Shocker! Obama campaign advisor Robert Gibbs tells CNN not to expect ’08 levels of enthusiasm.
How ’bout 2010-levels of enthusiasm, Glenn Reynolds writes at the Washington Examiner:
Looking at some recent events, there’s some reason to think that the Republicans may have the advantage this time around. Or at least, recent events that depend on people showing up have gone pretty well for folks on the Right.
One example is the massive nationwide display of support for Chick-fil-A in the face of attacks on its owners’ religious beliefs. Within days of appeals for a day of support via email lists, blogs and talk radio, every Chick-fil-A in the country was swamped by lines of people patiently waiting hours to buy a chicken sandwich. Several observers commented that if there had been voting booths in each restaurant, the result would have been a landslide.
Likewise, Dinesh D’Souza’s new documentary, “2016: Obama’s America,” quickly became the nation’s leading documentary and has now expanded to more than 1,800 theaters nationwide. It’s rare for a documentary to get this kind of response, and basically unheard-of for a right-leaning documentary to do so. Once again, when called upon, people showed up.
In the more obviously political realm, since the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate, crowds have been huge and lines have been long. It takes a lot to get Americans off the couch, but apparently a lot of them on the Right are now willing to do it for politics.
Related: “Rasmussen: Republican affiliation hits record high,” Ed Morrissey notes at Hot Air. And Paul Rahe adds:
A few days ago, I drew attention to a Gallup poll indicating that, for the first time in the last twenty years, Americans thought better of the Republican Party than of the Democrats. Later that same day, I pointed to a Pew Foundation poll reaffirming the drift towards the Republicans. Today, I came across further evidence pointing even more emphatically at the same conclusion.
For ten years now, Rasmussen has been studying partisan trends. Its latest survey indicates that, for the first time in that period, more Americans self-identify as Republicans than as Democrats. To be precise, 37.6% now think of themselves as Republicans — more than in September, 2004 — and only 33.3% self-identify as Democrats. What makes this especially interesting is that two years ago — on the eve of the Republican blowout in the 2010 midterm elections — 35% self-identified as Democrats and only 33.8% self-identified as Republicans.
Still though, having linked to the Professor at the top of the post, it’s worth adding the usual “don’t get cocky” rejoinder here.
(Headline via Ace in 2010.)
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