This week, we watched as a local story on some unusual traffic turned into a full-blown political scandal. Back in September, when lane closings from Fort Lee onto the George Washington Bridge caused major gridlock, the explanation from Port Authority was that a “traffic study” was being conducted. But as we learned this week, the full explanation appears far from that simple.
On Saturday’s Melissa Harris-Perry, we will bring you the latest details surrounding the bridge story and what it could mean for Gov. Christie’s political future.
From the demographic changes amongst voters to growing partisan divide among state governments, we’ve talked a lot about the ever shifting makeup of American politics. This week, we are focusing on one group that is growing at a historic rate. According to a new Gallup poll, a record breaking 42% of Americans now identify as Independents while only 31% consider themselves Democrats, and 25% identify as Republican.
But are these individuals truly Independents? Or are they partisans in disguise? We’ll have more on that topic on Saturday’s MHP.
If you weren’t around in 1959 to hear the first utterance of the term “Polar Vortex,” this week, you definitely became well acquainted with the meteorological term. While Americans hunkered down as the temperature plummeted, Rush Limbaugh took to his microphone to blast the media for inventing the term as a ploy to tie the Artic freeze to global warming. (NBC’s Al Roker was none too pleased and promptly dismissed Limbaugh’s claims via Twitter.) But aside from inciting political debate, Limbaugh’s claim brings up an interesting point about how science can help to impact political policy.









