POLL WATCH:
So the headline on CNN's home page said "bad news for Republicans in poll." Uh-oh, I said, so I clicked on it...and the article went on to say:
"Two-thirds of Americans think that the Republicans in Congress are not doing enough to cooperate with President Barack Obama, according to a new national poll."
I see. Well, could be bad news---but read on:
"But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Wednesday morning, also indicates the public says that the Democrats should be the ones to take the first step toward bipartisan cooperation and they want the Democrats to give up more than the GOP to reach consensus. Sixty-seven percent of people questioned in the poll say that the GOP is not doing enough to cooperate with the White House, up 6 points from last April. Americans appear split on whether the president is doing enough to reach out to the Republicans, with 52 percent saying Obama's not doing enough to cooperate with the GOP and 47 percent saying he is doing enough to reach across the political aisle. The 52 percent who say the president's not doing enough to encourage bipartisanship is up 16 points from last April."
Ah. So what the public is _really_ saying is that BOTH sides need to do more to increase bi-partisanship. That both are to blame, really. It's kind of a wash. The actual evidence sure tells a much different story than "bad news for Republicans in poll" suggests. Gosh--you don't suppose it was a liberal staffer at CNN who wrote that headline??? Nah...
Meanwhile, there's nothing any liberal staffer at CNN or anywhere else could do to dress this up---the latest poll on the Pennsylvania senate race involving Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter shows him continuing to lose to conservative Pat Toomey by a solid 10 points. And the sun shines brightly today, too...
NCAA HOOPS DIARY:
Women's basketball--Notre Dame 82, Marquette 67: the Irish are back. After losing two straight games on the road, and those were at least partly due to the injury to Lindsay Schrader, the Irish return home, get Schrader back, and play well and win. Key stats: senior Melissa Lechlitner, on senior night, scored a season high 23 points. And Schrader, playing just 20 minutes, had 17 points and 6 rebounds.
Men's hoops--Illinois 51, Michigan 44: Ugh. Not much else to say. It may be good for this team that it has slipped below .500 for the season and thus may have no postseason life (even the NIT) facing it. Because it's not working out for this team and it doesn't look like it will. This game? Again, Michigan couldn't shoot. Key stat: Michigan shoots only 24.6% from the field and 19.3% from 3-point range.
NBA DIARY:
Detroit 101, Sacramento 89: again, the Pistons are playing a bit better...but one can't get too excited; the Kings aren't a great team. But the Pistons won this one on the road and road wins can be a sign of better things to come. Key stat: the Pistons shot 58% from the field and their defense fed off of that...
