POLITICS DEPT:
In polling news, here's some bad news for Republicans--Rubio still trails Crist in Florida, according to Reuters/Ipsos.
But overall, the news is good. Note for example that there is some good news--Rasmussen has Angle leading Harry Reid in Nevada.
And that ABC News/Washington Post poll of yesterday had Republicans, in the generic congressional ballot, with a pretty healthy 4 point lead (early ABC polls had had Democrats doing much better).
And meanwhile, polls continue to show that ObamaCare remains unpopular--usually only about 40% approving, while 50% or more disapprove.
Democrats aren't happy, and appear to be turning on each other. Just ask White House press secretary Robert Gibbs:
"Pelosi, irked since Sunday by what she and other top Democrats considered Gibbs' careless and dismissive comments that Democrats could lose their House majority this November, upbraided a top White House aide as she knocked Gibbs' unwelcome handicapping of House races. "How could he [Gibbs] know what's going on in our districts?" Pelosi said, according to Democrats who attended the meeting. "Some may weigh his words more closely than others. We have made our disagreements known to the White House."
Of course, the question how Gibbs could know what's going on in Democratic-leaning or other districts is simple. He can read polls...
And as Chuck Todd et al at MSNBC note:
"Here is where Pelosi and her allies are coming from: Some folks -- though definitely not your authors here at First Read -- are just waking up to the news that the House is in play after Gibbs’ statement, and that is spooking Dem donors. On the other hand, Pelosi blasting Gibbs only extends this story another day."
That's what happens to politicians when things start to look bad for them: they get hot, they get bothered, and they make tactical mistakes, as surely this leak from the Pelosi camp is...
