The Base Is Restless

I'm late coming to this, but Dave Weigel is right: This WSJ poll of GOP primary voters is pretty damn interesting. 59 percent of Republican voters agreed with the statement that "foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy, because imports from abroad have reduced demand for American-made goods, cost jobs here at home, and produced potentially unsafe products." Sixty-one percent supported "tougher regulations to limit imports of foreign goods." Fully a third stated that they would support "some tax increases" in order "to help reduce the federal deficit and to pay for expanding health care programs to cover the uninsured." For the party of free trade, free markets, and low taxes, these ought to be very troubling numbers.

(Incidentally, 48 percent said that the next President should take a "different approach" from George W. Bush, up seven points in four months.)