Top Items:
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream in Their Demographics — Skew right politically, but have typical profile by age, education, and employment — PRINCETON, NJ — Tea Party supporters skew right politically; but demographically, they are generally representative of the public at large.
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Sean J. Miller / The Hill:
Survey: Four in 10 Tea Party members are Dems or independents — Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey. — The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.
Rasmussen Reports:
Tea Party 48% Obama 44% — On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president's views are closer to their own.
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Myth-busting polls: Tea Party members are average Americans …
Myth-busting polls: Tea Party members are average Americans …
Discussion:
The Winston Group
Sammy Benoit / YID With LID:
Et Tu Gallup? Second Polling Org. …
ABCNEWS:
EXCLUSIVE: Michael Steele: Obama and I Have Slimmer Margins of Error Because of Race — Embattled Republican Leader Breaks His Silence, Says He Won't Resign — Embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he won't resign despite calls for him to step down amid reports …
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Making Financial Reform Fool-Resistant — The White House is confident that a financial regulatory reform bill will soon pass the Senate. I'm not so sure, given the opposition of Republican leaders to any real reform. But in any case, how good is the legislation on the table …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …, The Baseline Scenario, The Note, Rortybomb and Prairie Weather
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Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:
Street Fight — Obama can get everything he wants on financial reform—if only he gets tough. — Last week, Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, floated a compromise on the consumer financial protection agency that's currently stalled in the Senate.
Ed O'Keefe / Federal Eye:
Karl Rove appears in TV ad for Census — Author and former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove will appear in a new public service announcement from the U.S. Census Bureau designed to convince people to mail back their 2010 census forms by the end of the month.
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V. Dion Haynes / Washington Post:
Jobless rate may rise as many are drawn back to labor force — The increase in jobs highlighted in the nation's most recent unemployment report carried the sound of economic promise, but Obama administration officials said Sunday that the public shouldn't expect any dramatic improvement in the jobless rate …
Discussion:
Commentary, Beat the Press, The Other McCain, The Washington Independent, Associated Press, Scared Monkeys, The Page and The Hill
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Brianna Keilar / CNN:
Unemployment benefits expire for thousands — (CNN) — Extended unemployment benefits will temporarily expire for thousands of Americans on Monday because the Senate went on its spring recess without approving a one-month deadline extension. — The extension, which had bipartisan support …
Joshua Partlow / Washington Post:
Karzai's defiant stance concerns U.S., other Afghans — KABUL — President Obama's visit to Kabul last week, intended in part to forge a closer working relationship with President Hamid Karzai, has helped produce the opposite: an angry Afghan leader now attacking the West for what he perceives …
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Jerome Starkey / Times of London:
US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan
US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan
David Carr / New York Times:
The Media Equation: Sarah Palin's Lucrative Career in Mainstream Media — When Sarah Palin made her debut as the host of “Real American Stories” on Fox News on Thursday night, she described several triumphs of regular people over insurmountable odds, but she missed an obvious one: her own.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Brendan Nyhan, Israpundit, The Other McCain and Conservatives4Palin.com
Liberty Pundits dot net:
Fake story meant to ensnare bloggers catches NYT instead — And these clowns wonder why they are circling the drain? This lawyer pulled the fake story stunt to entrap us - political bloggers - because “fact checking is not” our “strong suit,” so he claimed. We ignored the story, and the NYT ran with it.
Irwin Stelzer / Wall Street Journal:
Small Bras and the Value-Added Tax — Taxing consumption sounds easy. Wait until government starts to carve out the political exceptions. — So we are to have a European-style value-added tax (VAT). That's the emerging consensus in Washington as people come to recognize the reality …
David Catanese / The Politico:
Spring forecast: Incivility with a chance of rage — MANCHESTER, N.H. - If the experience of this state's two Democratic House members is any indication, the raw emotion and mistrust emanating from last summer's congressional town halls never really went away.
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Mark Halperin / Time:
Taking On Obama in 2012: Challenges for Romney, Pawlenty — President Barack Obama waves goodbye after delivering a speech at the Portland Expo Center in Maine on April 1, 2010 — The conventional presidential-campaign wisdom: … Because all these pieces of wisdom are completely false …
Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:
Court Challenge: Replacing Stevens — Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens's latest public musings about retirement highlight the challenge President Barack Obama faces in choosing a successor for the leader of the court's liberal minority. — Whomever Mr. Obama chooses …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, The Note, Beltway Confidential, Washington Post, Law Blog, Politico Live's Blog, Pundit & Pundette and The Hill
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Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:
Kagan, Judges Said to Be Considered for Supreme Court Vacancy
Kagan, Judges Said to Be Considered for Supreme Court Vacancy
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Below The Beltway, The Confluence, RedState, TalkLeft, Mediaite and Gawker
Jon Ralston / Las Vegas Sun:
Why Sen. Ensign should be worried about possible indictment — In the federal penal code, it is known as “structuring.” — And it is a word Sen. John Ensign should remember because it is very likely to be on any indictment with his name on it. — That's what I am told by a reliable source familiar …