INDEPENDENTS

According to the new Pew poll (PDF file here), they’re almost as angry at Bush as Democrats are. 71 percent say he could have done more; 25 percent say he did all he could. 85 percent of Democrats fault Bush. 63 percent of Republicans, in contrast, rate the federal performance as “excellent or good.” I guess there comes a point at which partisanship and polarization are so deep nothing will budge them. There’s an enormous racial divide as well. African-Americans are much angrier about this than whites. My bet is that no amount of gay-baiting will win much of the black vote back for the GOP in the near future. But they’ll try.