Beating on the Tin Roof

How's the conservative echo chamber working? Not so hot. Statistics show Republicans are dominating the airwaves with appearances on the talk shows and news broadcasts with Democrats only gaining the majority on MSNBC. Conservatives dominate the radio waves. The persistent pounding of the drums doesn't look like it's paying off.

President Obama's popularity ranges from the CNN high of 76% to Rasmussen's low of 61%. Rasmussen, a Republican pollster, looks like he's going the way of Zogby wandering off his neutrality to becoming a mouthpiece for the Republicans. It's too bad since he was highly reliable during national elections the last three times but started pulling his punches this year.

Polls show that 3/4ths of voters believe Obama has done enough to cooperate with the Republicans; only 39% say the same thing about the Republicans. It doesn't look like the McCain complaint that "this isn't bipartisanship" is holding. 60% of Americans now approve of how the Democrats are behaving in Congress, compare to 44% who approve of the Republicans.

Tomorrow President Obama will be introduced by Florida's Governor Crist, one of those passed over in the veepstakes in the Republican process. Quietly, President Obama is lighting the fire under moderate Republicans on the Hill.

A real kick in the pants occurred today when the Chamber of Commerce issued a statement saying the stimulus package wasn't big enough. They were seconded by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which is the backbone of alot of the Republican congressmen. The Chamber was particularly concerned that health care reform needed to be a priority since its raising costs are a liability to large businesses.

Norm Coleman surfaced to say,"God wants him to serve". God told me he wants Coleman "to serve time in prison".

Conservative religious leaders are pounding on Republicans to avoid the economic debate and revert to the culture wars.

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin says she is no longer "patriotic to this country." Freepers are now claiming that Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are no longer "patriots". Hmmm. Let's see if they get specific about this in the future.

Nate Silver at www.fivethirtyeight.com projects the Senate races ahead and thinks 6 seats could turn to the Democrats.