Who is Listening to the Republicans?

In anticipation of yet another Republican-2012-Presidential-nominee-wannabe debate tonight, some interesting tidbits floating around about who is listening to the candidates, and why:

From former Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich:

Americans are listening more intently this time around because they’re hurting and they want answers. But the answers they’re getting from Republican candidates – tripping over themselves trying to appeal to hard-core regressives – are the wrong ones.

The correct ones aren’t being aired.

That’s partly because there’s no primary contest in the Democratic party. So Republicans automatically get loads of free broadcast time to air their regressive nonsense while the Democrats get none.

But even if the President had equal time, the debate about what to do about the crisis would still be frighteningly narrow.

That’s because the President’s answers don’t nearly match up to the magnitude of the crisis.

From National Public Radio this morning, Morning Edition, a great piece on how folks are attracted to Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, simply because, it’s well – SIMPLE. You can listen, here.

Herman Cain's simplified tax plan has vaulted him into the spotlight and has sent his poll numbers soaring. But do people actually know much about the Republican presidential candidate's 9-9-9 tax plan, and how it would affect them?

And per Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in a radio interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, single mothers listen to the Democratic message because they “look to government of help.” Watch, here.

So, let’s see:

1) People listen more intently, when they have questions that need answering – makes sense.

2) People want SIMPLE – sad, actually, given the complexity of the problems we are facing.

3) People vote their best interest – duh. And that doesn’t make them stupid, either.