Politicians, at the end of the day, follow their voters. And the new WSJ/NBC poll tells the tale: a majority of Republicans prefer a government shutdown to a budget compromise.
The majority of Democrats and Independents prefer compromise over a shutdown.
That’s the dynamic. I buy that John Boehner doesn’t want a shutdown because if nothing else I think he thinks it will be damaging for his caucus and his party. But Republicans around the country want a shutdown before they want any compromise. And it’s pretty clear that applies to most of his caucus — which shouldn’t surprise us since those are their voters. So one side wants to compromise and the other doesn’t. And the side that’s ready to compromise doesn’t want to be dictated to. So there’s an impasse. I’m not sure there’s a lot of talking that will get you around that. In negotiating terms, it’s a feature, not a bug.
Our annual survey is now closed. And I want to thank you, really thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey. It’s a great testimony to our audience and their engagement and involvement with the site and at some level loyalty to it. I hesitate to say ‘loyalty’. Because I know we have to earn it every day. And it’s nothing we ever want to take for granted. But whatever you call it, we want to thank you for it. Because this is a great help for us.
This was a 30+ question questionnaire. And over a 24 hour run we got over 26,000 completed surveys. That’s just off the charts in terms of a response.
We’ll bring you some details and highlights of the survey shortly. Read More
Just a quick observation on the budget talks. There’s a difference between being a negotiator and having the authority to negotiate, and I’m starting to wonder if Speaker Boehner has full negotiating authority from the House GOP conference. It’s a big difference, and it can affect how negotiations proceed.
A negotiator with limited negotiating authority can present his side’s case and listen to the other side’s. He can dicker some and argue back and forth. But when push comes to shove, that kind of negotiator is basically a messenger, not a principal — and that makes it difficult to do get a deal done. Read More
Incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice pops back into narrow lead.
A very fluid situation in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election where, for the moment, challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg has retaken the lead. But — and it’s a big but — Waukesha County is holding a press conference at 6:30 p.m. ET at which it will reportedly be announced that an entire city went uncounted on election night. It’s in a heavily Republican area, which should give incumbent Justice David Prosser a substantial number of additional votes, perhaps as many as 7,000.
The discovery of more than 14,000 uncounted votes in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race swings the lead dramatically to incumbent David Prosser.
This evening’s White House budget meeting among the President, Speaker and Senate Majority Leader was pushed back an hour. It was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. TPM’s Susan Crabtree is at the White House and will report on any developments through the evening. This is the third high level White House negotiation session in the last 24 hours. Here’s our coverage of the budget impasse over the course of today.
The White House meeting has adjourned. Obama is about to make a statement in the White House briefing room. Speaker Boehner and Leader Reid issued this statement moments ago: “We have narrowed the issues, however, we have not yet reached an agreement. We will continue to work through the night to attempt to resolve our remaining differences.”
In brief remarks to the press carried live on national TV, President Obama said he and Speaker Boehner had narrowed the issues and made progress since yesterday on the budget negotiations. But given where things stand and the rocky road to get to this point, “I’m not yet prepared to express wild optimism,” Obama said.
Obama said he expects a final answer in the morning and hopes to be able to announce a deal publicly early Friday.