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Most other presidents have broken this barrier earlier. But as of this weekend Barack Obama finally broke the 40% in the Gallup poll, hitting 39% approval for the first time.
Back to the Murdoch primary. One first sign: No Bachmanns allowed.
I’ll be curious to monitor Fox’s coverage from this point onward. With her current poll numbers and the reality that she forced Pawlenty out of the race, Bachmann is by definition a contender. That makes her a different force than the megaphone of The Crazy that she was in 2009 and 2010 — and by most measures a liability to both the GOP and conservative establishments. So watch how Fox treats her, as well as the WSJ oped page.
This one photo in particular from our slideshow of the Ames straw poll pretty much says it all.
The big dynamic driving policy and politics this fall in Washington will be the deficit negotiations of the new supercommittee — more so than 2012 presidential politics, though the two are inextricably related. Brian Beutler gives our best assessment of what to expect and how this thing will come down.
A preview of tomorrow morning’s feature story: how Rick Perry’s vaccine push sparked a backlash on the right and the left.