(h/t politicalwire.com)

Public Policy Polling

It doesn’t matter who the Republicans or the Democrats nominate at this point for Governor in Alabama- the GOP candidate will be favored to win this fall.

The Republican leads by anywhere from 5 to 16 points in the eight match ups we looked at. Based on yesterday’s primary polling the most likely contest right now is between Artur Davis on the Democratic side and Bradley Byrne on the Republican side, and Byrne leads 48-32 in such a scenario. He wins independents 41-25 and gets 84% of the Republican vote to Davis’ 67% of the Democratic vote. It’s important to note that there are more than twice as many undecided Democrats as Republicans, so if those voters ended up ‘coming home,’ this would be a much closer race.

Guess what? Artur Davis is rewarded in no way what so ever by going against the will of his constituents.

Where’s Tavis Smiley … aka Captain Save a Blackman?

Fox News incredibly misrepresents Sarah Palin hosting “Real American Stories,” by trying to represent Palin interviewing guests such as:

Toby Keith — Country Music Star
James Smith (LL Cool J) — Hip Hop Musician
Jack Welch — Former G.E. C.E.O.
A Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

However, it turns out Uncle L blew the whole operation out of the water with a simple tweet:

“Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW” LL Cool J

To which Fox News, responded with class right? :

“Real American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith’s interview fit that criteria. However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.“

Brett Michael Dykes @ Yahoo.com [emphasis added]

Folks need to remember that Fox News behaves just like a political organization, rather than respond and say simply that James Smith (LL Cool J) was correct, Fox went out of their way to personally attack him even though Fox was clearly in the wrong.

HuffingtonPost has more:

Likewise, Toby Keith never sat down with Sarah Palin, Keith’s spokesman told HifFix. “We were never contacted by Fox,” Keith’s spokesman said. “I have no idea what interview it’s taken from. They’re promoting this like it’s a brand new interview.”
…
“If someone at Fox News Channel wishes you well, watch your back,” the AP’s David Bauder wrote in 2006. “The seemingly benign sentiment is a creative signature of Fox’s public relations, usually accompanied by a kneecapping. It’s something like a kiss from a Mafia don.”

So, either Erick Erickson has “sold-out” to make money on CNN or CNN has hired an “angry right-wing guy.”

Newsflash to CNN … replacing Lou Dobbs with a younger angrier guy is not going to help you compete with Fox News. In a contest for “teh crazy” Fox News will always win.

I think this commercial is absolutely fair game, Randall “Rand” Paul and Ron Paul to Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  Jeremiah Wright really didn’t say anything substantively different from the Pauls on 9/11, he just did not have the opportunity to use any sort of bully pulpit  to defend himself from the constant attacks of the controversy starved media.  I’m interested to see how Fox News and CNN will decide to treat this commercial, given that they demonized Wright at every opportunity.  In the following video, it is extraordinarily clear Dr. Ron Paul and Rev. Jeremiah Wright share quite similar views on the issue of “blowback.”

(h/t Chris Cillizza @TheFix (wapo))

More here from thefix

In spite of theGrio.com’s attempt at inflating Michael Steele’s tenure as the Republican National Committee chairman, I have always had my doubts about the ability for Steele to focus on the RNC as opposed to his on “career” as a political operative.

Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

RNC trips to other cities produced bills from a long list of chic and costly hotels such as the Venetian and the M Resort in Las Vegas, and the W (for a total of $19,443) in Washington. A midwinter trip to Hawaii cost the RNC $43,828, not including airfare.

Jonathan Strong@TheDailyCaller [Emphasis added]

Greg Sargent @ theplumline.whorunsgov.com has a LaTimes article on Voyeur West Hollywood that describes the “intense” atmosphere.

While the RNC has said the person who spent the thousand+ at a bondage strip club was a “non-committee staffer,” they have yet to identify them.  So much for family values.  Other goodies from the Daily Caller piece — Steele had thoughts about buying a private jet.  These spending embarrassments have been a consistent under Steele’s tenure, sorry theGriot.com Steele is far from a success at the RNC.

Another one of those weird opinion articles at thegriot.com, where in the name of diversity of opinion they promote a weakly reasoned article on Michael Steele’s alleged “success” as RNC chief.

First, let’s not forget that the RNC race for chairman became largely about Race given the election of Barack H. Obama. Politico’s “RNC Race is all about Race,” mentions this problem.

Secondly, it’s worth remembering that the RNC and DNC roles are primarily titular in nature as opposed to being real positions of strength and strategy. As a result, it is difficult to tell how good or bad a job a person is actually doing. If anything, to evaluate the role you need to determine how good or bad the opposition is doing currently and historically in the same position electorally.

But despite these headwinds, signs abound that Steele may be hitting his stride. The RNC enjoyed its best fundraising month under Steele in February, Republicans are energized and focused after big wins in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and a “Fire Nancy Pelosi” money-bomb campaign has raised more than $1 million in a few short days.  Javier E. David @ TheGrio.com

So, while Mr. David cites the above as evidence of Steele’s “success,” the facts remain that Virginia Governorship has historically gone to the party out of presidential power, and ignores Republican congressional special election losses.  Worse, David ignores the DNC raised 2 MM in 72 hours.

Unfortunately, there’s simply not much evidence for stating that Michael Steele has done anything more than a marginal job at RNC chairman from a fundraising perspective.  From a public relations standpoint, Steele has been a nightmare — numerous gaffes, personal books and speeches for cash and random embarrassments.

Orin Hatch said he supported a mandate in 1993 for individuals to buy health care. Remember the mandate was a Republican economists idea, and further refined by the conservative Heritage Foundation. In addition, it has come to light that the conservative American Enterprise Institute restricted their health care experts from contributing because too many of them agreed with the proposed Obamacare plan.

Watch at the 5 minute mark on:

h/t thepage.time.com

Plus this is a ridiculous lie, everyone has to buy (invest) in social security.

Jimmy Fallon updates the School House Rock classic: