Jan 25 2009
The Obidiot Arises, Opinion Polls Start Falling
It has not taken Obama long to destroy the image of hope and change he presented the American People. As Pew just noted yesterday the top issues for this country – per the voters – is the Economy, Jobs and Terrorism. To date all of Obama’s actions have been irrelevant or undermining to these issues. And now Obama feels the heat of the conservatives (and conservative independents) and has jettisoned ‘hope and change’ for his little tin dictator hat. When faced with requests to be bipartisan as promised, Obama just gave the finger to all of us fed up with the partisan bickering from the left and right:
After less than a week in office, Mr Obama’s presidency is already encountering the very partisan bickering he had pledged to stamp out during his first 100 days.
He faces mounting criticism over his $825 billion economic stimulus plan, from Republican leaders who say the legislation has been drawn up without the input which Mr Obama had promised to allow them.
The president responded with a clear signal that he is prepared to ram the bill through without the bipartisan consensus he promised to construct, telling Republican leaders from the House of Representatives: “I won. I’m the president.”
This ain’t the change voters were promised. In fact, the snippy attitude is an indicator of a much worse and long lasting problem – Obama is not ready for the job. George Bush was able to guide partisans into reasonable compromises to address this nation’s problems. From stimulus packages to tax cuts to education reform to immigration reform, Bush was able to forge solutions so well the far right went into a panic mode they have yet to recover from. Bush was adept at bringing people together.
Obama is not adept, he is inept. He cannot control his far left base and he cannot handle the challenges of bringing competing or warring factions together. One way to destroy the Democrats is to show how Obama and the Dem Congress are LESS capable than Bush and the GOP Congress. After all the hype and mud thrown at Bush, the last thing they Dems and Obama need is to look like they are incapable of even meeting his standards of accomplishment.
Look at those top priorities of the American voter and then look at the headlines Obama is getting. His signature ‘success’ to date is to recklessly close GITMO – a favor to only terrorists and left wing echo chambers. This idiotic act does nothing for the economy and most Americans are positive it is not strengthening our position against al Qaeda. As suspected, al Qaeda sees this as a sign of weakness, and attacking the now weakened America looks better and better. Too many see GITMO as a white flag of surrender in the war on terror, which is a green light to terrorists.
What has Obama done on the economy? Nothing. Recall Bush was able to get tax cuts and rebates through a split Congress when he came into office. He was able to guide the nation’s economy through recovery after 9-11. Why is it all of a sudden the Dems can’t do something over a recession? Nothing they are proposing will hit the economy for months or years. The only near term, solid change they plan is to raise taxes by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. They plan to HURT the economy, not help it.
The economy is tanking further because it is clear Obama has no spine when it comes to his party’s far left destructive impulses. He is spending his political capitol and precious time making sure America funds abortions overseas instead of focusing on problems here in America. What do the prisoners at GITMO and abortions overseas have to do with fixing the economy, creating good and upwardly mobile jobs and defending the nation from terrorists? Nothing!
And America’s patience is wearing thin. Obama has seen his support drop 20% in the first week in office:
The Gallup Poll on Saturday released the first job-approval rating for President Obama, based on interviews during his first three full days in office: 68 percent.
Now that he’s in office, Obama’s approval ratings are starting to normalize, as partisan back-and-forth picks up. Just a week ago, Gallup found an astonishing 83 percent approval of how he has handled his transition, showing he had even won over most Republicans.
Well, that’s a fairly delusional way to view things. Look, everyone gives a new President a chance. I do and most do because of the office and our country, not because of any special magic with the person. But that window of opportunity can only be held open by producing results. Something Obama has never done in his entire life. He talks a good talk, but that doesn’t meet muster when people are hurting. And people are hurting.
Moreover, people are not pleased with the juvenile and bitter tactics of the liberal nut jobs. Disrespecting our former President and our Military was a huge mistake during the inauguration. Wallowing in childish giddiness that Nirvanna is here simply because we elected the first black male to the top slot is not helping anyone. All America sees is another group of whacky elitists with too much time and money on their hands binge partying now that they survived the retirement of Bush/Cheney.
Here is my prediction. As Obama and the Dems fail to make any difference in the economy and jobs, as al Qaeda and their ilk start rattling their swords and executing successful attacks to unbalance the shaky democrats, those opinion polls will continue to ‘normalize’ southward.
And it will happen at a rate that is stunning. First off, it took YEARS for Bush’s sky-high opinion polls to settle back down to earth. What Obama lost in one week it took Bush years to shed and he did it by trading it in on legislative accomplishments. He lost 20% of his support really fast. I am not saying it will continue to fall at this rate, but if he loses the non-liberal elements of society – which is the path he is on by sucking up to the liberals only – he could dip below 50% by summer of this year. And if he dips below 50% then the Dem Congress is on a path for another 1994.
But before that can happen the GOP needs to get its act together. It is too far into the clutches of its extreme (and now extremely rejected) far right wing to offer an acceptable alternative. The people threw out the GOP and its extremists for being just as tone deaf and insulting to the rest of the country (who exist from the moderate right to the far left) as the far left is now being with everyone to the right of liberal progressives! Being the flip side of the same bad coin will not provide an alternative.
Without some contrition and some acceptance of past bad behavior – along with a promise to not insult and fight with their allies – the far right is not going to get back into power. One example of what I see as short sighted, knee jerk, simple-minded conservatism that will not fly I found over at Jim Geraghty’s Campaign Spot. Which is sad, because I find Jim one of the few people on the right capable of bringing the movement back from oblivion. However, in this one instance the incoherence of the thought that went into sending a conservative message exemplifies how not to win back America as Obama and the Dems implode:
Here are the types of spending priorities you find in an examination of the text of the Economic Recovery Bill:
…
An additional $150 million to NASA for “aeronautics.”
An additional $4.5 billion (with a B) to improve, repair and modernize Department of Defense facilities, restore and modernize Army barracks, and invest in the energy efficiency of Department of Defense facilities.
An additional $1.7 billion (with a B) for projects to address critical deferred maintenance needs within the National Park System.
What struck me as just 3rd grade thinking is the fact that simply because someone doesn’t know what ‘aeronautics’ means they assume it is wasteful spending. Well ‘aeronautics’ means investing in safety and improvements in our civilian airline sector. It means investigating ways to save lives and make flying more efficient. It means, by government investment, these advances are owned by the people of this nation and are not the intellectual property of a corporation alone, so that all who fly in the US for business and pleasure can reap the rewards of these programs.
It is the kind of work that leads to devices and systems and training programs that allow a plane full of people to make an emergency landing in the frigid Hudson River and live to tell about. It is something government should be doing more of, not less. For those who don’t understand why this money is worth spending, there is a little tutorial for you to educate yourself. It is called the NASA Website (see here, here, here and here).
Additionally, is Geraghty (and whomever he linked from) really saying we should not maintain the facilities of our fighting forces? Are we not pro military? Are we not, as conservatives or Americans, willing to spend what it takes to support those in harms way?
The little advertised sad truth is the Feds have not only been tapping into Social Security to fund the pet projects of Congress, they have also been deferring much needed maintenance and upgrade programs for well over a decade to fund these slush funds of friends. They have been ‘porking’ the funds needed to keep our federal facilities simply running. These are not ‘additional’ spending activities in most cases – these are IOUs from the past.
Earmarks come from some place, and the Federal facility infrastructure is rotting out from within because it too has been a source of pork funds. Buildings are in disrepair and their decor is a flashback to the 1940’s. We have computer systems operating critical infrastructure which belong in museums. They are being held up by maintenance depots that include E-Bay, where a lot of people hunt for aging spare parts. I am not overstating how badly we have let our facilities rot so we could get more pork out the door.
And since the GOP has been porking out for all those years of neglect as the leaders of a greedy Congress, it is not a good idea to throw stones from a fractured and barely standing glass house, like this post does. Don’t go there.
Look, so far we still see a race to the cesspool going on left and right. The GOP can pull itself out of the tail spin, but it has to go back to a broad and moderate coalition. And it has to be serious and stop acting like liberal democrats. Only then can it be in a position to step in when the far left policies of Obama, Pelosi and Reid destroy the Dems.
GuyF
I just want to make sure I’m clear on this: If a politican went from polling at 60%, down to 30% – you would then say he had a 50% drop? Well gosh – that sure is intuitive, ain’t it?
actually: yes, that is correct. I’m sure you haven’t covered math percentages yet, being only half way thru 3rd grade. but let’s do a simple calc:
83 x .20 = 16.6
83 x .19 = 15.77
83 x .18 = 14.94
So a 15 point drop is nearer 20% than it is 15%.
I’m not sure which grade you’ll cover doing percentages, but hang in there.
Again from the FREEREPUBLIC, no wonder Paulson was in such a big hurry.
Revealed: Day the banks were just three hours from collapse (UK)
01/25/2009 6:08:38 PM PST · by randita · 2 replies · 88+ views
Daily Mail ^ | 1/26/09 | Glen Owen
Monday, Jan 26 2009 Revealed: Day the banks were just three hours from collapse By Glen Owen Britain was just three hours away from going bust last year after a secret run on the banks, one of Gordon Brown’s Ministers has revealed. City Minister Paul Myners disclosed that on Friday, October 10, the country was ‘very close’ to a complete banking collapse after ‘major depositors’ attempted to withdraw their money en masse. The Mail on Sunday has been told that the Treasury was preparing for the banks to shut their doors to all customers, terminate electronic transfers and even block…
Conguy:
“Look, everyone gives a new President a chance.
Are you kidding? no one ever gave Bush a chance, h*ll they even made him wait weeks before they decided he had won fairly and squarely. They were screaming at him before he took office, and still are. Give someone a chance, h*ll no. Someone that wants socialism, grew up communist, wants to surrender in Iraq, wants to surrender in the war on Terror. Give him a chance, not just no, but h*ll no.
GuyF
Well, see, there is a difference between us. When the Democratic President screws up, I plan on calling him on it.
Well, he screwed up on nominating a crook for Treasury sec. I had to ask you many times did you support it before you finally conceded that you did not.
He appointed Lynn to that asst post, you didn’t call him until I asked. So when are you gonna start calling before you have to be badgered to concede?
Guy:
Already making excuses aren’t you? Well you know what? Bush was not responsible for Clinton’s Iraq policy or his lousy stewardship of our intelligence services or the Democrat’s deliberate policy of pushing for home loans to people with bad credit…but Bush got the blame for it.
He got the blame for everything from bad weather to terrorist attacks to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to God knows what else.
It is your turn now.
If Obama jerks those troops out of Iraq and the country falls, it will be his fault.
If Obama demands a trillion dollars in additional spending and the economy does not have a miraculous recovery…it will be his fault.
If Obama does not get the Iranians and the North Koreans to kiss his butt, inside of 4 years. It will be his fault.
etc.
And it is Obama’s fault that Robert Reich said that none of this money should go to white construction workers. So much for post racial. I know Obama did not say it, but one of his minions did..so it is his fault.
It is Obama’s fault that the capitol grounds looked like Woodstock the morning after his Inauguration. Trash everywhere. So much for the environment.
It is Obama’s fault that he made the idiotic comment about how he “won” showing that all that post partisan crap was just that: crap.
So get used to it.
Now maybe finally the Democrats will have to responsible for running something other than their mouths. Maybe this time they won’t be able to blame everything on the guy with the “R” behind his name.
kathie:
I think that the government really did need to step in at that time.
My fear is that the right and left will use the whole situation for their political gain. Of course.
The right will assume that any government intervention is a bad thing and the left will do their best to use the situation to justify all sorts of spending that is not really wise or necessary.
In a sense the left and right feed off of each other in times like this.
This might not help Obama either. Ed Morrisey {who is no right wing fanatic} has a post up on subpoenas going out to Obama aides in theBlago impeachment debacle.
Redteam:
We seem to have a misunderstanding. I was not ignoring your questions about Lynn because I was afraid to answer them.
I was ignoring your questions because you are a buffoon.
AJ:
Hey, look! Obama is up to a 69% approval rating! That’s an increase of 1.5%, in just one week!
Why, if he continues at this rate, he’ll be up to 80+% by summer, and should be well over 100% by the end of the year! My gosh – he truly is The One!!!11!One!!
Redteam, I would certainly take guy’s comment as a huge compliment!
[…] AJ Strata wrote: “…This ain’t the change voters were promised. In fact, the snippy attitude is an indicator of a much worse and long lasting problem – Obama is not ready for the job. George Bush was able to guide partisans into reasonable compromises to address this nation’s problems. From stimulus packages to tax cuts to education reform to immigration reform, Bush was able to forge solutions so well the far right went into a panic mode they have yet to recover from. Bush was adept at bringing people together. Obama is not adept, he is inept. He cannot control his far left base and he cannot handle the challenges of bringing competing or warring factions together. One way to destroy the Democrats is to show how Obama and the Dem Congress are LESS capable than Bush and the GOP Congress. After all the hype and mud thrown at Bush, the last thing they Dems and Obama need is to look like they are incapable of even meeting his standards of accomplishment….” […]
ivehadit,
I do.
GuyF:
Thanks for the compliment. below is a link on how to calculate percentages, if you go ahead and learn you will have an advantage on your classmates in 4th grade, next year.
http://math.about.com/library/weekly/aa061502a.htm
GuyF, 83 down to 69 or 68 is NOT an increase
““What has Obama done on the economy? Nothing. ” – Conman
Actually, Conman, Obama’s actions on the economy precede him. He belongs in the Barney Franks, Chris Dodd category. Obama was part of the problem as a community organizer threatening and suing banks to give bad loans to people who could not afford the mortgage.
I don’t know who Obama is listening to. Probably George Soros. 59% of Americans are fearful the government will spend too much. I just called my state Senators to complain and was surprised to find out that even my Dem Senator was opposed to Obama’s ridiculous spending spree of a stimulus package.
Frogg, any reasonable American does not like what obama is doing. This is NOT 1965…We know too much!
Redteam,
“Are you kidding? no one ever gave Bush a chance, h*ll they even made him wait weeks before they decided he had won fairly and squarely. They were screaming at him before he took office, and still are.”
Yeah, it really was unfair for Americans to want to wait a couple weeks to make sure that Bush actually won, especially since he didn’t win a majority of the populous vote and the electoral votes were in dispute – how petty of the nation. I’m still not sure why people were upset over the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately decided Bush won on a straight partisan vote – 5 to 4. I’m sure if the Supreme Court picked Gore Republicans would have immediately rallied around Gore and said “we will support our president” – just like you guys are doing for Obama, who won by a huge margin.
Notwithstanding the complications of an election dispute, Bush still had 55% approval rating when he started and it soarded to 90% after 9-11. Most americans, including myself, rallied around Bush and gave him the benefit of the doubt after 9-11. It wasn’t until Bush started screwing up by diverting his attention to Iraq, screwing Iraq up, etc. that he started to dive bomb in the opinion polls. In other words, Americans support started dropping off based on Bush’s policies and actions – not simply because he was a Republican. Here is the timeline – read it yourself. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2006/02/02/CU2006020201345.html
conguy, you’re kidding, of course.
The supreme court only stopped the sideshow. the sideshow was that the Fl supreme court wasn’t going to allow a full recount in Fl only the counties and/or precincts that were sure to give more votes to Gore and even exclude the American military ballots, which were heavily for Bush.
The formerly MSM conducted numerous studies and have clearly shown that the only way Gore would have won is by the Fl supreme court. Bush won the popular vote in Fl..
I don’t see the relevance of your last paragraph.
Con & Guy,
1. The govt doesn’t create jobs. It regulates the credit markets so money flows thru the economy .
2. Bush’s “popularity” didn’t tumble when he started making mistakes. Only when the going got tough and the propaganda media started telling people like you that he was making mistakes.
Oh for God’s sake! The pursuit of that “broad and moderate coalition” is what destroyed republican chances in the 2008 election. And spineless “moderates” who exhibited no strongly held beliefs while making positive strides in nothing but betraying their own constituents…these are the party “leaders” who, along with Bush, have left the party in a shambles. Reagan conservatism works every time it is tried, whether for the economy, foreign policy or winning elections. And mealy mouthed, limp-wristed, middle-of-the-road appeasers succeed only in destroying the economy, losing wars and coming in second at the ballot box. How many more examples of McCain/Graham/Hegel futility will be necessary to convince the “big tent” crowd that the very biggest tent is anchored on the principles of conservatism, patriotism and the belief in American excellence! Democrat-lite has been tried. It was supposed to win the White House this year! Why, Juan had such a broad base…so many democrats supported him, enjoyed his betrayal of conservatives and applauded his desire to “reach across the aisle.” The rest is history. McCain was and is a joke. Having an America hating Marxist in the White House is not.
I’ve got no love for this stimulus package…I know just how unbelievably slowly the wheels of Government turn, and just how much of that money will be siphoned off into vote-buying schemes.
But AJ has a valid point…there ARE some perfectly legitimate things on which to spend money, and conservatives need to be very careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water. Because doing so will give the Dems ammunition.
And we really don’t want to do that.
Macker:
“1. The govt doesn’t create jobs. It regulates the credit markets so money flows thru the economy.”
Nobody works for the government? Then what are all those people in DC doing?
Easy one here: let’s say a couple million dollars is put aside to fix roads and bridges. That money is given to the states, and their DOTs start the projects. People are then hired to do the work. Ta da – job creation by the government!
“2. Bush’s “popularity†didn’t tumble when he started making mistakes. Only when the going got tough and the propaganda media started telling people like you that he was making mistakes.”
Okay – this one makes even less sense. Are you saying that Bush would still be enjoying a 90% approval rate if only the mean old MSM hasn’t reported on, y’know – what he did? If we had just stayed blissfully ignorant about the deaths in Iraq, or warrantless wiretapping, everything would be hunky-dory in this country?
Are you honestly trying to say that the media reporting on illegal or unpopular actions taken by a sitting administration is WORSE than the actions themselves?
If not – then what is your point? I’m honestly asking here – what would you have preferred from the media for the past 8 years? What could the MSM have done differently that would result in a high approval rating for Bush? (And please, give me specific answers on how they should have covered Iraq, Katrina, the Shaivo thing, the NSA program, and the economic collapse over the past year.)
Guy,
• The time lag between granting states money and starting the work prevents immediate economic results. Results are years out .
• The money drained from the private sector is less efficiently and strategically spent in the public sector.
• Katrina was a local government failure falsely portrayed as a federal failure (incompetent Dem Gov Blanco and incompetent Dem Mayor Nagin).
• Courts have repeatedly upheld Bush’s intelligence methods.
• The MSM, almost universally, has repeated the lies that: Saddam wasn’t a threat, wasn’t connected to Al Qaeda, didn’t have WMD programs, Bush was dumb, Bush stole our freedom. And the translated Iraqi documents that contradict those lies are selectively ignored.
• The NYT publicly disclosed our intelligence gathering techniques. But it is silent about the American lives that cost.
• The MSM lied about a Halliburton influence in the administration. There was none.
• The MSM has been silent about the real Democrat culprits ( Carter, Clinton, Dodd, Frank, Raines, ACORN) in our economic crisis. It has been silent that Bush warned congress of the risks, but was shouted down.
The popular media has been a cheering section for Democrat and progressive causes and has deliberately demonized Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. And a dumbed down public doesn’t know the difference.