Toss
one more poll on the primary barbie. The often-unreliable St. Pete Polls finds Rep. Alan Grayson edging Rep. Patrick Murphy by a 30-23 margin; unusually for such a poll, they also include attorney Pam Keith, who takes 7. At this point, there isn't much purpose to this kind of survey except to confirm what all the rest of them say: Grayson and Murphy are both largely unknown, neither starts off with any discernable advantage, and there are a ton of undecideds left to fight over, as the chart above shows.
Well, every poll but one, but there's no accounting for Gravis' worldview. There's also, it seems, no accounting for Grayson's worldview, either. Even though he's long portrayed himself as a progressive's progressive, he just sounded some rather hawkish—and specific—notes about President Obama's proposed nuclear deal with Iran. (Example: "I'm concerned that the lifting of economic sanctions will not stop Iran from continuing to be a sponsor of global terrorism. In fact, that support would now be well financed by an increase in its oil revenues.")
Murphy, by contrast, put out the kind of vague statement a politician gingerly addressing a hot-button issue would typically make, saying only, "While I have concerns about this agreement, I look forward to reviewing this entire proposal and having Congress provide rigorous oversight in the coming weeks." The battle lines are being draw in this unfortunate primary, but they might not shape up the way conventional wisdom would predict.