What's the Matter with Texas?

Dubya's popularity is a scant 39%, though that still makes him more popular than Landslide Perry who is now hovering at 34%. And Cornyn holds only a four point lead on Rick Noriega. And both Obama and Clinton are polling at 43%, to McCain's 48% (against Obama) and 49% (against Clinton). Given that Rasmussen has always had a tendency to skew Republican, this is potentially very explosive stuff. Texas hasn't really been in play in a Presidential election since 1976, though the potential was there in 1996 had Bill Clinton not blown the state off. If even Texas is looking a little purple, then McCain is in serious, serious trouble.

UPDATE: A Research 2000 poll seems to confirm the Rasmussen results. So what gives? Neither Cornyn nor Kay Bailey Hutchinson have gotten just huge amounts of coverage lately, yet her approval ratings leave his in the dust, so it's hard to write this off as the Dubya anchor dragging down all GOP boats. Could it be that after a decade-long deathgrip on statewide office and the Legislature, the Republican brand name has fallen so far that it's Hutchinson who's the exception and Perry and Dubya the rule?

Just In Case You Were Wondering...

...Kay Bailey Hutchinson is still an idiot.

BAR vs. KBH

Watched the one debate KBH has graciously agreed to attend and Barbara Ann, after a shaky start, was great. "Feisty" sounds like a condescending term, but BAR is clearly a scrapper; I wouldn't envy anyone who has to face her in a debate on the Senate floor. She was very direct, blunt even, and not afraid to give straight answers to questions most candidates would tapdance around. She also showed a firm knowledge of the issues, and KBH's record, and managed to work a bite-worthy zinger into almost every answer.

It's also obvious that KBH is not much of a politico and likely could never have been elected but for the incredible weakness of the Bob Krueger debacle, combined with the Republican landslide in 1994. She is stiff and patrician, with a faintly hectoring delivery and body language that makes it pretty obvious she thinks all this is beneath her dignity. Probably her worst moment was defending earmarks, and then hautily asserting, "I don't do pork-barrel." Barbara Ann quickly shot back that KBH was even lousy at bringing home pork, underscoring how Texas is used as a giant ATM machine by the federal government.

BAR is a great candidate with a tough race. Go over to her site and giver her some love.

Kay Bailey Hutchinson "Emboldens Al Qaeda"

From Unclaimed Territory, Glenn Greenwald brings us another astonishing case of SRA (Selective Rightwing Amnesia) Syndrome, by pointing out that it was Republicans, including Hutchinson, who were calling for the US to "cut and run" in Somalia. Now would be as good a time as any to hop on over to Barbara Ann Radnofsky's place and give her some love.