1. After two election cycles in the political wilderness, conservatives appear to be rallying in advance of the 2010 midterm election.
In new Gallup numbers released this morning, 42 percent of Americans describe themselves as conservative while 35 percent say they are moderates and 20 percent call themselves liberals.
The 42 percent of self-described conservatives would be a record high for Gallup, which has been asking the question since 1992, if the trend continued through the final six months of the year. (The data for the first six months of 2010 was culled from eight national surveys conducted by Gallup.) The last time four in ten Americans (or more) identified themselves as conservatives was 2004 when Republicans re-elected President George W. Bush and made gains in the House and Senate.
The Gallup numbers are not inconsistent with other recent data -- although they do paint a slightly more rosy picture for conservatives than other polls.
In this week's NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, 38 percent of the sample identified as conservative while 36 percent said they were moderates and 23 percent called themselves liberals.
The rise of conservatives in the Gallup data comes amid increasing signs -- including a National Public Radio poll of 70 of the most competitive congressional districts in the country -- that enthusiasm among Republicans running very high.
While the latest Gallup data is sure to be a nice present heading into the weekend for Republicans, it's important to remember that ideology is not a direct corollary to voting.
In 2008, Gallup showed that 37 percent of people said they were conservative while another 37 percent described themselves as moderates and 22 percent called themselves liberals. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, won 365 electoral votes that year.
2. President Obama will travel to Kansas City on July 8 to hold a fundraiser for Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's Senate campaign.
The Missouri Senate hopeful was conspicuously absent when Obama made a visit to the state in March, discussing financial reform in Washington while the president was stumping on health care reform and holding a fundraiser for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
More recently, Carnahan did appear with Obama at an April event in northeastern Missouri, although her campaign's last-minute announcement that she'd be attending again fueled speculation that she was avoiding the president.
Carnahan has been cautious about being tied too closely to Obama but it appears the Democratic Senate hopeful is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. Rep. Roy Blunt, the Republican Senate nominee, took a shot at Carnahan yesterday for "hiding" from Obama during his earlier two visits "and now, in an act of desperation, Carnahan is coming out in the open to stand with Obama and his unpopular agenda."
Blunt is calling in a big gun of his own: former White House senior adviser Karl Rove will hold two events for Blunt on Monday.
3. Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon (R) is up with a new television ad that puts her career at the helm of the leading professional wrestling organization in the country front and center but sidesteps the controversies that her rivals have raised about her tenure there.
"Before I decided to run for the Senate, I had a regular job," McMahon says, before the shot switches to images of costumed wrestlers duking it out in the ring. "Okay, maybe not a regular job," McMahon continues, calling WWE "a soap opera that entertains millions every week."
The ad marks McMahon's most direct mention of her tenure at WWE, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince, and in which she played an integral role for three decades until stepping down last year. Her previous commercials made only passing references to her career, and her early ads touted her as a businesswoman but mentioned no details about what that "business" was.
McMahon has been facing increasing scrutiny about her time at WWE -- primarily related to controversies surrounding the company's drug-testing policy. She is also facing a lawsuit, filed this week, from the widow of a former wrestler who died in a 1999 stunt.
McMahon's latest ad is a recognition from her campaign that it must try to tell the story of her WWE life in as positive a light as possible rather than watch the various allegations drag down her campaign against state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D).
Connecticut Dems were, not surprisingly, quick to respond to the ad. "McMahon is kidding herself if she thinks she can portray the very real impact of pervasive steroid abuse, violence-fueled programming, and abusive treatment of women -- all of which she marketed to children -- as an illusion," the release reads.
4. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is stepping up her profile in a handful of appearances over the next several days, announcing on her Facebook page that she's headlining a trio of events in Texas, Virginia and Georgia.
Palin is also expected to deliver a speech today at the California State Univeristy Stanislaus. The appearance has been the subject of weeks of controversy due to Palin's refusal to state how much she is charging for the speech as well as her initial barring of media from covering the event. (The university has since announced that reporters will be allowed to attend).
Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) campaign has also used the Palin visit to remind voters that the former Alaska governor former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the GOP Senate nominee, during the primary. Boxer's campaign released a Web video earlier this week splicing together footage of the two.
(Palin was also at the center of another controversy on Thursday, agreeing to return nearly $400,000 in contributions to her legal defense fund after a local governing board in Alaska deemed the fund to be illegal.)
The 2008 vice presidential nominee appears unbowed by the controversies that swirl around her, however. In addition to her busy travel schedule announced Thursday, she also waded into the open seat Kansas Senate race -- backing Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R) over Rep. Jerry Moran (R).
5. What better way to decompress after a long and, if you live anywhere near DC, hot, week than with two Fix chats?
At 10:30 a.m. we reveal the winner of our "Worst Week in Washington" competition via a live video chat. Gen. Stanley McChrystal is the obvious choice but tune in to see if he's our pick.
Then, at 11 a.m., it's the "Live Fix" -- our weekly chat with Fixistas of all ages on the political hot topics of the day. (And the World Cup, the longest match ever at Wimbledon, John Wall and other things that strike our fancy.)
Tune in!
With Felicia Sonmez
By Chris Cillizza | June 25, 2010; 7:42 AM ET
In new Gallup numbers released this morning, 42 percent of Americans describe themselves as conservative while 35 percent say they are moderates and 20 percent call themselves liberals.
The 42 percent of self-described conservatives would be a record high for Gallup, which has been asking the question since 1992, if the trend continued through the final six months of the year. (The data for the first six months of 2010 was culled from eight national surveys conducted by Gallup.) The last time four in ten Americans (or more) identified themselves as conservatives was 2004 when Republicans re-elected President George W. Bush and made gains in the House and Senate.
The Gallup numbers are not inconsistent with other recent data -- although they do paint a slightly more rosy picture for conservatives than other polls.
In this week's NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, 38 percent of the sample identified as conservative while 36 percent said they were moderates and 23 percent called themselves liberals.
The rise of conservatives in the Gallup data comes amid increasing signs -- including a National Public Radio poll of 70 of the most competitive congressional districts in the country -- that enthusiasm among Republicans running very high.
While the latest Gallup data is sure to be a nice present heading into the weekend for Republicans, it's important to remember that ideology is not a direct corollary to voting.
In 2008, Gallup showed that 37 percent of people said they were conservative while another 37 percent described themselves as moderates and 22 percent called themselves liberals. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, won 365 electoral votes that year.
2. President Obama will travel to Kansas City on July 8 to hold a fundraiser for Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's Senate campaign.
The Missouri Senate hopeful was conspicuously absent when Obama made a visit to the state in March, discussing financial reform in Washington while the president was stumping on health care reform and holding a fundraiser for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
More recently, Carnahan did appear with Obama at an April event in northeastern Missouri, although her campaign's last-minute announcement that she'd be attending again fueled speculation that she was avoiding the president.
Carnahan has been cautious about being tied too closely to Obama but it appears the Democratic Senate hopeful is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. Rep. Roy Blunt, the Republican Senate nominee, took a shot at Carnahan yesterday for "hiding" from Obama during his earlier two visits "and now, in an act of desperation, Carnahan is coming out in the open to stand with Obama and his unpopular agenda."
Blunt is calling in a big gun of his own: former White House senior adviser Karl Rove will hold two events for Blunt on Monday.
3. Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon (R) is up with a new television ad that puts her career at the helm of the leading professional wrestling organization in the country front and center but sidesteps the controversies that her rivals have raised about her tenure there.
"Before I decided to run for the Senate, I had a regular job," McMahon says, before the shot switches to images of costumed wrestlers duking it out in the ring. "Okay, maybe not a regular job," McMahon continues, calling WWE "a soap opera that entertains millions every week."
The ad marks McMahon's most direct mention of her tenure at WWE, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince, and in which she played an integral role for three decades until stepping down last year. Her previous commercials made only passing references to her career, and her early ads touted her as a businesswoman but mentioned no details about what that "business" was.
McMahon has been facing increasing scrutiny about her time at WWE -- primarily related to controversies surrounding the company's drug-testing policy. She is also facing a lawsuit, filed this week, from the widow of a former wrestler who died in a 1999 stunt.
McMahon's latest ad is a recognition from her campaign that it must try to tell the story of her WWE life in as positive a light as possible rather than watch the various allegations drag down her campaign against state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D).
Connecticut Dems were, not surprisingly, quick to respond to the ad. "McMahon is kidding herself if she thinks she can portray the very real impact of pervasive steroid abuse, violence-fueled programming, and abusive treatment of women -- all of which she marketed to children -- as an illusion," the release reads.
4. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is stepping up her profile in a handful of appearances over the next several days, announcing on her Facebook page that she's headlining a trio of events in Texas, Virginia and Georgia.
Palin is also expected to deliver a speech today at the California State Univeristy Stanislaus. The appearance has been the subject of weeks of controversy due to Palin's refusal to state how much she is charging for the speech as well as her initial barring of media from covering the event. (The university has since announced that reporters will be allowed to attend).
Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) campaign has also used the Palin visit to remind voters that the former Alaska governor former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the GOP Senate nominee, during the primary. Boxer's campaign released a Web video earlier this week splicing together footage of the two.
(Palin was also at the center of another controversy on Thursday, agreeing to return nearly $400,000 in contributions to her legal defense fund after a local governing board in Alaska deemed the fund to be illegal.)
The 2008 vice presidential nominee appears unbowed by the controversies that swirl around her, however. In addition to her busy travel schedule announced Thursday, she also waded into the open seat Kansas Senate race -- backing Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R) over Rep. Jerry Moran (R).
5. What better way to decompress after a long and, if you live anywhere near DC, hot, week than with two Fix chats?
At 10:30 a.m. we reveal the winner of our "Worst Week in Washington" competition via a live video chat. Gen. Stanley McChrystal is the obvious choice but tune in to see if he's our pick.
Then, at 11 a.m., it's the "Live Fix" -- our weekly chat with Fixistas of all ages on the political hot topics of the day. (And the World Cup, the longest match ever at Wimbledon, John Wall and other things that strike our fancy.)
Tune in!
With Felicia Sonmez
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