The number of likely voters who approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President is at 45 percent. (Note: other pollsters poll “Adults” instead of likely voters. Polling adults inflates President Obama’s approval rating.)
The President’s continued pushing of a politically lethal health care plan is to blame. But the three horsemen of the Democratic Party’s Apocalypse: Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Waxman and President Obama keep on riding the Death Horse.
As the Wall Street Journal put it today: “‘What we’re seeing now, both in terms of numbers and the feel out there, this is how big waves feel early on,” said Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report.”
Here is a great political summary of the post-summer vaca world the Dems find themselves in, written in the New York Times, by David Brooks, and I strongly encourage everyone to read the entire column, not just the excerpts below:
All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but in the history of polling, no newly elected American president has fallen this far this fast. Anxiety is now pervasive. Trust in government rose when Obama took office. It has fallen back to historic lows. Fifty-nine percent of Americans now think the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The public’s view of Congress, which ticked upward for a time, has plummeted. Charlie Cook, who knows as much about Congressional elections as anyone in the country, wrote recently that Democratic fortunes have “slipped completely out of control.” He and the experts he surveyed believe there is just as much chance that the Democrats could lose more than 20 House seats in the next elections as less than 20.
There are also warning signs in the Senate. A recent poll shows Harry Reid, the majority leader, trailing the Republican Danny Tarkanian, a possible 2010 opponent, by 49 percent to 38 percent. When your majority leader is down to a 38 percent base in his home state, that’s not good.
The public has soured on Obama’s policy proposals. Voters often have only a fuzzy sense of what each individual proposal actually does, but more and more have a growing conviction that if the president is proposing it, it must involve big spending, big government and a fundamental departure from the traditional American approach.
Brook’s then talks specifically about health reform:
Amazingly, some liberals are now lashing out at Obama because the entire country doesn’t agree with The Huffington Post. Some now argue that the administration should just ignore the ignorant masses and ram health care through using reconciliation, the legislative maneuver that would reduce the need for moderate votes.
This would be suicidal. You can’t pass the most important domestic reform in a generation when the majority of voters think you are on the wrong path. To do so would be a sign of unmitigated arrogance. If Obama agrees to use reconciliation, he will permanently affix himself to the liberal wing of his party and permanently alienate independents. He will be president of 35 percent of the country — and good luck getting anything done after that.
Perhaps, and only perhaps, because it is written in the New York Times, the Democrats will listen. (This analysis posted yesterday, tracks Brook’s conclusion nicely.)
The first sign that the Dems are listening will be that the House leadership announces they are going to wait until the U.S. Senate passes health care reform before the House votes on it. This means the Carville strategy of killing health care in the U.S. Senate and “blaming” the Republicans for the failure of health reform is being pursued.
Given the political collapse of President Obama’s standing with the American public, the “blaming” part of the Carville strategy seems out of touch. Cheering and high-fiving would likely be the public’s reaction.
bs
Caleb Howe
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Vladimir
Mark Impomeni
For Once, He's Right
ggross56 Tuesday, September 1st at 11:59AM EDT (link)For Once, He’s Right!!!
Blind Squirrel
PaRep Tuesday, September 1st at 12:25PM EDT (link)Meets Acorn !!
So which one of these two is Brooks?
civil_truth Tuesday, September 1st at 12:40PM EDT (link)Is he the blind squirrel, or is he the acorn?
And Rightly So!
hahahaha
PaRep Tuesday, September 1st at 12:54PM EDT (link)Either one
Except for his last sentence.
Socrates Tuesday, September 1st at 12:29PM EDT (link)“Events have pushed Barack Obama off to the left. Time to rebalance. ”
Obama is to the left of everybody, all the time. Brooks, who admires the cut of the man’s trousers (NTTAWWT), can’t seem to get his head wrapped around that one.
–
Gone 2500 years, still not PC.
He is a Beginner
PaRep Tuesday, September 1st at 12:31PM EDT (link)Give him a Mulligan, He’s New to Reality !!
True (how you been, by the way?).
spainishirish Tuesday, September 1st at 12:36PM EDT (link)I think this is the initial groundwork for “I am shocked, shocked, to learn Mr. Obama really is that far to the left!” It probably won’t work, but what else does Brooks have? Hypnotism?
Can't complain, spainish.
Socrates Tuesday, September 1st at 12:43PM EDT (link)As to how I’ve been, read my diary
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Gone 2500 years, still not PC.
Well done and thoughtful as usual (he said blogging from his office).
spainishirish Tuesday, September 1st at 12:56PM EDT (link)Glad to see you back here.
I’ll end the threadjack and go back to trashing Brooks, something that cuts into my bottom line but acts like a sugar high.
When Brooks Isn't Humping Obama's Leg....
farstar99 Wednesday, September 2nd at 4:47PM EDT (link)he still manages to puke up a lot of words without saying much, doesn’t he?
Alternative headline: Hapless squish eyes exit doors.
spainishirish Tuesday, September 1st at 12:23PM EDT (link)Brooks may have decided it best to jump ship early into the Administration because that will put light between him and his Obama endorsement. Sorry, David, we will remember you. Forever.
It is correct that the public will be angry if they go...
JadedByPolitics Tuesday, September 1st at 12:46PM EDT (link)on reconciliation because those in the middle and just left of center truly believed he would be a post-partisan President and alas he is not only not that he is the biggest leftist to come down the pike. I cannot say it enough his numbers in the 30’s by Christmas. He can hide on vacation but everything that’s been bubbling since the beginning of August will ignite in September. It is going to be a great month!!!!
Whoever has his enemy at his mercy &
does not destroy him is his own enemy
Jaded, are you coming to D.C. next week?
peg_c Tuesday, September 1st at 1:03PM EDT (link)We need to start finding out who among us will be there. I will be! Yes, September will be a GREAT month!
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
Gad, I despise Brooks, do I have to?!?!
peg_c Tuesday, September 1st at 1:01PM EDT (link)Barf bag quick.
You do realize he’s warning them because he’s trying to save their sorry behinds, right? Furthermore, how can Brooks write “If Obama agrees to use reconciliation, he will permanently affix himself to the liberal wing of his party” with a straight face, assuming he did? The guy is an unreconstructed Marxist! Even Brooks, Frum and their clueless brethren surely know this by now. (Some of us knew it 20 months ago which leads us to believe the NYT and others are not paying for brainpower here.)
I just want the Dems to fail spectacularly, abominably, irrevocably. Not just Obama to fail but the entire Party of Death needs to fail for a generation.
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
Thank God people see Obama for what he is!
illinois Tuesday, September 1st at 1:05PM EDT (link)I’m just glad that more and more people see Obama for the marxist left wing extremist he really is. Rev Wright, Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky, etc, etc, etc He is that extreme.
Events have pushed Barack Obama off to the left?!
KeepOhioRed Tuesday, September 1st at 1:11PM EDT (link)EVENTS pushed him left? Who is he kidding!?
Good writing until that very end!
That's True
billyd Tuesday, September 1st at 1:39PM EDT (link)Events did push him to the left. Those events happened some time between birth and his election to public office. As we all know, as soon as he took public office, he’s been farther to the left than anyone out there.
November 2nd 2010. What are you doing today to improve your tomorrow?
Will Obama and Pelosi get even more radical
Scope Tuesday, September 1st at 1:12PM EDT (link)as they see their “signature” policies for Cap and Trade, and Healthcare go down the tubes? Too much is at stake for his complete takeover of the US, and as was said above, they keep riding a “dead horse.” They will make those issues happen no matter what. I have to laugh when I read stories, like the Brooks story, asking them oh so nicely to come closer to the middle. Obama and Pelosi don’t do compromise, especuially when they have something like 44 Czars, and control over every dime in the US.
Ideology vs. Practical Politicking: Which Will NObama & Co. Choose?
Ausonius Tuesday, September 1st at 1:31PM EDT (link)So far it is difficult to glean exactly where they are headed: obviously there are some snuggly-buggly Dems who want to keep their seats and the ideology is secondary.
The One might not see it that way: as the scion of Ayers, Alinsky, and J. Wright, he so far seems arrogant enough that if only the bottom 35% of the country is with him, that will be enough! And so full speed ahead with American Socialism/Communism.
Revolutions never need a majority! Well-organized and fanatical minorities of much less than 35% have been proven in History to be quite capable of dominating a country for decades.
Such minorities, however, used murder and mass violence, which our pacifistic Fearless Leader seems to eschew.
What is truly unsettling, along that same line however, is Fearless Leader’s cuddly relationship with dictators (Castro, Chavez, etc): most recently the support given to the rightly ousted president of Honduras, who was circumventing their Constitution.
Is that an omen that, for NObama the ideologue, he believes the end justifies the means, aka the triumphant Nietzschean Will To Power?
“Whatever it takes!” - Billy Jeff Clinton
Ausonius: 310-395 A.D. Teacher, Poet, Consul, General, Farmer.
Personal Tutor to the future St. Paulinus of Nola and to young Gratian, heir to the throne during the turbulent final years of the Western Roman Empire. When his former student Gratian was assassinated, Ausonius threw up his hands and retired to his farm in Gaul. Rome was captured by barbarians 14 years after his death.
The political damage
Dan Perrin Tuesday, September 1st at 2:01PM EDT (link)caused by Obamacare is so extensive that attempting the cram-down will radically inflame the injuries incurred so far.
It would be like the political version of a suicide bomber.
Unintended Consequences
Technocracy Tuesday, September 1st at 5:33PM EDT (link)If the Democrats did take this option, the outrage should be enough to actually make it possible to repeal an enacted entitlement for the first time ever. Only this one though, mores the pity.
Likely voters vs. adults
Hawkeye Tuesday, September 1st at 4:57PM EDT (link)The likely voter poll results are good news, but…
Why are “likely voters” are more legitimate metric than “adults” is measuring support for a presidents performance? I can understand if one is polling for an election, but why is measuring a president’s performance by polling adults “inflating” his approval by “the people?”
Death of the Democrat Party?
sermonfromthemount Wednesday, September 2nd at 12:16PM EDT (link)There is no question that Obumma and Pelosi are ignorant enough to try to force the Obamacare Disaster and the Cap & Trade idiocy through by any means possible!
AND, if the Blue Dogs chicken out or are bought off, they may get one or both passed!
However, it is beginning to appear certain that if they do, the 2010 election will destroy the Democrat’s ability to exert any influence for a long period thereafter. The voters reaction will be so strong that most, if not all, of the damage done by Obummer will be repealed and the foul stench now enveloping our government will begin to dissipate!!