Sunday punditry.
John McCain:
I disagree with many of the president's policies, but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause. I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America or opposed to its founding ideals. And I reject accusations that Americans who vigorously oppose his policies are less intelligent, compassionate or just than those who support them.
See commentary below, but the commendable piece should be read in its entirety.
Ronald Brownstein:
Even so, his rampage should still encourage everyone in the political arena to look in the mirror.
Here’s one reason: Everyone who deals in hyperbolic political rhetoric was only a mouse click from disaster after Loughner’s attack. Yes, there’s no evidence that he drew direct inspiration from any particularly incendiary political language on the Internet (or elsewhere in the media). But if he had, the source of that rhetoric (whether Left or Right) would pay an enormous political price. This should remind all of those dealing in militant language that they are at the mercy of their least stable followers.
Interestingly, it's the tea party that demonstrably doesn't accept compromise, and it's the right that seeks to delegitimize both the president and the government. This from Dan Balz:
McCain said much more than that the president gave, as he put it, "a terrific speech" on Wednesday. He offered a character reference for a politician whom many conservatives in McCain's party see as un-American. "I disagree with many of the president's policies," he wrote, "but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause. I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America or opposed to its founding ideals."
This is not the first time he has said something like that about the president. In the closing weeks of the 2008 campaign, the Republican nominee came to Obama's defense, rebuking some of those who had spoken out most stridently at his rallies, including people who claimed Obama was un-American or who said he was a Muslim.
Good for McCain. Balz is right to praise him for that comment, and I join him - we need more Republicans saying that - but don't lose sight of the substance of what he said. "[A]ccusations that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America or opposed to its founding ideals" are coming from only one place and only one side.
Marist poll:
A majority of independent voters — 55% — and even a plurality of Republican voters — 41% — think the president will make greater strides in his performance during the next two years than he has in the past two. Not surprisingly, most Democrats — 85% — also expect the president to do better in the future.
"Looking ahead to the next two years, voters are once again hopeful about President Obama," says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.
Also noteworthy, 35% of registered voters who disapprove of the president’s job performance think he will do better in the second half of his term than he did in the first two years.
National Journal:
Speakers at both Gingrich’s Americano forum and the Hispanic Leadership Network roundly decried GOP opposition to legislation awarding citizenship to children of illegal immigrants in college or the military, as well as the vitriol that frequently roils the immigration debate. Some Republicans in Congress have suggested changing the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to discourage illegal immigrants from dropping "anchor babies’’ in the U.S...
"We do have a challenge on the Hispanic vote," said Alex Castellanos, a Republican political consultant who worked on the Bush campaigns. "It is a language problem. It is a tonal problem.’’
The challenge for Republicans goes beyond tone, argued Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which favors allowing undocumented workers to earn citizenship. Many Republican activists criticize such legislation as giving amnesty to law breakers.
"The Hispanic Leadership Network Conference could be a forum for the GOP to start redirecting the ship, but only if they address the real elephant in the room -- the party’s position on comprehensive immigration reform,’’ Sharry said in a press release before the conference got underway. "The GOP’s ‘Latino problem’ is not going to be solved simply by changing rhetoric. It requires a change in policy too."
Vitriol? Is it bipartisan?
Charlie Cook:
Congressional Republicans are entering the 2012 campaign cycle in an enviable position. In the House, Democrats would need a 25-seat net gain to win control of the chamber; at this admittedly early point, that looks like a pretty tall order. Presidential-election years tend to result in smaller net shifts in the House, and 2010 saw Republicans simply reclaiming seats they lost in 2006 and 2008.
In the Senate, Democrats have 23 seats up compared with only 10 for Republicans. Considering that the GOP lost the majority in the chamber in 2006, when the victorious Democrats had a strong tailwind, a Republican takeover of the Senate appears quite likely in 2012.
In short, Republicans don’t need an electoral wave to ensure House and Senate majorities in 2013, they just need to keep from screwing up.
The Latino issue is still the gorilla in the elephant's room.
Last word is Frank Rich's:
If we learn nothing from this tragedy, we are back where we started. And where we started was with two years of accelerating political violence — actual violence, not to be confused with violent language — that struck fear into many, not the least of whom was Gabrielle Giffords.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s stipulate that Loughner was a "lone nutjob" who had never listened to Glenn Beck or been a card-carrying member of either the Tea or Communist parties. Let’s also face another tragedy: The only two civic reforms that might have actually stopped him — tighter gun control and an effective mental health safety net — won’t materialize even now.