THE MOST IMPORTANT POLL YOU'LL SEE TODAY


"Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007" ... here ... from the Pew Research Center (and you don't get any more prestigious than that).

You can cherry-pick isolated data from this poll all day -- and conservative Republicans will definitely want to do that, since the trends in national attitudes are definitely against them -- but the over-all message remains clear: the extremes of the Christian Right and the neoconservatives have run their electoral course and should continue to decline.

So, cheer up!

A little cherry-picking of our own in re Madam Virginia Foxx's hard heartedness:

More Americans believe that the government has a responsibility to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves...

and

Republicans are increasingly divided over the cultural impact of immigrants. Nearly seven-in-ten (68%) conservative Republicans say immigrants threaten American customs, compared with 43% of GOP moderates and liberals.

The single gloomiest finding in this poll?

...young adults express the least interest in voting and other forms of political participation.