Watch 'Em Spin

I still have the book that was required reading in my journalism class so long ago, "How To Lie With Statistics", still it is interesting to note a couple of surveys out today:

Tea Party 48% Obama 44%
On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president’s views are closer to their own. (Rasmussen)

Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream in Their Demographics

 Tea Party supporters skew right politically; but demographically, they are generally representative of the public at large. That's the finding of a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted March 26-28, in which 28% of U.S. adults call themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement. (Gallup)

According to Moderate Voice:

A new poll suggest what I have thought was true about the Maryland’s brew of tea party activists – a good segment of them are Democratic voters who are blue collar people that tend to lean conservative in the way they want government to work. Some of these Democratic voters voted for Ronald Reagan, Bush in 2000, and Ehrlich in 2002. However, the political landscape has changed and Ehrlich has got be careful how he aligns himself with this brand of Maryland Tea.(more)

Taken together I think it points to what many have been predicting for some time i.e. a dark November for members of Congress, especially but not exclusively, democrats

Newsbusters points to the some other salient points from the poll:

Survey: Four in 10 Tea Party members are Democrats or independents

The group also vehemently dislikes President Barack Obama – even more so than those who called themselves Republicans in the survey. Over 80 percent of Tea Party members disapprove of the job he’s doing as president, whereas 77 percent of Republican respondents said they disapprove of Obama. The Tea Party members are also strongly opposed to the Democrats’ healthcare plan, with 82 percent saying they oppose it --  only 48 percent of respondents overall were opposed. [...]

Almost half the members of the group reported getting their news about national issues from Fox News, 10 percent of respondents said that talk radio is one of their top two sources, which is seven-points higher than average voter. 


And then asks: How will the press report it? 

Usually, the press is willing to take things at face value without an intelligent question to spare (e.g. the "gay" gene, global warming, etc.)  but I bet this will be different...

see....

 NOT EXACTLY A 'MAINSTREAM' FORCE.. at the Washington Monthly for an example of things to come.