...Nearly eight in 10 Democrats and about two-thirds of independents said they want the Senate to confirm Sotomayor, but that drops to 36 percent of Republicans. Overall, most Republicans deem the judge a "more liberal" nominee than they would have liked.
Worse, many Republicans see her race as a handicap. "Half of Republican men and 59 percent of conservative Republicans said [race plays] a role in her decision making, with most of those who do saying that that is a bad thing," the report tells us. GOP messaging is clearly working with the base, but that's not necessarily a good thing for them; the message may be aimed at that conservative core, but that doesn't mean they're the only ones hearing it. We're all being asked to be skeptical of the motives of people who aren't white, because everyone knows it's only white people who don't think about race. White guys like me -- or so the reasoning seems to go -- don't really have a race. We're all the default.
That message may work for the base who -- let's face it -- are the dead-enders and fools at this point. But everyone else sees it as ugly. In constantly shooting for the dead center of what remains of the reliably Republican voting public, they wind up tailoring their messages for cranks. Republicans argue that they have to return to the party's "core values," but those core values don't seem to be in agreement with the values of most Americans. As a result, they reinforce their own unpopularity by sticking with dying philosophies. That is, when they're consistent, anyway... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
