Inside the Beltway: ‘Majority wants Pelosi out as House speaker’

NEWS AND OPINION:

This is the headline of the day, surely. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have lost some fans.

“Majority wants Pelosi out as House speaker,” notes a Politico in a blaring headline that heralds some telling new poll numbers about the California Democrat — who less than a year ago ripped up a paper copy of President Trump’s State of the Union speech on live national TV in plain view of a 37.2-million-member audience just after he delivered the speech.

Such antics may not be playing well in Peoria and elsewhere. A finely tuned, candid Politico/Morning Consult poll released Tuesday offers the evidence.

“A majority of voters oppose Pelosi staying on as speaker. Only 31% of all voters think Pelosi should be elected as speaker when the new Congress begins, while 56% think she should not,” wrote Steven Shepard, senior campaigns and elections editor for Politico.

The poll of 1,995 registered U.S. voters was conducted over the weekend.

“The vast majority of Republicans are opposed to Pelosi staying as speaker, 83%. Independents also lean strongly against her: Just 22% say she should remain speaker, while 59% say she should not,” Mr. Shepard continued.

“The numbers track closely with her overall image rating. Fewer than 4-in-10 voters, 37%, have a favorable opinion of Pelosi, while 52% view her unfavorably. Among independent voters, 27% view Pelosi favorably, and 58% have an unfavorable opinion of her,” the analyst said.

MICHAEL SAVAGE MAKES A CHANGE

He’s leaving radio.

“In January of 2021 Michael Savage will be transitioning from his highly rated syndicated radio show to an all-podcast show format. In 26 years on radio, Savage has earned some great accolades: ’Radio Legend’, ’Radio Rock Star’, ’Talk Radio Kingpin’, ’Godfather of Trumpmania.’ Many credit his mantra ’culture, language, borders’ with having set the stage for Donald Trump’s political rise,” says an announcement shared by Mr. Savage with Inside the Beltway.

“Already, Savage’s current podcast, launched in 2019, is in the top 2% nationally, with 100s of thousands of downloads per episode. But those numbers will explode when his passionate listeners can no longer find him on the radio dial. Savage is directing listeners and fans to visit his popular website — michaelsavage.com — to stay up to date on his activities, schedule, news and insights,” the announcement advised.

HIDDEN MESSAGES

The $2.5 trillion spending bill that squeezed through Congress on Monday night was subject to interpretation by the news media, which dwelled on all the pricey items which was hidden away in the what was deemed a “COVID-19 relief package.”

A few headlines of note:

“Pork City: Here are the most ridiculous pet projects in the COVID bill” (The FirstTV); “5 surprising things tucked into Congress’ nearly 6,000-page spending bill” (Yahoo News); “U.S. federal spending bill includes funding to battle climate change” (Reuters); “Massive COVID government spending bill includes $696 billion to beef up America’s defense” (Fox Business News); “2021 spending bill: Cyber, federal spending buildings are winners, IT modernization is a loser” (Federal News Network); “Sweeping new copyright measure poised to pass in spending bill” (The Verge); “Spending bill boosts funding for tech’s antitrust cops” (Axios); and “Anti-doping measure in horse racing included in final federal spending bill” (Speedway Digest).

SOCIALISM ’CHIC’ FADES

It’s just not hip any more. Or maybe it never was. Only last year, glossy New York magazines were noting that socialism was becoming “chic” around the nation. That does not appear to be the case these days.

Three-fourths of likely U.S. voters now reject socialism, despite all the trendy fuss promoted by activists, the media and select elected officials.

A new Heartland Institute poll simply asked voters if they prefer a free-market economic system over a socialist economic system. The results: 75% of respondents answered “free-market economic system,” while 11% sided with socialism. The rest were undecided.

“Despite the increased calls for socialism by many on the far left, the vast majority of likely voters believe that the United States should embrace a free-market economy. Only a sliver of likely voters think that the United States should abandon the free-market capitalistic policies that are responsible for making the United States the wealthiest nation in world history,” the Illinois-based nonprofit said in a statement.

“Despite the countless calls for more socialism among elites in media and Hollywood, Americans aren’t interested in adopting the same socialist policies that have led to mass poverty wherever they have been tried,” it concluded.

FOXIFIED

Fox News is still beating its non-news competition. New audience ratings numbers from Nielsen Media Research reveal that Fox News Channel averaged 2.4 million viewers last week, followed by ESPN (2.1 million), MSNBC (2 million), Hallmark Channel (1.7 million) and CNN (1.6 million).

In addition, Fox News Digital is drawing unprecedented numbers, according to the industry source Comscore. The website attracted 100 million views in November, while Fox News Mobile App garnered 9.8 million. The cable news network also aced the competition on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, drawing 76 million interactions according to Socialbakers, another industry source.

POLL DU JOUR

• 31% of registered U.S. voters say Congress has done a “poor job” handling the coronavirus; 30% of Republicans, 38% of independents and 28% of Democrats agree.

• 35% rate the job Congress has done as “just fair”; 32% of Republicans, 34% of independents and 36% of Democrats agree.

• 19% say Congress has done a “good” job: 24% of Republicans, 13% of independents and 19% of Democrats agree.

• 6% say Congress has done an “excellent” job: 7% of Republicans, 1% of independent sand 9% of Democrats agree.

Source: A Politico/Morning Consult poll of 1,445 registered U.S. voters conducted Dec. 18-20.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.