For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been watching focus groups. Two of those groups included independent-leaning voters who don’t align themselves strongly with either party. One other group was comprised of so-called Democratic “surge” voters; people who vote infrequently or only in presidential elections. In other words, these are […] Read more »
Don’t Be So Sure a Supreme Court Backlash Will Boost Democrats
It took about a minute and a half between the Supreme Court’s decision to let a draconian, constitutionally bizarre abortion law take effect and the widespread conclusion that it would prove a boon to Democratic political hopes even as it provoked their moral outrage. … There is plausibility to this […] Read more »
RIP, rally ’round the flag
Less than 12 hours after Flight 75 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, close to 150 members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, stood together on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to sing “God Bless America.” Unfortunately, that act of bipartisanship won’t […] Read more »
How the White House and Democrats hope to survive Biden’s political bruises
President Joe Biden was likely to lose Democratic control of Congress before last week’s carnage in Afghanistan. That’s more likely now. But the imminent loss of power makes politicians act with greater urgency. For Biden and his party, that just happens to represent their best hope of ultimately not losing […] Read more »
The storms of August: Biden’s devastating month stokes midterm fears among Democrats
President Biden is mired in the most devastating month of his tenure in office — struggling to contain a deadly crisis in Afghanistan, an unyielding pandemic and other setbacks that have sent waves of anger and worry through his party as his poll numbers decline. August started with Democrats sounding […] Read more »
What we learned about the urban/rural political divide in Washington
For years, the “Cascade Curtain” has been a favored way to describe Washington state politics — Republican on the dry side of the mountains, Democratic on the wet side. Within that framework the “suburban crescent” — the area surrounding Seattle — was an exception, the place in western Washington where […] Read more »