Morris Fiorina: Yes, Virginia, there really ARE independent voters!

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
5 False Assumptions Political Pundits Make All the Time (By Molly Ball, The Atlantic) It's true that self-described independents are more likely to have a partisan leaning than to be "pure independents" -- centrists who find themselves equally sympathetic with both sides' views. But the "independents" are still more independent than the partisans on either side.


VOTING RIGHTS ACT

• Analysis - In U.S. voting-rights case, liberal justices pitch to Kennedy (By Joan Biskupic, The Star - UK) Barely a minute into a U.S. Supreme Court hearing, liberal justices began a strategic barrage of questions that came down to this: Why should a time-honoured plank of the 1965 Voting Rights Act be invalidated in a case from Alabama with its history of racial discrimination?
• Sotomayor, Kagan ready for battles (By Dana Milbank, Washington Post) For a quarter-century, Antonin Scalia has been the reigning bully of the Supreme Court, but finally a couple of justices are willing to face him down.