Month: November 2009

Barack Obama Falls Below 50 Percent In Polls For First Time

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President Obama, after ten months in office, has fallen below 50 percent in the polls for the first time, with the average being 47 or 48 percent depending on the poll utilized.

Is this a problem for the President? It could be with the controversy over health care, the economy, and the imminent speech next Tuesday on Afghanistan.

However, the fact that Obama is below 50 percent should not be in itself alarming, as it is not unusual for any President to have ups and downs in polls, and a similar situation occurred to President Ronald Reagan after ten months, and yet three years later, he won by a landslide.

As Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia has pointed out, going by polls three years out,  Nixon would have lost in 1972; Carter would have won in 1980;  and George H. W. Bush would have won easily in 1992!

Sarah Palin And Michele Bachmann To Speak At Tea Party Convention

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The two leading conservative women in the Republican Party, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, will be the leading speakers at the first National Tea Party Convention to be held in Nashville in February.

The Tea Party movement is a rebellion of people who are appealed to by the far right, and it represents the disintegration of America going on in the heartland of this nation.

Claiming to be religious and patriotic, this movement has promoted racism, anti semitism, anti immigrant views, and has encouraged fear and hysteria in people who are easily manipulated and very gullible, that somehow there are simple answers to everything, and that Barack Obama is the enemy, rather than the right wing influences under George W. Bush that actually caused the economic and social mess we are now in .

Just cut taxes, fight health care reform, promote religion and the military, and the country will be saved from imminent disaster, according to the ideologues who have organized this movement.

The one thing this convention will do is draw more attention to the two conservative women heroines, both of whom lack credibility, but to believe that either or both have any clue as to what needs to be done to restore America, one has to be deranged! 🙂

The First White House State Dinner: India And The United States

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President Obama is hosting Indian Prime Minister Singh and his wife at the first White House State Dinner of his Presidency tonight.

It is appropriate that our government is hosting the leader of the largest democracy in the world, a country that is part of the War on Terror, and has suffered from terrorist attacks on a regular basis, including last year’s tragic events in Mumbai.

Despite the many problems India has had since its independence in 1947, it is certainly a model of what we would love to see occurring elsewhere in the world: a move away from dictatorship and demagoguery so common in the so called Third World nations.

India has come a long way, and is now seen as one of the growth nations which will have a great impact on the future of the 21st century.

So promoting closer ties is very important, a complete reversal from what happened during the war of India and Bangladesh against Pakistan in 1971, when the Nixon Administration regrettably backed Pakistan, a move detrimental to close Indian-US relations for a generation.

Now the future of Indian-US diplomacy looks assured, thanks to the efforts of President Obama!

The Magic Number For The House Of Representatives: 41 in 2010?

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Now that the off year elections are over, the attention turns to the midterm elections, taking place at the beginning of November 2010.

The question that arises is whether or not it is possible for the Republicans to gain the magic number of 41 seats, which would give them control of the House of Representatives. This would be a reprise of 1994, when the GOP gained control of both houses of Congress after two years of Bill Clinton.

Experts say this is highly unlikely, although it is assumed that the Republicans will gain seats, a normal development in a midterm election for the party not in the White House.

Polls indicate that voters still prefer a Democratic Congress by a six point margin, but of course this is subject to change based on the success or lack of it of the health care legislation, the economic recovery if there is one, and the trials and tribulations of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are always unknown factors that can influence an election, and of course, the individual candidates across the country can have a major impact on the final results.

What is certainly clear is that the Republicans cannot win the Senate, and the possibility exists that the Democrats could actually gain seats, with the retirement of several GOP senators.

One thing is certain: The next year politically will NOT be dull!

Barack Obama Emphasizes Importance Of Math And Science

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President Obama is promoting initiatives to emphasize the need for America to educate its students in the crucial fields of math and science.

In comments today, the President said we need to improve our inferior world position on student achievement in math and science.

Obama’s visit to South Korea convinced him of the need to emphasize American excellence in both fields, and he said that hearing that South Korean parents demanded that their children work hard to accomplish good results was a good model for what American parents and educators should expect from our students.

Part of the new strategy is to promote excellence being rewarded by White House attention on the level of sports and entertainment, through the promotion of an annual Science Fair. Also, utilization of PBS’s Sesame Street to reach children at a young age is part of the plan.

Obama’s push to promote science and math education is to be applauded, and could really make a difference in the level of excellence in American education. Whatever resources can be utilized need to be employed in the accomplishment of these goals!

Competing Jobs Summits: Barack Obama And Newt Gingrich

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President Obama is holding a Jobs Summit, with representatives of business, labor, and academia next month, but will be upstaged to some extent by Jobs Summits being held in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jackson, Mississippi, a day earlier and the same day as the White House Summit.

The promoter of these competing Jobs Summits is none other than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also flirting with a Presidential candidacy in 2012. Gingrich is trying to offer an alternative to the administration’s plans, which he calls inadequate and wrong headed.

Gingrich also has plans to hold additional summits next year as the political heat rises for the midterm election. This is just another indication of the rapidly accelerating presidential race in the Republican party, as numerous candidates make their case, and even talk show hosts get into the fray! 🙂

Rick Santorum Flirts With A Presidential Run

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Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who lost his reelection race to Bob Casey by 18 points in 2006, is visiting Iowa, Michigan, and South Carolina as he flirts with a 2012 Presidential run.

A very conservative senator, who was vehemently pro life and anti gay rights in his years in the Senate, Santorum was thought to be a possible candidate in 2008 until he lost his Senate seat after 12 years, capped by a statement that if gay marriage came about, the next thing would be that a man would marry his dog–that bestiality would become legal.

Making such a statement made him look ridiculous and also quite nutty, and Pennsylvania gave him a walloping defeat, but apparently his ego is such that he thinks the country needs him, so he will join a long list of potential nominees, certainly making the 2012 race ever more interesting!

Oh No! Is This For Real? Lou Dobbs For President?

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On top of Glenn Beck exploring organizing for political action in 2010 and 2012, interpreted by many as considering running for President himself, now we have a much more bold move by Lou Dobbs, late of CNN!

Dobbs told two talk show hosts, including former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, himself a presidential possibility in 2008, that he is considering a Presidential candidacy!

Imagine this: Now two talk show hosts, both extremely divisive and confrontational in tone, are flirting with a Presidential campaign! Have we gone totally bonkers when talk shows hosts who have no desire but to feed their own ego, and who have less government experience than Sarah Palin, are moving toward involvement in the next Presidential election?

Can one imagine Lou Dobbs making illegal immigration the center of his campaign, and Glenn Beck exploiting the insecurities of his listeners, competing for votes? They would have to attack each other, as well as promote demagoguery on a massive scale.

Is this what America has come to, that it leans on ideological talk show hosts who are out to enrich themselves, as serious presidential possibilities? This potential will make the election campaign of 2012 even more weird than having Sarah Palin considering a run. It is absolutely amazing what the “land of opportunity” that is the United States has become!

Congressman David Obey, Afghanistan And Domestic Reform

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Long time Wisconsin Democratic Congressman David Obey, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has called upon the President to ask for a war surtax if he intends to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

His argument is that the Afghan War will cost $40 billion more per year if we send 40,000 more troops there, which is the proposal of General Stanley McChrystal being considered by President Obama. Obey says we cannot afford that cost, and that it will destroy the entire domestic reform agenda of the President, as we cannot sustain escalating the war and also pursue domestic change.

So Obey suggests that it is time for us to pay for an escalation of the war by taxing the American people, instead of just the troops sacrificing their lives, and taxpayers not having the responsibility as in past wars to pay taxes as their sacrifice for the war.

I think David Obey is absolutely correct in his statements. If we as a people are for this war, then let’s pay the taxes for it, instead of just waving the flag but otherwise making no sacrifice for the war we supposedly believe in.

Of course, a better answer is get out of this war and promote the domestic agenda. Isn’t it interesting how Republicans have no issue with spending for the war, but tell us we cannot afford a domestic reform agenda? However, is this really new, or just the old GOP hypocrisy about government spending?

Let’s remember that most of our national debt is due to militarism and war, not domestic reform, and that most of the national debt occurred under Presidents Reagan and Bush II. And yet the GOP has the gall to claim that the Democrats are the big spenders!

Glenn Beck: Political Activist Or More?

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Fox News Channel talk show host Glenn Beck is expanding his activism beyond his talk show and radio show in a way that makes one wonder if he is considering direct involvement in the politics of 2012.

He had his first public gathering north of Orlando, and is set to promote seven conventions of supporters across the country, including voter registration drives, over the next year, designed to influence the midterm elections of 2010.

Is his purpose to sell books and himself, or possibly to promote his own advancement in politics? This is uncertain, but it is also leading to other conservative activists, including Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity to stir activism by their followers as well.

Whether this involvement by talk show hosts will influence the Republican party, or even lead to direct political participation of media people in politics will be one of the fascinating developments of this next political year.