Forgetting something, Powerline?

Powerline attempts to dismiss the Dowd analysis, but they ignore an inconvenient poll that corroborates Dowd's memo.

That poll is the USA Today report from yesterday. A close look at the figures shows that the "enforcement only" approach chosen by the House of Representatives (which they prefer) is not as popular as they would like to believe.

Take a look at the breakdown:

1. The hard-liners (25%). 70% favor a wall. 56% feel removing illegal immigrants helps the economy.
2. The unconcerned (23%). Only 21% favor a wall. Only 5% feel removing illegal immigrants would help the economy. 84% favor allowing them to stay and work towards becoming citizens.
3. The ambivalent (27%). Only 44% favor a wall. 59% feel removing illegal immigrants would help the economy. 81% favor letting them stay and work toward citizenship.
4. The welcoming (27%). Only 33% favor a wall. 76% support allowing illegal immigrants a chance at becoming citizens.

A wall doesn't get support from a majority of anyone except the hard-liners, and even then, it's only 70%. Outside of the hard-liners, all three groups support a path to citizenship by very strong margins (at least 3-1).

This would seem to confirm Dowd's analysis, yet Powerline has decided to ignore this inconvenient data. Why? Is it because that if Dowd's reading is correct, then the "base" has pushed the GOP into a huge political blunder that could alienate Hispanics over the long term? Or is it due to the fact that their views on illegal immigrants and addressing the problem are clearly in the minority among the general public?

Powerline has managed to do little more than insult the intelligence of anyone who read the USA Today article - like me.