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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (32364)	2/6/2009 8:29:40 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

There is no question that the fMSM adores Obama. They will probably still fawn at his feet even after the American people learned to despise Obama.

To: sandintoes who wrote (32364)	2/6/2009 8:33:17 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Dems No Longer Control the Stimulus Issue by Sabrina Schaeffer and Adam Schaeffer 02/06/2009 You know things are getting bad for the Obama-Pelosi-Reid trillion-dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act when regulars on MSNBC, the liberal counterpoint to Fox, start to stomp on the bill. On a recent “Morning Joe,” center-left econ-guru Jim Cramer repeatedly hit the economic stimulus bill, sprinkling his comments liberally with references to Lenin. “It’s not even about jobs. There’s really nothing about job creation,” Cramer exclaimed. “It’s a great dodge to say that’s what it is. It doesn’t address the housing issue, which is the number one issue behind the bad bank situation; it doesn’t address banks; it certainly doesn’t address jobs.” Opposition to the “stimulus” package has gained momentum in recent weeks, beginning around the time House Republican spines stiffened and mouths opened in opposition, buoyed by an outcry from free-market think-tanks. There are important lessons here: Obama and the Democrats aren’t invulnerable and smart, concerted opposition works. Republicans and conservatives need to keep it up, because there’s no conceivable compromise that would make this bill worth voting for. A Gallup poll released this week shows support for the plan remains a highly partisan issue; self-identified liberals still overwhelmingly support the proposal and conservatives lopsidedly oppose it. But overall Gallup found only 38 percent of respondents want the package passed as is, while 37 percent want significant changes and 17 percent reject it altogether. Swing voters, however, show which way the wind is blowing. And support among independents is in collapse. In the week before the stimulus passed the House, unaffiliated voters were evenly split with 37% in favor and 36% opposed according to Rasmussen. A week later, that margin has swung 24 points against the plan; unaffiliated opposition outweighs support 50 % to 27 %. This crumbling of independent support for a bill tied so tightly to a widely popular president in the full bloom of his electoral “honeymoon” is a reminder of something Republicans and conservatives need to keep in mind over the next four years. Even in the toughest of political environments, you can win with clear, loud, consistent, and repetitive opposition. Most researchers studying public opinion agree that mass opinion is, to a large degree, a product of elite discourse. More specifically, most people rely on the beliefs and considerations that are most accessible to them at any given time -- what someone hears or reads most recently often determines his opinion on a subject. And without new considerations, people rely on the old ones in their heads. The academic guru of elite/mass opinion analysis, John Zaller, explains that we can see the influence of elite discourse by looking at what happens when a one-sided consensus becomes a two-sided flow of elite political communication. It’s during these periods of two-sided information flows that political dispositions and individual political awareness really matters -- liberals latch onto liberal-cued considerations and conservatives onto the conservative-cued considerations. Those with the least amount of information -- the independents -- tend to be the most susceptible to messages but also the least attentive and most difficult to reach. That’s why it’s so important to have a clear and repetitive message. In many ways, Zaller’s model may appear common-sensical, but Washington insiders often overlook its important truth: the public can’t know what it doesn’t hear. In the weeks leading up to the inauguration, then President-elect Obama controlled the information flow on the fiscal crisis, calling for “dramatic action” to prevent a bad situation from becoming “dramatically worse.” In short, the political communication was one-sided. In the two weeks since the inauguration, however, the House Republican leadership has been out front on the issue, criticizing money earmarked for liberal social issues and pointing out, as Minority Whip Eric Cantor did, that it isn’t a stimulus: “You can call it a safety net bill, a relief bill. It was a spending bill.” And former Republican presidential candidate John McCain has said publicly that he won’t support the Senate version of the bill. Conservative and libertarian think-tanks have added a groundswell of policy opposition that makes it easier for the Republicans to do the right thing. The Cato Institute, for instance, rebutted the outlandish claims of the President and other Democrats that all economists agree with the big-ticket “stimulus” approach with coast-to-coast full-page ads displaying a letter of opposition from 200 academic economists. The fact is, Democrats control the White House and Congress, but they no longer own the issue. Republicans have started to speak up -- making the flow of political communication two-sided -- and it’s having an impact on how the public views the proposed legislation. Suddenly the conversation has become polarized, allowing the mass public -- Republicans, Independents and Democrats -- to respond to a new set of elite cues. By exposing the details of the proposed economic plan and offering an alternative proposal with clear differences, Republicans and policy experts have given the public, especially those less attentive swing voters, a new set of considerations to help them form their opinions. The dominance of the other side can be self-sustaining if the opposition stays silent. Republicans and conservatives need to keep in mind that they can affect the conversation -- and the opposition’s strength -- just by speaking up. The public will respond; it just might take a whole lot of noise. ---------------------------------------------------------------Ms. Schaeffer is a visiting fellow with the Independent Women?s Forum and the managing partner of Evolving Strategies. Mr. Schaeffer, Ph.D., is an advising partner of Evolving Strategies. humanevents.com

To: sandintoes who wrote (32364)	2/7/2009 10:12:46 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

A Spending Education Milwaukee gets money for unneeded schools. FEBRUARY 7, 2009 To understand the problem with the stimulus bill, it helps to focus on specific parts. Take the $142 billion for schools, which is nearly double the total outlays of the Department of Education in 2007. Now consider that much of this cash would go to public-school systems that don't even need the money for its earmarked purposes. The Milwaukee Public School system, for example, would receive $88.6 million over two years for new construction projects under the House version of the stimulus -- even though the district currently has 15 vacant school buildings and declining enrollment. Between 1990 and 2008, inflation-adjusted MPS spending rose by 35%, per-pupil spending increased by 36% and state aid grew by 58%. Over the same period, enrollment fell by a percentage point and is projected to continue falling, leaving the system with enough excess capacity for some 22,000 students. "In general, MPS facilities have been described by school officials as being in good to better-than-good condition," reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "The kind of situations that create urgent needs for renovation or new construction in some cities have not been on the priority list for MPS officials in recent years." The Milwaukee situation is instructive for another reason. The city is home to the country's oldest and largest school voucher program, which provides public funds for children to attend private schools. Families who participate in the means-tested voucher program receive $6,700 per pupil, while the city spends more than $13,000 per student. In addition to saving the taxpayers money, voucher students graduate at higher rates and outscore their counterparts on reading and math exams, which is one reason waiting lists for the program are common. Yet language in the stimulus bill expressly prohibits any dollars from going toward financial assistance to students attending private schools. In other words, Milwaukee can use the money to build schools it doesn't need, but not to expand education programs that are producing better outcomes for disadvantaged kids. The Senate version excludes provisions in the House bill for teacher merit pay and charter schools now serving more than a million students, two more education reforms that are gaining popularity nationwide despite opposition from teachers unions and local school boards. President Obama says education spending belongs in the stimulus because it will help the economy in the long-term. Fair enough. But if the goal is to increase productivity, lawmakers need to be use the money as a lever for better results. Simply doubling or tripling the amounts for states to spend on the same failing schools isn't going to produce different outcomes. A growing body of education research suggests that kids perform better in schools where teacher pay is based on effectiveness, not seniority and credentials. Studies also show that charter schools help the children who attend them and put competitive pressure on nearby traditional public schools. That $142 billion is little more than a huge stimulus to the teachers unions and lousy school districts to keep doing exactly what they've been doing. online.wsj.com