There’s a lot of interesting data in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, most of which I consider positive news for the president and the Democrats. The president has a 46% approval rating. Congress has a 9% approval rating. Congress’s approval rating has fallen 22% since the Tan Man took over the House of Representatives. The president’s approval numbers appear to be relatively stable, but his 46%/46% approve/disapprove rating has slipped from 49%/39% since the January New York Times/CBS News poll.
Two-thirds of Americans feel wealth should be shared more equally, and 70% think Republican policies favor the rich.
Congressional Republicans are viewed even worse than the president, with 71 percent of the public saying the party does not have a clear plan for creating jobs. And support for several other Republican proposals is more tepid than for Mr. Obama’s initiatives to lift the economy.
Only about a quarter of the public said that lowering taxes on large corporations or repealing the entire national health care law was a good idea. But half of the public favors reducing or repealing regulations on businesses in the United States.
So, here’s the deal. The people aren’t buying anything the Republicans are selling. They aren’t interested in repealing ObamaCare. They want higher taxes on the rich, not lower. They oppose cutting corporate taxes. They don’t think the Republicans have an economic plan, and they don’t like any of the Republican ideas that are presented to them. They hate Congress, never more so than since the Republicans gained so much power at the beginning of this year. If McConnell and Boehner keep it up, their approval rating may go lower than the poll’s margin of error. Seriously. They’re polling at 9% approval. And, what’s more, they hate the Republican presidential candidates. Even the Republicans hate them.
With the nation’s first Republican nominating contests just two months away, a large majority of primary voters have yet to make up their minds about the candidate they hope becomes their nominee. About 8 in 10 Republican primary voters said it was still too early to tell whom they will support, and just 4 in 10 said they had been paying a lot of attention to the race.
Mr. Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, is riding the latest wave of support among Republican primary voters that has placed him in a statistical dead heat with Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Support for Mr. Perry has weakened to 6 percent, placing him among the second-tier candidates with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Representative Ron Paul of Texas.
Does anyone else think that the Governor of Texas should be polling better than six percent? I know he’s not a good debater, but neither was Bush. Did you notice how all his support vanished instantaneously when he said that denying discounted in-state tuition to the children of undocumented workers is heartless? Despite an almost ludicrously conservative record as governor, with one hint of compassion and empathy, his campaign seemingly went up in smoke.
So, here we are. It’s Romney versus the guy with the stupid commercials who has no campaign infrastructure whatsoever. It’s the guy who killed Usama bin-Laden versus the human flapjack.
I wish I knew that we are going to win this thing. I can’t even imagine losing. If we do, it will because of this:
Not only do 89 percent of Americans say they distrust government to do the right thing, but 74 percent say the country is on the wrong track and 84 percent disapprove of Congress — warnings for Democrats and Republicans alike.
McConnell’s Plan has ramped up distrust of government to a near universal level. And that is what the Republicans will work with.
The country IS on the wrong track. That track is rightward. Our choice is soft Right with Democrats or hard Right with Republicans. There are literally no liberal candidates at all here in the new IL-8 district. People keep saying that the government should do something about the economy and politicians of both parties say, “OK, I will cut the deficit.”
I see the problem as being that politicians of both parties belong to the 1%. They can’t understand fear of losing jobs. They fear getting off the gravy train, but it is not the gut-wrenching knee-wobbling fear of the 99%. A prime example is Bush Senior’s vetoing of an unemployment extension because, “When people are unemployed, they should just live off their investments until they find another job.” Because that’s what his class does, he didn’t realize that he was saying to the Middle Class,” When people are unemployment, they should move into the street next month and starve. Maybe they can sell their kids as child prostitutes or be entrepreneurs and sell drugs… if they are tough enough.” The man who never saw a supermarket scanner just couldn’t get it. Neither can our rich corporate Democrats. They know the words, but they are just empty formulas to them, incantations to evoke votes, but not something important enough to refuse campaign donations for or to loss a sinecure job for the wife or kiddies.
I don’t even think we’re moving right anymore. Yeah, we’ve been moving right for thirty years. But I think we went as far as the system can comfortably go and maintain itself in recognizable form. The barbarians are at the gates. Can they hold on? Or will they get to choose who they surrender to?
When so-called liberal Democratic Senators say we have to limit availability and cut Social Security, yes, we are still moving right. I really think that OWS is the only thing that can save us, but my hopes have been dashed too many times to think they can succeed.
The barbarians are in the Congress.
Maybe so, but the analogy still holds.
Seeing as someone is going to post it, and I feel like it belongs here with relation to “comforting and re-election,” this is not going to inspire who the president needs to inspire:
White House Hands GOP Victory In Jobs Bill Shadow Boxing Match
It’s just jousting and maneuvering. Getting anything at all out of the House requires this kind of malarkey. The Senate will probably find a different offset. It will either deadlock and die, or it will come with some indigestible compromise(s). Boehner isn’t giving us any tasty wins.
Too measured Boo…gotta freak out, insult President Obama, and threaten to give up.
The 2012 will, if it does nothing else, resolve the riddle that we’ve been facing since McConnell, Dick Armey, Ginny Thomas, et al led the GOP in 2009 away from a soul searching of what went wrong in the Bush years to a doubling down on obstruction, extremism and taking care of the rich: who suffers more electorally for the GOP’s extremism: the GOP or the Dems who have to muddle through governing under such conditions?
If Obama loses, it will be because the fundamentally dishonest election game has not changed. That the Wall Street Media will dictate who the President is.
If Louis Goehmert ran, the Wall Street Media would still make it a horse race in order to ensure that their ad revenues from political ads were huge and there was so much demand for time that they could charge exorbitant prices. And they could slip up and repeat the 2000 election.
The media carpet bombing of 2010 will look tame compared to what we are in for in 2012. It affects people by destroying rationality and informed decisions. It is psychologically manipulative in a way that polls don’t capture until the last minute.
The. system. is, broken. Continuing to make the issue about personalities misses this systemic fact. Obama is operating from a situation of weakness because he hurt the financial industry’s fee-fees by calling them verbally to account and by shepherding a bill through Congress that did something minor to regulate them.
They are using Democrats in Congress to bring him down. It doesn’t matter how far he moves toward their position, it will never be enough. It is Wall Street that wants to bring Obama down. The racist politician from the South — just another shiny object. The turncoat Democrats are the instrument.
I’m not taking a whole lot of comfort here. I think that your analysis here, and in the earlier post predicting an Obama landslide next year, is off-base.
You look at 2010 as some sort of unfortunate aberration, and I see 2010 as a realigning election. I don’t see a lot of evidence that the verdict of 2010 is going to be reversed in the next election. In fact, I see the evidence to the contrary in Wisconsin. Since the Tea Party took over in January and passed sweeping legislation in Madison, I expected that the historically moderate folks of Wisconsin would react quite negatively. In 2010, I figured, they may have wanted to stop a rail project that they considered wasteful, but I didn’t think they really endorsed the Tea Party program.
But apparently, I was wrong. The electorate has had two chances to reverse to some degree the 2010 results — once in a State Supreme Court race, and once in the State Senate recall races — and both times the voters approved the Tea Party takeover.
The Koch money isn’t going away. It will be a huge factor in the 2012 elections. The mechanics of the election will be run by Republicans in the swing states. Voter suppression will be real and widespread. The economy is not going to get any better, and may get significantly worse.
I’m not looking forward to next year.
The electorate has had two chances to reverse to some degree the 2010 results — once in a State Supreme Court race, and once in the State Senate recall races — and both times the voters approved the Tea Party takeover.
Really? I think you need to try again. Winning two out of the 6 seats in the recall is a major undertaking. And don’t forget the election theft in Waukesha County.
And let’s not forget that the Republicans failed to knock off a single Democrat in their recall elections.
It’s a funny double standard in that comment: the Republicans’ victory in 2010 was a realignment election, even though the election schedule limited the number of Senate seats that were being contested and thus prevented the Republicans from taking the chamber. However, when the number of seats up for recall prevented the Democrats’ victory from flipping control of the chamber, their pickups are to be read as an affirmation of the Republicans.
but, but, but… David Brooks is saying the exact opposite?!? Oh, who to believe?
Just an FYI. The Oakland, CA, PD is teargassing the OccupyOakland protesters. There have been reports of rubber bullets too.
Wake up and smell the tear gas. The Occupy Wall Street movement has been meticulous in training people in nonviolent tactics. In two cases yesterday, the police operated so as to prevent media coverage. In Oakland, police created enough separation of protesters to give the appearance of a riot, used a sound cannon, and tear gassed volunteer OWS medics. In Atlanta, police formed a line to block the view of media and declared media coverage illegal.
I watched livestreams of both. The people to be arrested in Atlanta were seated in a circle with locked arms, They included the the Rainbow Coalition/PUSH coordinator, a staffer from the American Friends Service Committee, and a former city councilman. Horse cops showed up in riot gear; the horses with plexiglas face protection. A police helicopter circled overhead for hours.
In Oakland, KRON news was building a narrative to support the police early on. A reporter who was reportedly monitoring YouTube and Twitter reported on an incident of shoe throwing and a police officer who had supposedly been doused with blue and green paint — without showing the YouTubes. And reported on a tweet that claimed to want violence — without showing an image of the tweet.
All to prevent people from camping in a downtown park or on a plaza.
These are the same municipalities that claim they have budget problems and must cut back on services and employee pay.
Welcome to the world of the PATRIOT Act.
In other news, Occupy Columbia’s media team went to cover Rick Perry’s news conference at the Columbia State House; he was meeting with Gov. Nikki Haley. They wore “We are the 99%” tee shirts, were accorded press badges, and did nothing except respond Perry’s statements with general assembly hand signals. Including downward jazz fingers (disagreement).
WTF is going on with Democratic mayors and governors?
Tarheel…I really like where your heart is at. I truly do. But…really. You still have to ask such a question after 20+ years of Dempublican/Republicrat political farce?
Their “heart” is in their re-election, and their re-election depends completely and entirely upon the good wishes and deep pockets of the people against whom the “occupy” people are presently occupied occupying.
Lord!!!
Y’oughta consider changing your handle here to just straight “Tarheel” or maybe something like “TarheelSeeker,” because the Dems done got demselves into a right serious pickle wif Massa Obama at de helm.
Bet on it.
AG
Think of Daley, Addonizio, and other Dem machine politicians who cracked down on the DFHs during the 60s.
le plus change, le meme chose…or something like that.
Yes indeed.
Saaaayy…isn’t there a viable candidate whose cogent set of policies absolutely, positively reside somewhere between 74% and 89% against everything that is currently being done in the Federal government?
Why…yes there is!!!
Ron Paul.
Duh.
“The American people”…at least those of that group who are considered worthy of being included in the corporate system’s execrably false polling efforts…are actually quite correct in their newfound hostility to what has been happening in Washington DC for the last 20 or so years. (The other members of this society? The ones who do not make enough money to be considered “pollable?” The numbers would be off the charts if they were included.) 20 or so years? That’s right, bubbas and bubbettes…20+ years. Since the 1992 presidential campaigns began. Through three DemRat presidential terms as well as two stints with a RatPublican supposedly at the helm.
This development signifies the beginnings of a major breakthrough in what remains of the dim consciousness of the media-addicted sheeple herd.
Since the JFK assassination, actually, but why ask for miracles? Since Clinton allowed the PermaGov to send jobs overseas in the name of short-term profit…jobs that the effete white bougeoisie (also known as “the electorate” in PermaGov circles) considered beneath them or even worthy of their attention…is as good a time to begin looking as any other.
So here we are.
The media’s power to confuse is slowly breaking down. Like any other control mechanism, when the going gets too rough for said mechanism to work well it has to take a step back and reorganize its priorities and methods. It can no longer lie to its followers that “Everything’s gonna be OK! Mission accomplished! Job One is done!” etc. etc. etc., because it has become crystal clear to all but the dimmest of the dim that everything is not “OK” even after 20 years of saying that it will be. There are masses of young people…people who have come of age during that 20 years of sheer bullshit…sitting in public squares all over this country saying “Whaddayou? Kiddin’ me or what!!!???” regarding this ongoing governmental charade and simultaneous massive theft by the 1%. There is another movement among the older white working/lower middle classes…also known as the Tea Party…that is essentially saying the same thing, only dumber. There are even some rumblings of discontent among the so-called “progressive” masses.
Hoo boy!!!
“What to do!!! What to do!!!” go the cries from the towers atop the media skyscraper.
I can hear the conversations now.
Yup.
And you all are right in there wid ’em.
15 comments so far on a thread that is purportedly about “comforting polling data” regarding the future of this country?
Not a peep about Ron Paul except in a quote where he is relegated to the same status as that master political hustler and survivor Newt Gingrich.
Wake the fuck up!!!
The polls are as rigged as is the news. As rigged as are the elections. The fix is already in and you are still rooting for someone in the supposed fight.
Unbelievable.
All you are really doing?
Hoping that the fix goes in favor of the one upon whom you have placed your bets.
Unbelievable.
But…as has been the case for decades here in Omertica…true.
So it goes.
Have fun.
It’ll be a good show, that’s fer sure.
It always is.
But remember…
Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.
Bet on it.
Later…
AG
seriously? We’re going to have to listen to this shtick until February or whenever?
Your buddy is stuck at 6% in the polls and he’s actually losing ground. Maybe that’s because he’s running for the nomination of the Republican Party. They don’t agree with Ron Paul on pretty much anything that you care about. So, he’s not going to be the nominee. End of story.
Perhaps you can start a RecruitPaul movement for an independent run for the presidency.
Wait. The RatCrats are going to run out of second-tier options eventually. They are already scraping the bottom of the barrel with Cain. (Who is definitely not Able.) If there are enough of them who think that they cannot win with Romney…admittedly a long shot, because the Rat stupidity is so deep…they may have to turn to Paul.
An independent run?
I wish that I could start an effective “RecruitPaul movement” of some sort, but that’s going to be entirely his call. He either does it or he doesn’t. He has the organization; he has a lot of money and he has an uncommitted, massively pissed-off electoral base upon which to work.
We shall see.
Meanwhile…if you do not want to “listen to this shtick until February or whenever,” simply don’t read my apparently mad rantings, ‘cuz I’m not backing off.
Last campaign I was right about Edwards from the getgo, and I still think that Hillary Clinton would have been a beter Preznit than has been Obama…a better, more committed fighter and a much better professional politician.
I think that i am right here and I will stick to my guns.
As has Mr. Paul.
Bet on it.
AG
Have you checked out Ayn Rand’s books from the library? You need to bone up on this ideology you’ve so recently adopted so you can get the talking points right.
I read ’em long ago and far away. Skimmed ’em, actually. She was a horrendously bad writer. Torturously bad.
Syntax to die from.
Wooden characters.
Unbelievable plots.
A verbal cartoonist at best.
So nu?
Ideas?
A couple, maybe. “Do for self” being among them.
So now you are going to continue the anti-Ron Paul attack by claiming that he is some kind of “disciple” of Ayn Rand? That’s all he is?
Hmmmm…
From The principled consistency of Ron Paul.
From Wikipedia…the sole mention of Ayn Rand in an entry that is roughly 13,000 words long.
Not a word from you about the Austrian economic school, about Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, both of whom are considered at the very least serious economic theorists in the world of academia.
Just Ayn Rand.
Hmmm…
On Ron Paul’s own website there are but four or five passing references to Ayn Rand…I did a search…none of which go for more than a sentence or two and the most informative of which say that reading her work when he was a very young man eventually led him to the Austrian school of economics. To Hayek and von Mises. etc.
But you only mention Ayn Rand.
Hmmm…
Lemme see…
I am a “big fan” of William Burroughs…I really am; I consider him a poetic genius, a societal prophet and a very very brave man as well…but I have neither shot my wife in the head while playing William Tell with a pistol nor have I shacked up with any number of Arab boys every chance I have gotten.
Does my appreciation of Burroughs automatically disqualify me from serious consideration as say a teacher of children or marksmanship?
Please.
This “Ayn Rand” thing is right up there with the “racist”/”fascist” memes that are being used to discredit Ron Paul.
Where do you get your information, Booman?
Does it just pop up in your head after reading thousands of words of media tripe and watching the talking heads talk their heads off while saying absolutely nothing of value on the TV set?
As i have suggested before here…you’re better than that.
Much better.
Or so I hope.
if you are going to actively oppose the man…fer chrissake, Booman, at least go to the source.
Later…
AG
Funny, I thought of adding “books on the Austrian school” to my comment but didn’t like first idea for sentence structure and dropped it. It doesn’t matter, it’s all part of a new ideology that you’re trying out. It’s a profoundly stupid ideology, but, then, I guess there’s a lot of stupid to go around.
Look, I’m generally respectful towards you even when I think you’re really wrong. I have a lot of sympathy for your ‘old’ worldview. But if you’re going to pimp Ron Paul here, I’m not going to be able to resist insulting your intelligence.
You seem to be almost begging me to take Ron Paul seriously enough to engage you in some kind of debate. It’s not going to happen. He’s a clown with a virulently racist past who pretends to be for individual liberty but has no problem making pregnancy loss a matter for the police to investigate.
Ron Paul is a kook. That’s not something I read on some left-wing blog. It’s what I learned by listening to Ron Paul speak and reading what he’s written. His son is a kook, too.
Prove it, Booman.
In fact, first prove that you have gone to the source(s) of that ideology and have some idea of what they are about.
You say things like “Ron Paul is a kook. That’s not something I read on some left-wing blog. It’s what I learned by listening to Ron Paul speak and reading what he’s written. His son is a kook, too.”
But then you post pictures of him in a Confederate outfit and claim that he is some sort of Objectivist/Ayn Rand secret agent. (Or else why would he never, ever speak much about those ideas or about Ms. Rand?)
You have listened to him speak and read what he has written?
Prove it.
Show me.
I have linked to a number of things that he has said and written that seem to me to throughly disprove your statements …and not linked to other things from him that would prove your point because I simply cannot find them on the internet no matter how assiduously I search…and you have posted your opinions with no backup whatsoever.
Show me.
I’d love to know something that can be proven to be seriously wrong about the man and how he has come to his lifelong set of principles. i really would. You know me. I would change my mind in a NY minute if there was any proof…real proof, not hearsay from bullshit that may or may not have been his responsibility 30+ years ago…of what you are saying.
Lay it on me, baby. Show me, don’t just throw words like “kook” and “racist” around like the usual political confetti.
It’s beneath you.
AG
I already told you. I’m not going to engage you in a debate on the merits of Ron Paul.
If you don’t care about his racist newsletters, that’s your business. If you don’t care about him palling around with hate groups, that’s your business. If you are now a believer in the Austrian School and subjectivism, that’s great but I don’t care. If you’re afraid of the NAFTA Superhighway, that’s not my problem.
Ron Paul is right about a few things. So what?
I guess you’re not. Not with any hard-and-fast, well-backed up facts, anyway. So when I post some more things about Paul and you answer with terse little accusations of who he “pals around with,” I’ll just pay no more attention to them. And I’ll try not to point out the scum that Barack Obama “pals around with” while I am at it.
Oh.
Well.
Maybe just this once.
By degree of guilt? These four monsters have more blood on their hands than all the small-time southern racists who ever walked the face of the earth.
But then…I guess it’s OK because Obama has “responsibilities,” right?
Get real.
They’re both politicians.
Obama’s just been more successful.
So far.
We shall see what lies down the road, Booman.
Your continuing support of this “smooth Harvard lawyer with impeccable credentials and vacuous-to-repressive neoliberal politics” is going to come back and bite you right on the ass eventually. I hope that it’s sooner rather than later because by the time later comes around he will have sold us all down the river of surveillance state “neoliberalism.”
Bet on that as well.
I am.
AG
That is so unbelievably stupid I can’t believe even you would write it.
You’re posting pictures of Barack Obama meeting foreign leaders as part of his official duties, and that’s the equivalent of sending our racist newsletters?
Let me explain something to you, Arthur: the stink of racism that comes from sending out racist propaganda under you own name for years on end isn’t “guilt by association.” It’s “guilt by guilt.” He actually did that, himself. He wasn’t in the room with people who did that. He didn’t meet with people who did that. He did that. Himself.
Wake up.
Bet on it.
The guy’s a racist POS.
I think that the only thing we have established by AG’s support of Ron Paul is this:
no uterus
That bit tends to be a showstopper with a lot of the folks who have one.
the problem with the Pauls is not some of the policies they espouse, like stopping the war on drugs, eliminating the Fed, and stopping all the wars.
it’s the Pauls themselves, they are right about a few things, but are unelectable because they are not sane, even by repug standards!
so sad that only he has the balls to suggest changes big enough to actually affect something…
the others’ policies are like yesterday’s pizza!
Exactly. It’s the Paul’s themselves. Well, actually, it’s the Paul’s themselves, knowing who they are, and then hearing some of the policies they support. Ron Paul is a Pat Buchanan paleoconservative. I don’t know why AG can’t accept that RP is nothing but a paleocon; he fits their agenda far more perfectly than the libertarian one.
As I said before, if it came down to Gary Johnson and Obama, I would have to think very hard about who I would be voting for. Gary Johnson, who would almost surely tear the system down and cause a shit ton of chaos…but would also actually try to tear down the MIC and restore civil liberties…or some more trimming around the edges with Obama? It’d be a hard choice.
GJ and RP might espouse similar views on a lot of things, but they’re still very very different in both policies, and who they are as people.