Month: December 2011

Dish Readers: Who Are You?

Dish Readers: Who Are You?

We're beginning to include ads again in the Dish, after our mercifully smooth transition to the Beast. Many of you have already been surveyed by the suits (and we mean that in the nicest way) and we have some of the basic details of who you are (younger than most political sites, and much better educated, for example). But it occurred to me that the usual demo questions for ad-buyers could be spiced up a little and the sample expanded a large amount – if only for curiosity's sake. So we brain-stormed some of the questions we'd like most to know about you, and have also set up this poll for you to brainstorm and add your own questions – and answer them. Feel free to ignore questions that might help us get ads, unless you're feeling generous this Christmas season. But do throw in some questions about your fellow Dishheads that you've always wondered about or wanted to know.

The above Urtak is a quick and easy survey to get a better sense of you, the typical Dish reader. Submit Yes/No questions of your own in the field at the very top and we will select some of them to add to the survey.  Check back later in the day to answer newly submitted questions. Analyze the results of the survey here. We ran an Urtak in a debate reax a few months ago and it was really popular.

The Gingrich Bubble Bursts

GOP_Race

Charles Franklin grapples with Gingrich's polling slump:

This is a great example of how elite opinion can modify mass reaction. Gingrich can be very appealing to GOP primary voters with his rhetoric and wit and seeming erudition. But elites remember his foibles as Speaker and the many issues he has embraced and then shrugged off. Those weaknesses have been the focus of conservative commentary for three weeks now, and they have taken their toll.

Joe Klein reports what he's hearing:

Iowa Republicans are not neoconservatives. Ron Paul has gained ground after a debate in which his refusal to join the Iran warhawks was front and center. Indeed, in my travels around the country, I don’t meet many neoconservatives outside of Washington and New York. It’s one thing to just adore Israel, as the evangelical Christians do; it’s another thing entirely to send American kids off to war, yet again, to fight for Israel’s national security.

Chait is betting on Romney:

[W]ith Christian conservatives splintered, the path is clear for Paul to win Iowa. Short of Romney winning Iowa, that would be Romney’s best possible outcome, as Paul can’t possibly cobble together the support of a majority of Republicans or anything close.

But Paul is third in New Hampshire, and Gingrich is falling fast. New Hampshire is a Ron Paul type state, it seems to me. And I find a two-man race between Mr Fake and Mr Real to be quite intriguing. Chart from TPM.

The Establishment vs Paul

Keep your eyes on Fox propaganda. The long knives will be out soon enough. But there's a risk in using Romney too crudely to pummel Paul:

If Paul is treated as badly or worse than Newt has been treated, expect a backlash and desire to vindicate his name with a third party run,  and expect his supporters, who represent about 10% of the party nationally, to push hard to get even … The ultimate irony is that in the feeding frenzy spurred on by the GOP establishment desire for a Romney nomination, we may end up with a Ron Paul third party run and an Obama victory.

Creepy Ad Watch

BUND1

"Every 60 seconds a species dies out." Disturbing, but effective. Copyranter calls it "the best "Save The Animals" campaign I've ever seen":

The campaign is for German non-profit Bund, "Friends of the Earth." It won a Gold Lion at last Summer's Cannes Festival, and it just garnered a Silver at Europe's prestigious Epica awards. As regular copyranter trolls know, I hate people and love animals. These images very effectively convey the urgency of the eco-disaster us scumbag humans shit upon nature daily, hourly.