Who Reads Power Line? [With Comment By John]

Rush Limbaugh, that’s who.  He’s picked up our posts before, but it’s nice he liked my recent post on the long-term prospects for the current fracas in Washington, even if the GOP loses the immediate battle.  I especially like his bit here about how “charts are useless on the radio”:

Now, I mentioned a piece in Power Line earlier. I don’t mention Power Line much, but here’s a piece by Steven Hayward: “Assessing the Government Shutdown: The Long View,” and the reason I’m sharing this with you, ’cause it dovetails with my own theory on this. You know what my theory is: That we’re not losing. It is Obama that’s having all kinds of trouble. I don’t… I’m not under any illusions here. I have a much broader definition of winning and losing.

The Republicans are aiming at a defeat, but I don’t think that that is happening to them, if left to its own devices. They’re securing it for themselves almost because they want it. “The conventional wisdom right now is that the government shutdown ranks somewhere between a debacle and a catastrophe for Republicans, and their abject surrender is expected before too much longer.” Hayward says, “I’m not so sure.

“While I thought the shutdown was a dubious and unwise tactic, I think taking a longer view may cast a different light on the scene. First of all, like the sequester, have the majority of Americans noticed its effects beyond what the media has been screaming about? The bullying tactics of forcibly shutting off public spaces like the World War II memorial on the Mall has surely inflicted damage on Obama …”

See, that’s what I believe.

But the Republicans in Washington are incapable of knowing it, because that’s their world. But I think closing the Mall to World War II vets and barricading them out of there, and then opening the place for illegals to basically go in and rip the country, I don’t think Obama wins that at all. I think it actively hurts the Democrats. It’s just that you’re not gonna see any evidence of it because the media isn’t gonna tell you and there isn’t gonna be a poll on it.

You have to have faith, as I still do, in the American people to believe that. I believe the polls. A majority of people don’t want Obamacare. The majority of people don’t like Obama’s policies. Don’t forget the Limbaugh Theorem. They don’t like Obama’s policies. They just don’t associate him with them. That’s all it is. But they do associate him with the shutdown. They do associate him with what’s happening in the Mall and the illegals versus the World War II vets.

Anyway, Hayward goes on to post a couple of charts here. Now, charts are worthless on the radio. They’re as worthless as breasts on a boar hog. I mean, they’re just worthless. I can’t show them to you on the Dittocam. It’s too small. But they happen to be the only source for the data here so I have a got to use them. These are charts representing research done by Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg.

They have sampled public opinion on a number of things, and they have concluded that “public confidence in Washington DC is at lows not seen since the 1970s. (And we know what happened at the end of that decade.)” The seventies began with Watergate and ended with Jimmy Carter. Again, this is historical perspective that is worth noting. Public confidence in Washington is at lows not seen since the seventies, and it’s not due to the Republicans.

The last chart here is a real stunner. The question on this chart: “These days, what kind of impact do you think the government has on most people’s lives? — 64% negative impact, 17% positive impact, 13% not much impact.” Sixty-four percent negative! Now, again in the historical perspective, I believe this. I believe a majority of Americans, for whatever reason, don’t like what’s going on in Washington at all, and it’s not exclusive to the Republicans.

JOHN adds: “I don’t mention Power Line much…”? What?! Rush has quoted us many times.