Scott Rassmussen

I have positioned my blog as beyond left and right, though I realize many readers may judge it otherwise.

But Scott Rasmussen perhaps captures this better in this article about him by John Fund in the Wall Street Journal, America’s Insurgent Pollster.

Excerpts:

only 23% of the people in this country believe today’s federal government has the consent of the governed.

“Americans don’t want to be governed from the left or the right,” Scott Rasmussen tells the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conference of 1,500 conservative and moderate legislators. “They want, like the Founding Fathers, to largely govern themselves with Washington in a supporting—but not dominant—role. The tea party movement is today’s updated expression of that sentiment.”

“The GOP will benefit from that this year, but 75% of Republicans say their representatives in Congress are out of touch with the party base. Should they win big this November, they will have to move quickly to prove they’ve learned lessons from the Bush years.”

Rasmussen’s polls have been more accurate than most. He realizes that the dynamics are beyond Democrat and Republican, left and right. He finds the conflict is between the political class and the mainstream public.  Obama’s stunning reversals and failures have derived from a gross misreading of the dynamics of public opinion.  He sees a very different game than the electorate. He is playing basketball, but we are watching football and he isn’t making any touchdowns.

By pushing more people into housing through incentives the Federal government may be aggravating the unemployment problem.

In good markets housing is illiquid. In a real estate depression a house is like a heavy anchor.  The inability to be mobile restricts job opportunities by forcing homeowners to remain in a single location. Renting allows mobility and the flexibility to respond to better job opportunities quickly.

With so many homeowners underwater there is a further incentive not to sell a house in order to avoid the recognition of the capital loss. Many would want to avoid the pain of coming up with cash at a closing.

The housing crash has destroyed home equity values even for those who can afford the homes they occupy, and it puts pressures even on them to avoid moving to better jobs in distant locations.

from Carpe Diem

Is talking on the cell phone worse than just talking to a passenger?

According to the study (which used 41 drivers), talking on the phone made a significant impact on driving, causing them to drift lanes, miss exits, and just generally drive like the jerks that make you yell “GET OFF THE FREAKING PHONE!” to people in front of you in traffic–even without having a phone in their hands. Meanwhile, talking to a passenger in the car had little or no impact.

source