The National Journal’s latest poll of leading political bloggers from the Left and Right is now available. They disagree sharply on the Obama stimulus. The Left’s average for the right amount for the stimulus was $746 billion. The Right’s average was $34 billion, with plenty of Righties, myself included, favoring “zero” as the ideal amount. I wrote: “The solution to economic problems caused by excessive borrowing is not to borrow lots more money.”
As to whether Obama should push card-check legislation (the proposal to deprive employees of the right to a secret ballot vote on whether to unionize), 88% of the Left says yes, while 76% of the Right says no. The right-wing support for Obama pushing card-check comes at least partly from the belief that it will harm him politically. I agree with the political observation, but I’m much more concerned with protecting rights than with Obama’s political fortunes. I wrote: “Taking away the secret ballot is a direct assault on the right of free association.”
Will card check pass next year? 44% of the Left thinks so, as does 24% of the Right. Several bloggers predicted that card-check would be pushed, but would eventually be traded off to ensure passage of other items on the union lobby agenda.