The UK election now seems to be a genuine three way race — at least in terms of nationwide opinions polls, if not probable distribution of seats. And the big news from today is that the surge in support for the Lib Dems appears to be real and at least for the moment sustaining itself. Today’s YouGov poll actually has the Lib Dems in the lead LDEM 33%, CON 32%, LAB 26%, though other polls out today show the Conservatives still with a very marginal lead. Read More
Senate Republicans rebuff a key White House concession on financial reform and up the ante. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says it’s time “to go back to the drawing board” and start over with new legislation.
From TPM Reader NS …
The first of the three leaders’ debates — unprecedented in a British election — has changed both the polls and the dynamics.
The lay of the land:
– as a governing force, Labour is exhausted after 13 years, but not discredited by the economy in the way the Tories were in 1997. – the Tories haven’t sealed the deal that they’re the replacement governing party – the Lib Dems (and especially their leader, Nick Clegg) lack experience, but also have relatively clean hands.
Expat TPM Reader TG checks in from the UK …
As a Brit who moved to the US several years ago, but who is now back in the UK to work on the campaign for Labour, I confess to feeling a small rush of pride seeing the election mentioned on TPM.
Two insights:
We keep hearing from TPM Readers who have already become iPad addicts. So I thought I’d check in to see what percentage of visits to the site are now from iPads. 0.3%. Not bad for a couple weeks in existence. Bear in mind, as I’ve noted before, that TPM’s audience skews substantially more Mac-based than the population as a whole: about 30% of our readers.
The United Kingdom is holding a parliamentary election on May 6th. And like John Major’s second election in 1997, this contest has long seemed predestined to mark the end of Labour’s long run of power — the question was, how steep would the fall be?
But the polls have tightened considerably over recent months. And polls out this weekend show a striking surge of support for the Liberal-Democrats, Britain’s perennial third party, which hasn’t headed a government since its predecessor (the Liberals) did almost exactly a century ago. Indeed, a composite of this weekend’s polls appears to put the Lib-Dems in second behind the Tories, though all three parties are basically clumped together at just over or under 30%. Read More
President Obama had made the geopolitically significant decision to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed along with 95 other Polish dignitaries in the airliner crash in Smolensk. But the president has been forced to abandon those plans because of the clouds of volcanic ash now spread over Northern Europe. The White House released the following statement …
“I spoke with acting President Komorowski and told him that I regret that I will not be able to make it to Poland due to the volcanic ash that is disrupting air travel over Europe. Michelle and I continue to have the Polish people in our thoughts and prayers, and will support them in any way I can as they recover from this terrible tragedy. President Kaczynski was a patriot and close friend and ally of the United States, as were those who died alongside him, and the American people will never forget the lives they led.”
Crist on an independent bid: “I’m not thinking about that today. We’ll look at that later on.”
This story had been bubbling around the fever swamp for a few days before breaking into what’s left of the mainstream media today and then self-destructing on the big stage. Briefly, as part of the festivities surrounding the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last weekend, a fundraiser for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and the fundraiser’s boyfriend were involved in some sort of altercation outside of a French Quarter restaurant. And they both sustained real and serious injuries. (To be clear, it seems amply clear the two were beat up; the only question is, by who?)
Since then the story has been making the rounds of the right-wing interwebs. The claim was that the assailants were anti-Palin, anti-Jindal liberals attacking conservatives. A conservative blogger even published what purported to be a quote from the NOPD saying the attack appeared to be “of a political nature.” And that quote was picked up by a few other news organizations. Read More
It seems another claim of right-wingers getting beat up by marauding liberals is swirling down the drain. More shortly.