while watching basketball. but it didn t knock you off your stride, and for that i m doubly appreciative. thank you. thank you for having me, rachel. it has been hard to think about, hard to report about almost anything but japan for almost a week now. but in the meantime, moammar gadhafi has gone so far in his effort to maintain dictatorial power niz country that the u.n. security council decided today it had officially had enough. the latest from libya, plus more ahead about the big turn in american domestic democratic politics when we come back. as low as 4.75% at lendingtree.com, where customers save an average of $293 a month. call lending tree at. today. [ male announcer ] america s beverage companies are working together to put more information right up front. adding new calorie labels to every single can, bottle and pack they produce. so you can make the choice that s right for you.
minimum wage. claire mccaskill was quite emphatically for it. jim talent tried not to take a position on it at all. there was almost nothing in politics that turns out democratic voters more than initiatives to raise the minimum wage. and in missouri that ended up being great news for claire mccaskill. the minimum wage initiative passed with 76% of the vote. 76%. and claire mccaskill unseated jim talent. she won by 2.3%. you think people turning out to vote 76% in favor of raising the minimum wage had anything to do with that victory? when the story of that election upset was finally written, here s how it was written. research showed that democrats in missouri were twice as likely to vote for senate challenger claire mccaskill, who upset republican incumbent jim talent, because of an initiative to increase the state s minimum wage. that was from congressional quarterly. had that minimum wage initiative not been on the ballot in 2006, democratic voters probably would not have turne
firefighter and everyone who ever learned math from that teacher or had their house saved by that firefighter, get ready for america to hoist main street heroes on to the crowd s shoulders. democrats look at these headlines across wisconsin. and say, yeah. enjoy your signing ceremony, gov. this is the best gift you could have ever given us. when economic populism is on the ballot, democrats win. in part because it s not just liberals who support things like raising the minimum wage. it s conservatives, too. 76% of the vote for something with only liberals voting, particularly in missouri. what happens when democrats decide to champion the cause of the rights of people who work for a a living is that they broaden their base of support. a man named dick church from oshkosh, wisconsin, not a member of a public sector union, not a democrat, but here is what he told the oshkosh northwestern newspaper the day republican governor scott walker signed wisconsin s union stripping bill. he said
ahead about the big turn in american domestic democratic politics when we come back. [ female announcer ] you have all this chicken. chicken, chicken chicken. there are thousands of ways to prepare it. [ chickens clucking ] you know only two of them. time to mix it up. time for new philly cooking creme. it ll take your chicken to places it s never been before.
in missouri in missouri that minimum wage raise in missouri that got 76% of the vote? republicans in missouri are now trying to vote to lower that minimum wage again. senator claire mccaskill just sent out a raise the alarm e-mail to missouri voters pointing out missouri republicans are trying to do that, lower the minimum wage. she says it s republicans, quote, taking a 2 x 4 to missouri working families which is both true and has the added benefit of jump-starting the economic populist divide that drives more and mus imus against the republican party and more support for the democratic party than anything else in all of american politics. if they can convert these things to the ballot.