A new study proved the obvious: politicians overestimate the conservatism of their constituents.
For example, a survey of voters found they supported gay marriage and universal health care by 10 percentage points more than their own politicians had estimated in a separate survey. For conservative politicians, the spread was near 20 percentage points.
I would wager this goes double for members of the press who think most Americans are fire-eating tea party zealots when, in fact, issue-by-issue Americans are center-left.