As Independents Move Right, Virginia is Likely to Follow
By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The Virginia governor's race will be held a week from tomorrow—see my column this week on the lessons it holds for the national parties—and the independents are a key factor in that race, as they are in the New Jersey governor's race. According to RealClearPolitics, a website that aggregates the latest news and polls, Americans' attitudes are "changing rapidly," and independent voters have "flipped negative," according to executive editor Tom Bevan. Here's an excerpt from the site:
The first gubernatorial races since Democrats took control of Washington, in New Jersey and Virginia, show voter angst and ire. Those races appear to be heading in different directions but are two sides of the same coin.
In Virginia—which swung Democrat first in 2006 to Jim Webb in his Senate race, then further to Obama in 2008—Republican Bob McDonnell leads Democrat Creigh Deeds by widening margins.
In New Jersey—which last went for a GOP presidential candidate in 1988—Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine averages about 40 percent. GOP challenger Chris Christie has fallen more than six points in two weeks. The beneficiary is independent Chris Daggett, winning double-digit support.
"What do these phenomena have in common? In two words: disillusionment and disgust," Villanova University political science professor Lara Brown told RealClear. Brown then pointed out that registered and likely voters, in particular, "are disillusioned and disgusted with both parties and their candidates, who seem to over-promise, under-deliver, ask for too much and take advantage of their positions."
RealClearPolitics then lurches into the obvious, as John McLaughlin used to say, with this breaking news: "Americans are worn out by inflated rhetoric and Washington insiders who just months ago said they were outsiders. Voters wonder what happened to candidates they elected to clean up Washington, stop partisan bickering and remove Wall Street titans who retained fat bonuses only because taxpayers bailed out their companies."
It's no wonder, then, that a new Gallup poll shows that independents are moving to the right across the board. More Americans now consider themselves conservatives than liberal by a 2-to-1 margin (40 percent vs. 20 percent) because so many independents now identify themselves as conservatives. This is narrowing the gap between Democrats and Republicans nationally, as more independents lean Republican, and according to Gallup, "that trend aligns with the recent changes in how independents perceive their own ideology and where they stand on some key issues."
My nominee for one of those key issues: out-of-control government spending.
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Reader Comments
To Thomas and David
Your hyperbole is hilarious, but humor does not the truth make.
Oh, and god doesn't matter. This is a government, not a church. Got that?
Why is it that you hyperbolize liberals as wanting to control what everyone thinks, while you champion a book that does explicitly that? Have you ever READ the bible? It is FULL of perscriptions for a faithfull life. Have you heard of the 10 COMMANDMENTS? They are called COMMANDMENTS because god intends them to CONTROL your life by COMMANDING you to live a certain way. But god gave us free will, you say? What a nice guy! The irony is palpable, dude.
"As a public official, he should not give first allegiance to the Code of Canon Law that bans abortion."
So you are going to dictate one's faith and belief?
DUUUUUHHHHHHH! Why is this so hard to understand? This public official is giving first alleigance to the laws of a soverign nation other than the USA. That has nothing to do with religion. It is only that you are so arrogant as to preclude your duties in any capacity with your religous beleifs. I'll bet if it was Russia and not the Vatican, you would be ready to try him for treason.
What if I start a church that denies the humanity of the followers of christ? Can I then infringe on your civil liberties by preventing you from having children so that you would not be able to procreate and spread christianity? Would that be a valid excercise of my rights to personal faiths and beleifs, or should I be required to keep my faiths and beleifs from infringing on the civil rights of others?
HINT: It's the same reason why the the Puritans came here in the first place.
You are trying to make this into an attack on religion, but it is not. The Lord does not look kindly on those who fein injury to gain sympathy.
John B,
Those that are "malleable" would more accurately describe those foolish enough to vote for the illegalization of "evil marijuana", who then wondered why the man was taking away their hemp. Hemp won the first world war, and had to be "re-legalized" (for the govenment only, of course) to win the second. Do some research before you insult, lest your insults turn out to be directed at you.
AMERICA IS LEANING RIGHT............
People are sick of ACORN and man/boy Jennings. They are tired of killing unborn children just days before their birth and calling it women's rights. They are tired of every other person in the white house being a flaming homo. They are tired of people worshipping the dead debaucherer ted Kennedy. Only 20% of Americans consider themselves liberals that means 80% oppose these idiots. Sexual deviance,child killing and man/boy love just don't fly with everyday Americans. Sorry liberals, you ought to move to France where the liberals rule and the country is in complete shambles.
aura dawn veirs of CA
More diatriabe on anti-church, Aura?!
Aura wrote: "As a public official, he should not give first allegiance to the Code of Canon Law that bans abortion."
So you are going to dictate one's faith and belief?
Furthermore, you state, "The world needs population regulation. There are too many consumers, eating up irreplaceable natural resources."
Is it possible that you are so selfish and arrogant as to think that you need and deserve MORE natural resources than another to the extent that your so convicted as to deny another their opportunity at life?
Perhaps we should "Cull the herd". Let's start WWIII . . . Fire-up the Auschwitz ovens!
Hey, let's take it a step further and create Aura's version of a utopian society where God no longer matters. That way we will no longer feel shame, guilt and remorse when we perform drive through partial birth abortions. Or create a mandatory sterilization if you come from a family that historically, over generations, earned less than 200% less than the Federal Poverty Level. In fact, let's save Medicare/Medicaid and associated tax dollars by sending the old, young, and infirm to the oven. That form of "global warming and pollution" would be a necessary evil since the long term benefits would outweight the short term costs.
And while we're at it, let's decide what everyone should/can think and what they are allowed to believe. While were at it, let's put a cap and trade on what resources you can use.
This is the panacea for liberals . . . all in the sake of conserving natural resources and generating more tax revenue. Come to think of it, this approach is nothing new. It was called National Socialism and was totalitarian in character and aimed to control all politics, economy, social relationships, and thought. It became affectionately known to the world as Nazism and it started 76 short years ago in 1933.
The new liberal refrain will likely be a translated version of "Arbeit Macht Frei!"
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