Politics 2012: Watch Out for the Independents

TOP TWO OPEN PRIMARY
Lawsuit argues top-two open primary system is unconstitutional (By: Damon Eris, US Independent Voter Network) At this stage, mainstream and corporate media coverage of challenges to the top two system seem to be misinformed.  For instance, In its report on the lawsuit from November 23rd, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the plaintiffs in the suit are seeking the preliminary injunction “in hopes of preventing the new system from being used during next year’s presidential contest.”  In fact, there is no mention of presidential elections anywhere in the lawsuit’s complaint, and the top-two open primary system does not even apply to presidential elections.

BLOOMBERG 2012
Why it's worth paying attention to Michael Bloomberg, even when he's just posing (By Steve Kornacki, Capital New York) As rote as it seemed, it was still interesting to watch Bloomberg execute his latest gimmick, not because it suggested the 69-year-old mayor will actually seek the White House (he almost certainly won’t, next year or ever) but because the idea that he might seemed to generate an unusual level of interest from the political world. This is something you might want to get used to, at least for the next few months, not just because Bloomberg undeniably has the financial resources to mount a national campaign if he really wants to, but because for only the third time in 32 years it appears that next year’s election will feature the three ingredients that are most conducive to the emergence of a credible third party candidate.

RON PAUL 2012
Ron Paul Rising (Brian Doherty, Reason Online) "I could very well see Ron Paul coming in second place," said longtime pollster Andy Smith, who runs the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

NEW YORK

• Bronx judge: Keep Pedro Espada’s Soundview clinic open to meet healthcare needs of the NYC’s poor. Judge: Health system will be burdened without Soundview (BY Kevin Deutsch, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) In a separate development Monday, several patients and medical providers who work with Espada's network filed petitions in support of the clinics. They claim the shuttering of the clinics would leave 20,000 patients without affordable health care and lead them to overwhelm other Bronx doctors.
• A Court, Not Votes, Sustains a Political Machine in Queens (By MICHAEL POWELL, NY Times) “Surrogate’s Court is the play,” notes a well-connected Queens Democrat who remains that way by talking anonymously. “You can’t talk about what makes the machine tick without talking about surrogates.”

LAST WORD
Who Believes The U.S. Is Bailing Out Europe? (Forbes) “Since we’re controlling for partisanship and education, it seems like there really is something about watching Fox that makes people less informed on this issue than they would be otherwise,” said Dan Cassino, a political science professor at FDU. “Given that Fox’s ratings are well above their competitors, the findings are very troubling.”
Who is bailing out Europe? Independent voters are least likely to answer that correctly. While 36% of Republicans can, followed by 33% of Democrats.  Only 26% of political independents name Germany, with 30% of them thinking it is the U.S.