I'm going to exercise a new freedom with polling. I'm going to take advantage of my experience with a nonpartisan polling firm to ask Americans some hard-hitting questions that can't in fairness be asked by that nonpartisan firm.
So today I'm introducing the first "Towery Poll" of national issues. That means I don't have to worry if some Democratic polling expert likes it or not!
Who would have thought that Greece's fiscal and financial woes could imperil all of Europe?
For the past few months, we'd been reading and watching a stream of news stories suggesting that the American economy was shaking off its stupor and about to proudly right itself. Then fresh fears surfaced, mysteriously tied to Greece and the European Union.
Being fair as a pollster isn't that hard if you don't have an agenda. The same can be said of opinion pieces, as long as you can persuade readers to join you in weighing all sides of an issue. So here's my go at interjecting reality into some contemporary issues that often have been distorted.
Over a week ago, I reported in the Southern Political Report, a DC-based political Website, that Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist definitely would run for U.S. Senate as an independent.
Remember, I'm just a political analyst and pollster. Perhaps President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress know more than the rest of us. But with a new poll out showing the president with his lowest approval rating since taking office, the last thing I would advise him, were he to ask, would be to even hint at his potential receptivity to a "value-added tax." Especially with elections just around the corner.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Whenever I'm in the nation's capital, it's always entertaining to see government staff, aides, lobbyists and elected officials doing their thing. They can make you feel like an outsider -- unless, that is, you were there when Ronald Reagan was sworn in, doing then as they are doing now. Then you realize that they're just younger versions of yourself.
As a Roman Catholic, I have heard more than the usual share of other Catholics expressing frustration about the Church's handling of what seems to be a never-ending controversy. Great harm has come to some young people who have been the victims of molestation and similar behavior by a small percentage of priests.
That's right, the Democrats did pass a health care bill that a plurality of Americans opposed. And it is in so many ways an awful piece of jumbled-up law. But it will not be the wedge issue that can in November deliver back to the Republicans those marginally safe seats now held by Democrats.
In early March, the head of the Tennessee and Greater Nashville hospitality associations sent an email to a dozen or so people that compared First Lady Michelle Obama to a chimpanzee. As word leaked of this offensive humor, pressure built and the man responsible was soon fired.
I knew that I must have been off pretty badly when I casually wrote in this national column that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist would be a good example of a Republican that voters in critical swing states could accept in the upcoming elections for Senate and the U.S. House.
