PollTracker Editor Kyle Leighton with this week’s Crosstabs

It’s difficult to overstate just how behind Microsoft is in the mobile game compared to mobile behemoths like Apple and Google. For example, among our audience, which does skew toward Mac users, iOS devices generated 1.12 million visits over the last 30 days, compared to 314,000 for Android and — get this — 6,000 for Windows Phone. But Microsoft’s announcement of a new ‘Surface’ tablet yesterday actually seems to have raised some eyes. And I must say I’m intrigued by their approach to keyboard functionality. Our Carl Franzen provides our take.

Senate Dems give The Washington Post the jump on a new analysis that puts one of the worst kept secrets in Washington into helpful numerical context: Republicans want the broad middle class to pay more taxes than they currently do, and the upper class to pay significantly less.

This time around, Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, with the help of data from the Tax Policy Center, take a look at the House GOP tax plan in Paul Ryan’s budget, and reach an important conclusion: If he honors his commitment to keeping his plan revenue neutral, middle class taxpayers will see their tax burden increase, while the wealthiest Americans will enjoy a huge tax cut.

The idea is pretty straightforward. Read More

Boehner accuses of White House of ‘fast and furious’ cover up.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) went on MSNBC this morning and said that the only reason his reelection campaign is even close is because of the mountain of outside money that’s been poured into the state — $8.3 million according to NBC’s Luke Russert. But is it even close?

The PollTracker average currently shows an 8.6 point spread in Brown’s favor, with Brown’s average just shy of 49% and he’s trending up against opponent Josh Mandel. (See the trend chart here.) In a season where lots of Democratic senators are really vulnerable that doesn’t sound particularly close to me.

Is the future of wind power coming from … Tunisia?

It’s final. Gary Kreep, notorious California birther, has been elected to a state judgeship. Even weirder, the man he defeated is named Garland Peed.

Holder asks President to invoke executive privilege in ‘Fast and Furious’ case. More details shortly.

Coming off Scott Brown’s refusal to debate at the Kennedy Institute unless Kennedy’s widow agrees not to endorse a candidate, the Warren campaign is asking “What’s he afraid of?”

The big news today is the imminent House committee vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Substantively, there doesn’t seem to be that much Congress has asked for that the Justice Department hasn’t given on the “Fast and Furious” scandal (though certainly there’s disagreement on that front, especially from Congressional Republicans). The real driver here seems more like base Republicans’ desire for a confrontation with Holder — with a lot of the heat over gun control conspiracy theories wrapped up into what is in itself a legitimate scandal. It’s a push the higher ups in the Congressional leadership have at key points resisted. But the momentum from GOP backbenchers is simply too great. And now it’s happening. Read More