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  Forty-eight percent of the respondents to the MassINC poll identified as independent with 36% identifying as Democrat and 14% as Republican. But important to note, as Ray La Raja, a professor of political science and associate director of polling at UMass Amherst, told Boston.com, people that respond to polls and pay attention to politics tend to want the most exciting and ideologically extreme candidates. Notably, two things that Biden is not. “Of course people aren’t excited because he’s not an exciting candidate ,” La Raja said. “People just aren’t paying attention that much, and they’re still sticking to their priors.” While the poll showed a 43% approval rating for the president, a myriad of factors such as Biden’s record-setting age and his unexciting centrism has led many to hope he stays off the ticket come 2024, according to La Raja.

  Joshua Bell and Lang Lang transcend troubled times in Washington with music — review On an unseasonably temperate evening in Washington, DC — the sort of evening when you could almost hear the cherry buds stirring con brio — Indiana-born violinist Joshua Bell strolled on to the  stage at the Kennedy Center, not far from the excruciatingly divided heart of American power, and reminded us that all is not lost: in life, in politics, in art and definitely not in the music we generally call  “classical”. Bell was joined by Peter Dugan, the multitalented 32-year-old pianist, Philadelphia native and host of NPR’s beloved From the Top. What followed was a first-class American recital executed with flair, nuance and technical prowess ; a proper joy to behold.