There’s an interesting tussle shaping up between Gov. Bobby Jindal, who’s been bashing Dems for federal spending and saying his state can go it on its own, and the Dems he’s now asking for a big influx of federal money from.
There are a few data points I wanted to flag for your attention — too few to say there’s any trend, but some signs that public attitudes about the economy are shifting and that those numbers are helping the Dems.
Let’s run through a few. First are the recent polls that show the public is increasingly optimistic about the direction the economy is going in, while still thinking it sucks today. This shouldn’t surprise us. There is an increasing amount of hard data pointing to a turnaround in the economy. And there’s a conventional wisdom — of unknown origin and equally uncertain validity — that there’s a three or four month lag between the appearance of formal economic data and when those changes start to register in a significant way with the public. Read More
We’d known for a while that Joe the Plumber had ditched John McCain as his presidential favorite. He tells Rachel Slajda that for 2012 he’s getting behind Herman Cain, Georgia talk radio host and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.
TPM is hiring an assistant editor to work on TPM Polltracker. The primary job responsibility is collecting, dissecting and entering poll data into our TPM PollTracker application. This is an entry level position with a couple very important requirements: You must be extremely detail oriented. And you must be interested in politics and campaigns.
The job is in our New York City office.
If you are interested in the position, please send a resume and cover letter to our comments email address at the upper right hand corner of the site. Include the subject line: “Assistant Editor.”
Faisal Shahzad’s resume. A “good team player and accomplished result-oriented employee.”
From Foreign Policy …
The National Security Council’s Dennis Ross is the latest U.S. official to link the Obama administration’s drive to secure peace between Israelis and Arabs to the overall goal of bringing greater stability to the region and combating the threat from Iran.
“In this region, pursuing peace is instrumental to shaping a new regional context,” Ross said in remarks Monday evening. “Pursuing peace is not a substitute for dealing with the other challenges … It is also not a panacea. But especially as it relates to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, if one could do that, it would deny state and non-state actors a tool they use to exploit anger and grievances.”
The Family Research Council responds to news of co-founder George Rekers being caught employing a male prostitute.
Last month we brought you an exclusive interview in which the DOJ’s chief of Civil Rights enforcement hinted he might bring suit against the New Orleans Police Department to force reforms of the notorious agency — in part because of the infamous Danziger Bridge killings.
Now just two days after taking office the city’s new Mayor, Mitch Landrieu, is asking the DOJ to come in by invitation and force a “complete transformation” of the troubled department.