Friday punditry.
Jon Ralston on NV early voting:
Republicans make minor gains after five days of early voting; no sign of huge GOP turnout yet
Remember, we know which party turned out, not for whom they voted.
NY Times on the Juan Williams controversy.
NPR said Wednesday night that Mr. Williams’ comments were "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices." According to a report in The Los Angeles Times, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes offered Mr. Williams a new three-year contract on Thursday morning, pegged at nearly $2 million total.
By dismissing Mr. Williams, one of its senior news analysts, NPR argued that he had violated the corporation’s belief in impartiality, a core tenet of modern American journalism. By renewing Mr. Williams’ contract, Fox News showed its preference for point-of-view — rather than the view-from-nowhere — polemic. And it gave Fox the opportunity to jab NPR, the public radio organization that has long been a target of conservatives for what they perceive to be a liberal bias.
Kevin Drum on health reform mandates and bogus conservative opposition:
Anyway: Conservatives don't like Barack Obama. They don't like social welfare programs. They don't like healthcare reform. So they're looking for handy ways to attack it, and the mandate fits the bill. Liberals would do the same thing if the shoe were on the other foot. There's no need to complicate what's going on here.(1)
(1)I will, of course, continue to complicate this kind of thing regularly myself. It's what I do, after all. But I'm pretty sure that I lose a hundredth of an IQ point every time I do, which means my career as a writer is probably self limiting.
Tom Jensen/PPP on the IL Gov race:
Although [D] Quinn remains very unpopular, with a 32% approval rating, the simple story on this race is that the better voters have gotten to know [R] Bill Brady the more appealing Quinn has started looking in comparison. Back in April when Brady had 45% name recognition he led the race by 10 points. Now 83% of voters in the state know who Brady is and they don't like what they see. 39% of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 44% with an unfavorable one.
Gallup:
While Palin's influence on Republican voters as a whole is more positive than negative, the concentration of this influence among conservative Republicans underscores the risk factor she brings to the campaign trail. Although her influence on moderate and liberal Republicans is more positive than negative, this is true to a much smaller degree and is more than doubly outweighed by her negative impact on independents. This reality is likely already clear to Republican candidates who have chosen not to appear with Palin on her trips through their area.
Update [2010-10-22 8:23:49 by DemFromCT]:: another opinion on Palin:
Sarah Palin is primarily interested in herself and scamming her followers. I think she’d like to be president, but the hard work and organization are beyond her skill set, and I doubt she’ll give up her hefty speaker fees, first class travel and other perks. Divas and leopards don’t change their spots. But whatever she does or doesn’t want, the vast majority of voters realize she is unqualified for the position (that’s been true since the last election, and has not changed since.)