Nightly Ramble Monday

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… the BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• FIRST, THIS SNARK:  From Reynolds:
  

  POLL: Tea Party 48, Obama 44.

  Best headline: Tea Party More Popular Than Obama, Frank Rich Hardest Hit.

• THE TEA PARTY LOOKS LIKE AMERICA: So where does that polling leave us?  James Joyner notes this morning;
  

  According to two new surveys, the Tea Party movement is supported by 28% of Americans, half of its members are non-Republicans, and, aside from skewing slightly white and male, remarkably similar to the country as a whole demographically.

  I tell him:

  I find it interesting that the diversity in the Tea Party movement… both ethnically and politically… is one point that the major news media has not been covering. As a matter of fact, I keep hearing from people who have been attending tea parties that the news media when they show up seem to be going well out of their way to avoid taking pictures of any minorities who show up in support of the Tea Party. Ggee, I can’t imagine why that would be, can you?

  That said, in your observations seem to me fairly well spot on ; The tea party looks like America.

  You know, they told me if we elected Obama he would unite America. Looks like they were right. America is united against him.

  Ain’t it real….

• A UNITER? Hewitt suggests the reason they’re so united against Obama:
  

  The president’s popularity is plummeting — down to a 44 percent approval rating in the most recent, post-Obamacare CBS poll — and his rhetoric is getting angrier as he tours the country demanding that critics of Obamacare shut up.

  His predecessor, George W. Bush, was blasted by the media when he used “Bring it on” against our nation’s enemies.

  President Obama’s jeering “Let them try” challenge was followed by a sneering attempt at stand-up in Portland, Maine, on Friday when he compared critics of the new health care regime to fools wondering why seeds don’t sprout immediately upon planting.

  Americans love a good winner, but when the winner is a whiner, the public’s reaction is not going to be admiration.

  The president ran in 2008 as a post-partisan “uniter” who would usher in an era of bipartisan reform, but he has chosen to become a polarizing figure and a Chicago jam-down artist for whom trash talk is as much a part of his daily game. Rarely has the promise been so far removed from the result.

  I dunno, Hugh…  As I say, I have rarely seen America more united.  I will grant you that it wasn’t exactly the outcome Obama envisioned….

• TIM BURNS: John Hawkins over at Right Wing News has an interview with Tim Burns, who is running for the seat formerly infested by John Murtha. No, it’s not particularly early for this kind of an interview, at least in this case, because the race is actually happening next month.  One begins to wonder if the trend in previous special elections (for example, Kennedy’s former seat ) will continue.  I suspect it will, and thereby this interview is all the more important.
• THE LEFTIST DOUBLE STANDARD:  Let’s try a comparison. Let’s imagine we have a post on a Tea Party website saying:
  

  “The politicians have failed. Now it’s up to us. We must break the law to make the laws we need: laws that are supposed to protect society, and protect our future. Until our laws do that, screw being … lobbyists. Screw being activists. It’s not working. We need an army of outlaws.”The proper channels have failed. It’s time for mass civil disobedience .

  If you’re one of those who believe that this is not just necessary but also possible, speak to us. Let’s talk about what that mass civil disobedience is going to look like.

  I mean, can you imagine the outcry?  Can you imagine this administrations reaction? Can you imagine the congressional outcry? Can you imagine the press?
  So, why does it get ignored when a leftist group coughs it up?