Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

NATIONAL: Independent voters -- will we buy Repub and Dem tautologies?

The GOP's Bankruptcy of Ideas
By Harold MeyersonWashington Post Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The emerging Republican game plan for 2006 is, at bottom, a tautology: If the Democrats retake Congress it will mean, well, that the Democrats retake Congress. (Cue lightning bolt and ominous clap of thunder.) Karl Rove and his minions have plumb run out of issues to campaign on. They can't run on the war. They can't run on the economy, where the positive numbers on growth are offset by the largely stagnant numbers on median incomes and the public's growing dread of outsourcing. Immigration may play in various congressional districts, but it's too dicey an issue to nationalize. Even social conservatives may be growing weary of outlawing gay marriage every other November. Nobody's buying the ownership society. Competence? Ethics? You kidding? ......
meyersonh@washpost.com link

Speaking of tautologies, check out Jackie Salit and Fred Newman's Talk/Talk :
Salit: Today we had the latest installment on whether the Democrats are going to take control of the House of Representatives. Seventy-seven percent of Americans say Congress is doing a bad job, there’s all that kind of stuff. Yet, the polls show that even people who say that control of Congress should be changed, still plan to vote for their incumbent congressperson. On “The Chris Matthews Show” Jon Meacham pointed out that the Democrats might end up taking the House, but it will be fought out district by district and it won’t necessarily represent a general shift on the part of the electorate.
Newman: That’s a tautology.
Salit: The tautology is?
Newman: That the vote will be decided by each district. That’s how we vote for members of Congress. There’s no vote on the entire Congress......
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