Allen Barton sits down with Politico's Andy Barr to discuss the results of the publication's latest survey of American public political ideas, with emphasis on the great gulf between the political elite in the nation's capital and the Tea Party. At one point, Barr explains why in his view 2010 has been such a difficult political year for conventional observers "inside the Washington bubble" such as members of the mainstream media to understand:
"You know I really don't have a good answer for that because, you know, over and over again we here over and over again in this election we've seen just how disconnected we are from things. We've been surprised over and over again by the results. There was Sharron Angle in Nevada, then Christine O'Donnell getting elected.
"Then some of the Democrats that we thought would never have trouble are very much in trouble, some of them we thought would be in trouble are safe. We've had a very hard time gauging this election and I think that just speaks to the disconnect between those of us who are professionally involved in it here and those who are not, kind of the grassroots energy.
"Too, I think it is very hard to gauge what is going on. The people who are outside of this looking in, I think it's almost impossible to follow unless you are following on a day-to-day level, so there's the disconnect there. And two, if you are here in Washington and there are so many things changing all the time. I mean the Tea Party movement is the biggest story in politics right now. This thing didn't even exist two years ago. It's constantly evolving, so it's very hard to track. This election cycle has been particularly difficult on both ends to communicate."
Don't miss the panel discussion that follows the interview with Barr. The panelists include Terry Jones of Investor's Business Daily and Alex Epstein of the Rand Center for Individual Rights.
You can watch the entire interview here.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: www.washingtonexaminer.co...851478.html#ixzz13YagzV1x
