Visual source: Newseum
NY Times:
Given the fierce insularity of Japan’s nuclear industry, it was perhaps fitting that an outsider exposed the most serious safety cover-up in the history of Japanese nuclear power. It took place at Fukushima Daiichi, the plant that Japan has been struggling to get under control since last month’s earthquake and tsunami.
Poor risk communication in the nuclear industry?
Tell me about it.
NY Times:
After 10 days of trying to sell constituents on their plan to overhaul Medicare, House Republicans in multiple districts appear to be increasingly on the defensive, facing worried and angry questions from voters and a barrage of new attacks from Democrats and their allies.
The proposed new approach to Medicare — a centerpiece of a budget that Republican leaders have hailed as a courageous effort to address the nation’s long-term fiscal problems — has been a constant topic at town-hall-style sessions and other public gatherings during a two-week Congressional recess that provided the first chance for lawmakers to gauge reaction to the plan.
The House GOP message to seniors of "Don't be fooled by Democrats. We aren't going to screw you, we are only going to screw your kids and grandkids" doesn't seem to be selling well.
Ruth Marcus:
I don’t think Trump is going to be president, so we needn’t spend too much time contemplating his comb-over gone gray. Trump is more interesting as a phenomenon of modern celebrity culture than as a serious presidential prospect. He is the ultimate in bread-andcircuses politics: a glittery amusement for voters and an avalanche of free publicity for the man who craves it.
But Trump is polling near the top of the GOP heap. He’s headed to New Hampshire and Iowa. So it is time to look past the birther nonsense he has been spouting to consider the rest of the nonsense he has been spouting.
Harold Meyerson:
Republicans have a problem. Their base is killing them.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s announcement Monday that he will not seek the presidency is just the latest sign that politically sentient Republicans fear their party’s voters have moved so deeply into la-la land that winning their support in next year’s primaries could render their nominee unelectable in November. “Friends of Barbour,” reports The Post’s Dan Balz, “said that he had come to the conclusion that Republicans can win only if they are totally focused on serious issues and not distracted by some side issues, such as Obama’s birthplace, that have arisen in the early going.”
But Republicans are massively distracted by birtherism. A New York Times-CBS News poll last week showed that while 57 percent of Americans believe that President Obama was born in the United States, against 25 percent who didn’t, just 33 percent of Republicans believed him American-born, while 45 percent did not. The Republican level of birtherism was effectively identical to that of self-identified Tea Party supporters, 34 percent of whom thought Obama was U.S.-born, while 45 percent did not.
Which is to say that the loopy, enraged divorce from reality of the Tea Potniks has infected the entire party.
Amy Walter:
With two of the more colorful potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates, Rep. Ron Paul and Donald Trump, making so many headlines, GOP establishment types desperate to show their donors and their base that they've got a real shot at beating President Obama in 2012 have to be worried.
Amy is one of the sharpest analysts out there.
Q-poll looks at fun times for the Republican Governor in PA:
While 39 percent of Pennsylvania voters approve of the job Gov. Tom Corbett is doing, 37 percent disapprove, a statistical tie, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This is a big jump in his negative ratings from a 39 - 11 percent job approval rating in a February 16 survey.
Pennsylvania voters say 50 - 39 percent that Gov. Corbett's budget-cutting proposals are unfair to people like them, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University survey finds. There is a large gender gap as men say the cuts are fair 45 - 43 percent, a tie, while women say unfair 55 - 34 percent. Republicans say 59 - 27 percent the cuts are fair, but Democrats say unfair 69 - 22 percent and independent voters say unfair 47 - 41 percent.
Still, voters say 55 - 39 percent that balancing the state budget should be done by spending cuts only and not by a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts.
Although 97 percent say Pennsylvania's budget problems are "very serious" or "somewhat serious," and a majority want only cuts to meet the budget gap, 35 percent say Corbett's budget cuts go too far, while 20 percent say not far enough and 31 percent say they are about right.
PA voter: I just want you to balance the budget by leaving my taxes alone and cutting that guy's services over there. Do it, or I'll vote for someone else. meanwhile, Democratic Governors in
CT and
CA are balancing the the balancing with cuts and taxes (see
In California, a more rational approach to budget gap emerges ).
