Surprise! Americans Want Less Immigration

Gallup finds Americans less favorable toward immigration than they were a year ago. 50% say immigration should be decreased (up from 39% last year).  32% say immigration levels should be kept the same, (down from 39%),and 14% say they should be increased (down from 18%).

Breakdown by political party.  Keep in mind that all numbers for each party are up since 2008.  It would be interesting to know if any of the respondents left or joined a different party since 2008.

61% of Republicans, 46% of Democrats and 44% of Independents want to see immigration decreased .

.. Americans in the South (54%) are the most likely to want immigration decreased, while those in the West (44%) are relatively less likely to say the same.

Good news for GOP PAC’s

First this story in Congressional Quarterly, “GOP PACs Dominate.”

CQ MoneyLine analysis of PACs tied to lawmakers and candidates found that Republicans had raised more than $10 million during the first half of the year compared to the $5.5 million for Democrats.

The GOP PACs with the largest receipts (largest-to-smallest) belong to Mitt Romney, Eric Cantor, Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin, John Boehner, John McCain and Jon Kyl.

The Republican PACs also hold an edge in cash on hand, with $6.8 million compared to the Democrats $5.2 million.

Politico:  American Solutions for Winning the Future (Newt Gingrich) pulled in 8.1 million the first half of this year compared to HuckPAC raising $300,000 during the same period of time.  Huck is probably doing well as a TV host but he stinks as a fundraiser.  HuckPAC  appears to be running $100,000 in the red.

Stimulus funds out the door??

In his WSJ column, The President Moves the Economic Goalposts, Karl Rove drew attention to the President’s use of the word, “immediately,” to describe when the stimulus package would take effect.

When it came to the stimulus package, the president and his administration promised, in the words of National Economic Director Larry Summers, “You’ll see the effects begin almost immediately.” Now it’s clear that those promised jobs and growth haven’t materialized.

So Mr. Obama is attempting to lower expectations retroactively, saying in an op-ed in Sunday’s Washington Post that his stimulus “was, from the start, a two-year program.” That is misleading. Mr. Obama never said if his stimulus were passed things might still get significantly worse in the following year.

When?  2010? Maybe, no one really knows.  This gave the GOP a chance to pounce and they did with this ad; entitled Obama vs. Obama on the stimulus.

Southern Dems, GOP Counties

Jay Cost at the Real Clear Politics HorseRaceBlog has some great analysis on the evaporation of Democratic support in Southern counties from 1996 to2008.  At the same time the GOP has been losing support  in the Northeast, the Democratic Party has been losing support in the South and South Atlantic.  Check out the change in the maps between Clinton(96) and Obama (08).    Jay Cost:

The bottom line is that Obama’s voting coalition is substantially less rural, less white, and less Southern than Clinton’s – leaving many House members in a difficult position vis-à-vis the party’s legislative agenda. Members like Boren now must choose between their party and their constituents.

Among the top of the list of Dems in Republican leaning districts are Bobby Bright (R +17) and Parker Griffith (R+15).

You Stay Classy

1. You stay classy G-8 leaders. Mainly, you President Obama.  Sarkozy is married to a supermodel and Berlusconi, has bigger problems than leering.
2. Stay  class, Spell Check. You didn’t do your job and the WH sent out 3 press releases with misspellings.  This comment is priceless. I blame it on Spell Check because I doubt anyone in the Obama Administration would be that stupid and not use it on a WH press release. Right?
3. You stay classy John Ensign.  Not only did you have an affair with the wife of one of your staffers and longtime friends but you had your parents buy the couple off with $96k. Mark Sanford would probably pay that as a thank-you for getting his name out of the papers.
4. Stay classy WH Press Corp.  You spent two days complaining about staged questions and then spent the 4th of July at an off the record BBQ at the White House.  Wash. Post salons, anyone? Here is the invitation sent to the networks;

“You are being invited to attend this event as a guest. Blogging, Twittering or otherwise reporting on this event is not permitted. If you feel that you cannot agree to abide by these ground rules, please don’t claim a ticket.

Polls & Pols

• Support for Sotomayor falls  after SCOTUS reverses  her Ricci opinion
• MA Gov. Patrick trails potential GOP nominee in gubernatorial race. More on his budget/tax battle from an earlier post.
• GOP leads the Generic Congressional Ballot (second time this year).  I have no doubt the Republicans in DC can screw this up by next week.
• Two of South Carolina’s largest newspapers  encouraged Mark Sanford to stay on as Governor.

In related news, 50% of the women he has “crossed the lines” with say he should remain in office.  Click here to join the Stand With  Jenny campaign.   Am I the only one that thinks the Governor was “out kicking his coverage” when he landed Jenny?   Guess not. See here, here and here (scroll down the column on the right). Not too bad for a Georgetown grad who managed his successful Congressional and Gubernatorial campaigns while raising 4 kids.