What happened to the enthusiasm gap?

Steve Benen has a post out this morning with some numbers I've been wondering about. It turns out that just 32,930 people participated in the Nevada Republican caucuses. But that's just part of the story.

Going into Saturday's contest, Nevada GOP leaders told reporters they expected in upwards of 70,000 Republicans to participate. The final tally shows the party failed to even reach half that total.

What's more, if Nevada were the only state that struggled, it'd be easier to overlook. Unfortunately for the GOP, though, the poor showing in the Silver State fits into a larger pattern.

The Republicans' primary in Florida last week, for example, showed a sharp decline in turnout (about 14%) as compared to 2008. In the Iowa caucuses, GOP turnout fell short of expectations, and in the New Hampshire primary, it happened again. Turnout in South Carolina was strong, but given the party's difficulties in the other four contests, it's proving to be the exception.

On twitter, Dana Houle adds an interesting reminder.

Note, btw, that in only primary w good turnout, Romney got only 27%, lost by 13 to Gingrich

Could Houle have identified the source of the problem with Republican enthusiasm...when it comes to Mitt Romney - they're just not into him?

Baseball vs Football

On this day when loyal Americans are expected to worship our country's true religion (Superbowl ads - LOL), I can't help but think of George Carlin's hilarious bit about the difference between baseball and football.



Last night I started watching the initial season of Downton Abbey on Netflix. That's where you'll find me tonight. Think what you will about my patriotism ;-)

Superbowl Mayors unite against illegal guns

Talking about common sense gun control has flown off the political radar these last couple of years. Following the Tucson shooting President Obama published an editorial on the subject calling for a dialogue on this issue "to seek consensus, to prevent future bloodshed, to forge a nation worthy of our children's futures." Other than the usual paranoid responses on the right, we heard nada.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg used their rivalry in the Super Bowl today to let us know that they're also co-chairs of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Check out the site. Find out if your mayor is participating (mine is!) and see what they're up to.

Here's a sobering stat from their web site: 13,368 Americans have been murdered with guns since Tucson. That's more than a thousand a month. One would be too many - a thousand is nothing short of an outrage!

How the progressive blogosphere is changing

I don't remember what got me going this morning, but I've been doing a little investigative work on the changing nature of the progressive blogosphere. I had a hunch that some of the initial big names in the business are faltering. And that does - in fact - turn out to be the case.

One source that turned out to be interesting is the Blogosphere Authority Index, (BAI) which has been tracking both liberal and conservative blogs on measures such as blogrolls, hyperlinks, site visits and comments since 2008. Since blogrolls and hyperlinks tend to measure inclusion in the "good ol boys network" and # of comments varies greatly, I'm most interested in site visits as a measure of impact.

The person who measures BAI (Dave Karpf) seems to need a little updating in his categorization of blogs as "progressive" or "conservative" since he has Huffington Post listed as one of the former and Little Green Footballs as one of the later. Those of us who have actually been watching know that both of these blogs have undergone huge changes in the last few years. I say that because on almost all measures Huffington Post is rated as #1. But I'm going to ignore it because I don't think its representative.

When we go back in time to January 2008, here are the top ten progressive blogs according to their site visits:

1. Daily Kos
2. Crooks and Liars
3. Think Progress
4. Talking Points Memo
5. Atrios
6. Firedoglake
7. America Blog
8. Washington Monthly (Kevin Drum)
9. Digby
10. Carpetbagger Report (Steve Benen)

Now lets look at the top ten in January 2012 (with changes from 2008 in parenthesis):

1. Fivethirtyeight (new)
2. Daily Kos ( -1)
3. Talking Points Memo ( +1)
4. Democratic Underground (new)
5. Think Progress ( -2)
6. Truthdig (new)
7. Crooks and Liars ( -5)
8. Firedoglake ( -2)
9. Balloon Juice (new)
10. Washington Monthly (Steve Benen - no change if you consider the author)

Blogs that dropped off the top 10 list since 2008:

- Atrios
- America Blog
- Digby
- Carpetbagger Report (shut down when Benen moved to Washington Monthly)

When I started blogging in 2005, the BIG names in the progressive blogosphere were Daily Kos, Atrios, Crooks and Liars, America Blog, Digby, Firedoglake and MyDD (later Open Left). Three of those have dropped off the top 10 list in the last 4 years. Daily Kos has lost first place to Nate Silver at Fivethirtyeight, Crooks and Liars dropped 5 places and FLD is -2 (and is basically even with Balloon Juice!).

In addition, what's not showing up since I'm only looking at the top 10 is that MyDD - which had ranked #13 in 2008 has disappeared off the top 25 list altogether and sunk into oblivion while Open Left - which was ranked #20 - shut down altogether.

Blogs added to the top 10 list since 2008:

- Fivethirtyeight (everybody loves Nate Silver)
- Democratic Underground (not sure what's going on here except it probably has to do with their forums)
- Truthdig (new home of the firebaggers?)
- Balloon Juice (pragmatic progressives on the move!)

Based on what I can deduct from a couple of different sources, BooMan Tribune and The Obama Diary (two of the very best pragmatic progressive sites) would rank somewhere between 25th - 30th place on this list.

In conclusion, I think the landscape is changing. Lets continue to get the word out about pragmatic alternatives to the poutragers. You can do that by visiting all of those great blogs over on the left and sharing their wonderful content with others.

The Power of Two

This photo spoke volumes the minute I saw it this week.

Adding up the total of a love that's true
Multiply life by the power of two

IOKIYAR

It's OK if you are republican

After months of hearing Republican presidential candidates tell us how the Bible and their particular brand of christianity should direct public policy here in the US - and decades of hearing the same from many conservatives in general - its particularly ironic how some of them reacted to President Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast where he talked about how his faith informs his politics.

From The Root:

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah blasted President Obama on Thursday, saying he's not Jesus, according to New York's Daily News.

The Republican was outraged by the president's remarks at a National Prayer Breakfast. In the speech, Obama said that raising taxes on the wealthy was rooted in Jesus' teachings of "for unto whom much is given, much shall be required."

"Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water, and he did not occupy the Oval Office," Hatch said during a speech he made from the Senate floor

He's outraged - I tell you - outraged that the president would claim to apply what Jesus teaches to his public policy positions!!! This is totally uncalled for in American politics. And we need to put a stop to it NOW!

Until its time for the Republicans to tell us what they think Jesus says about things like homosexuality, abortion, prayer in public schools, evolution, letting the poor suffer, etc.

After all, we are a "christian nation" and President Obama is waging a secular war on our faith.

< snark off >

My gawd, do these people ever actually listen to their ignorant selves?

Who is Wall Street's candidate for 2012?

Contrary to what Michael Moore and others would have you believe, most Wall Street donors have picked their candidate and its not President Obama.

Wall Street has thrown its weight behind alum Mitt Romney for president, according to new campaign data for 2011...

No other candidate came close to the $12 million Romney's campaign raised directly in 2011 from individuals who work at financial firms and banks, which also includes cash from insurance and real estate companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

By comparison, Obama's campaign raised $5 million from people who worked on Wall Street last year, the Center for Responsive Politics reported.

Need I say more?

Yes, because even this doesn't tell the whole story.

To date, Romney has raised a total of just over $56 million for his campaign this round. Wall Street donations account for 21% of that amount.

In contrast, Obama has raised over $125 million and Wall Street donations account for only 4% of his total.

One other thing to remember is - as the article above indicates - these "Wall Street" donations come from individuals who work in financial firms, banks, real estate and insurance companies. And the most recent data from Open Secrets tells us that 9% of contributions to Romney's campaign came from small donors ($250 or less) where as that number is 47% for the Obama campaign.

Here are the top ten employers of donors to Romney's campaign (with totals):

Goldman Sachs $499,430
JPMorgan Chase & Co $322,400
Morgan Stanley $281,350
Credit Suisse Group $277,250
Citigroup Inc $267,050
Bank of America $213,650
Barclays $207,400
Kirkland & Ellis $206,701
HIG Capital $188,500
PriceWaterhouseCoopers $179,550

And here are the top ten for Obama's campaign (notice not only the lack of Wall Street firms that dominated Romney's list, but the smaller totals/company, indicating a much broader base):

Microsoft Corp $188,643
DLA Piper $151,375
Google Inc $139,030
Morgan & Morgan $127,895
Harvard University $126,962
University of California $125,880
Comcast Corp $114,950
Skadden, Arps et al $100,324
US Dept of State $87,995
Time Warner $80,062

The truth is, President Obama revolutionized presidential campaign finance. Some people were telling that story 3 years ago but now too many have forgotten. He has always relied on millions of people like you and me working together to combat the large contributions of the wealthy few. In other words, he's lived out the old saying about "when everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot."

It seems to be working. So let's all remember that "we're the change we've been waiting for" and do what we can to keep it up!