton 54, Cruz 34.
Some of the internals in this poll are pretty interesting:
* Florida voters say 45 – 35 percent that Christie would not make a good president.
* But Hillary would make a good president, by a margin of 58-38.
* So would Jeb, by 50-40.
* Clinton outscores Christie on honesty and trustworthiness, with 54% saying she is, while 44% say he is.