An interesting result.

Public Policy Polling, a "Democratic Party-affiliated polling firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina" decided to ask Mississippi Republicans their preferences in the upcoming presidential primary. As Haley Barbour is from Mississippi, there's no particular surprise that he's leading the race, as the choice of 37% of those polled.

What was surprising was the following:

We asked voters on this poll whether they think interracial marriage should be legal or illegal- 46% of Mississippi Republicans said it should be illegal to just 40% who think it should be legal. For the most part there aren't any huge divides in how voters view the candidates or who they support for the nomination based on their attitudes about interracial marriage but there are a few exceptions.

Palin's net favorability with folks who think interracial marriage should be illegal (+55 at 74/19) is 17 points higher than it is with folks who think interracial marriage should be legal (+38 at 64/26.) Meanwhile Romney's favorability numbers see the opposite trend. He's at +23 (53/30) with voters who think interracial marriage should be legal but 19 points worse at +4 (44/40) with those who think it should be illegal. Tells you something about the kinds of folks who like each of those candidates.

Of course, one should also check out the polling organization involved: Public Policy Polling scores reasonably well in these articles from the Wall Street Journal, Pollster.com, and FiveThirtyEight.com. As Carl Bialik said in the Wall Street Journal article:

At the same time, interactive voice response polls, or IVRs, were as accurate as live-interview surveys, and more thorough. Among phone pollsters, IVR firms SurveyUSA and Rasmussen were active in more states in the last week than any competitor, and Public Policy Polling, which also uses IVR, ranked fourth.

Dustin Ingalls, from PPP adds in a comment:

BTW, we did ask this interracial marriage question of everyone, not just Republicans, but we'll be releasing the full results on that at a later date.

In any case, more polling is needed, because it seems unfair to have singled out Mississippi Republicans on this question. I'd like to see this question asked of the American electorate in every state, regardless of party affiliation.

Of course, I have a vested interest in this.

Original link from Andrew Sullivan.

You still have to file your taxes even if the IRS shuts down.

It's looking more and more likely that the federal government will be shutting down as of Friday midnight. And no, this does not mean you get more time to file your federal taxes. They're still due on April 18th (because D.C.'s Emancipation Day holiday is on the 15th).

Most of you have already filed, but if you haven't, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman recommends you file electronically:

People really should file electronically because most of these returns are processed automatically and will not experience any delays. However, taxpayers who file paper returns will experience some delays if we end up in a government shutdown.

Another potential IRS shutdown related effect will be on mortgage closings. From http://www.bankrate.com/financing/mortgages/irs-shutdown-would-delay-mortgage-closings/:

Borrowers sign IRS Form 4506-T, which allows lenders to get transcripts of borrowers' tax returns.

It then takes the IRS 24 to 48 hours to return the verified transcript, which is required at closing.

But guess what? IRS employees won't be at work to verify the forms if there is a shutdown.

Mortgage brokers and lenders are advised that the IRS will not process 4506-T forms during the shutdown, according to Rob Nunziata, president of FBC Mortgage in Orlando, Fla.

"If there is no one at the IRS to verify these, I don't know what can be done," he says. "If we can't verify their income we can't close their loan."

It is not clear yet if Fannie and Freddie are planning to make an exception in the event of a shutdown.

But to be safe, borrowers who have a closing scheduled should check with their lenders or mortgage brokers and make sure their income has been verified by the IRS. If not, they should try to do get it done by Friday.

ETA: No shutdown, or so it appears. But you should still make sure everything gets done.