Why is this man smiling?

[Observer]

Coakley lost.  If she had actually campaigned she would have won.  Voters do not like being taken for granted.

It wasn't just Coakley. It was the Democrat Machine and the arrogance of the White House and the party leadership.

This is the first defeat of many.

[ivanm]

The problem you fail to understand is that the republican party is in its death rattle everywhere except the south.  they may win elections here and there for the next 5 cycles or so, but they have sandbagged themselves against growth by alienating growing populations of people of color and by their unqualified support of deregulation.

Did you know that the number of those below the poverty line in the suburbs grew by 25% between 2000-2008?  This was the largest growth of poverty in the US in that time period (compared to large cities, towns and rural areas).  More and more people are going to come to understand that the only way to get the economy under control is to have strong regulations and strong enforcement of those regulations over businesses.  This would, prevent or diminish, the feedback loops causing bubbles and crashes.

Add to that other things like the cost of healthcare due to continued privatization.  In Aug of 2009 the American Journal of Medicine published a study showing that a little over 62% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were directly related to health issues; between 2001 and 2007 the percentage of bankruptcies attributed to medical problems increased by almost 50%.  These are hard working middle class families who are forced into bankruptcy because of the cost of healthcare.

You do not fix the economic problem by sending the cause, deregulation, into overdrive and you do not fix healthcare costs by maintaining the status quo.  Those are the republicans plans and that is why they lost in 08 and why they will continue to be a minority party.

Are you assuming that the Republicans will not change their policies?

[johnhp]

It wasn't just Coakley. It was the Democrat Machine and the arrogance of the White House and the party leadership.

This is the first defeat of many.

i think there will be a few defeats in the mid term.  However, they will remain in the majority.

[johnhp]

Are you assuming that the Republicans will not change their policies?

Where is there any evidence to suggest they would?  As long as they remain the party that emerged from the battle against segregation -- that is, as long as they remain the party that merged with the Dixiecrats -- i don't see any chance of that happening.

What would they have to do to attract growth populations in the US?  They would have to begin talking about poverty, affirmative action and immigration in positive ways.

[Mornac]

January 25, 2010

Obama's Approval Most Polarized for First-Year President
Shows much greater party differences than approval for any prior first-year president

by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- The 65 percentage-point gap between Democrats' (88%) and Republicans' (23%) average job approval ratings for Barack Obama is easily the largest for any president in his first year in office, greatly exceeding the prior high of 52 points for Bill Clinton.

Overall, Obama averaged 57% job approval among all Americans from his inauguration to the end of his first full year on Jan. 19. He came into office seeking to unite the country, and his initial approval ratings ranked among the best for post-World War II presidents, including an average of 41% approval from Republicans in his first week in office. But he quickly lost most of his Republican support, with his approval rating among Republicans dropping below 30% in mid-February and below 20% in August. Throughout the year, his approval rating among Democrats exceeded 80%, and it showed little decline even as his overall approval rating fell from the mid-60s to roughly 50%.

Thus, the extraordinary level of polarization in Obama's first year in office is a combination of declining support from Republicans coupled with high and sustained approval from Democrats. In fact, his 88% average approval rating from his own party's supporters is exceeded only by George W. Bush's 92% during Bush's first year in office. Obama's 23% approval among supporters of the opposition party matches Bill Clinton's for the lowest for a first-year president. But Clinton was less popular among Democrats than Obama has been to date, making Obama's ratings more polarized.

Obama still has three years left in his first term and possibly seven more as president, so there is much time for the polarization of his approval ratings to subside. However, if the current level of polarization persists through the end of his term, Obama would exceed Bush as the president with the most polarized approval ratings.

Bush's average Republican-Democratic gap for his eight years in office was 61 points. This included the record gap for a single approval rating: 83 points, which occurred twice -- in September 2004 (95% Republican, 12% Democratic) and October 2004 (94% Republican, 11% Democratic).

The political divide in Bush's ratings is to some extent understated, though, given the rally in public support for Bush after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when he received record-high approval ratings. Even with these approval ratings, he averaged a 55-point gap in approval by party during his first term. During his second term, the average party gap in his ratings was 68 points, higher than Obama's to date.

The accompanying graph makes clear how much the level of political polarization has grown in Americans' evaluations of presidents in recent decades. Prior to Ronald Reagan, no president averaged more than a 40-point gap in approval ratings by party during his term; since then, only the elder George Bush has averaged less than a 50-point gap, including Obama's average 65-point gap to date.

Bottom Line

As a candidate and as president, Obama -- like his immediate predecessor, Bush -- sought to bring Americans together after periods of heightened political polarization in the United States. But despite their best intentions and efforts, both men's approval ratings have been characterized by extreme partisanship -- with high and seemingly unwavering approval from their own party's supporters and very little from the opposition party.

The way Americans view presidents has clearly changed in recent decades, perhaps owing to the growth in variety, sources, and even politicization of news on cable television and the Internet, and the continuing popularity of politically oriented talk radio. The outcome is that Americans evaluate their presidents and other political leaders through increasingly thick partisan lenses.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125345/Obama-Approval-Polarized-First-Year-President.aspx

[Mornac]

52% say Obama doesn't deserve reelection
By Michael O'Brien

02/16/10

52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll.

44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority who said they would prefer to elect someone else.

Obama faces a 44-52 deficit among both all Americans and registered voters, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Tuesday. Four percent had no opinion.

The reelection numbers are slightly more sour than Obama's approval ratings, which are basically tied. 49 percent of people told CNN that they approve of the way Obama is handling his job, while 50 percent disapprove.

Still, the 2012 election is still a long way's away, with this fall's midterm elections looming large. Republicans are hoping to make inroads into Congress, while Democrats are hoping to hold onto gains won in the 2006 and 2008 cycles.

Respondents to CNN were split at 46 percent as to whether they preferred a generic Republican or Democratic candidate in this fall's elections.

At least one retiring lawmaker is confident Obama will sail to reelection, with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) predicting Monday the president would win "overwhelmingly" in 2012.

The CNN poll, conducted Feb. 12-15, has a three percent margin of error.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/81213-52-say-obama-doesnt-deserve-reelection-

[ivanm]

i think there will be a few defeats in the mid term.  However, they will remain in the majority.

Will they have enough to prevail over the minority?

[Mornac]

[Pepsi]

every right winger posts rasmussen polls, and only rasmussen polls.   strong approve vs strong disapprove mornac?  lets see a comparable chart for let's say Bush, Reagan?   Can't do it can you - because nobody else polls like this and no one has before.   Its rasmussen's unique poll to make charts that look like there's a precipitous drop in approval - made just for wingnutters

[johnhp]

Pepsi,

Why the complaint?  Mornac, like Rasmussen, is a complete tool.

[Mornac]

Poll: Waning support for Obama on wars
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Public support for President Obama's Afghanistan war policy has plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll and the unauthorized release of classified military documents, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.
Support for Obama's management of the war fell to 36%, down from 48% in a February poll. Now, a record 43% also say it was a mistake to go to war there after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

The decline in support contributed to the lowest approval ratings of Obama's presidency. Amid a lengthy recession, more Americans support his handling of the economy (39%) than the war.

Even Obama's handling of the war in Iraq received record-low approval, despite a drawdown of 90,000 troops and the planned, on-schedule end of U.S. combat operations there this month.

Only 41% of those surveyed Tuesday through Sunday approved of the way Obama is handling his job, his lowest rating in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll since he took office in January 2009. In Gallup's separate daily tracking poll, his approval was at 45% Monday.

The waning support for the Afghanistan war coincides with the deaths of a record 66 U.S. servicemembers in July, up from 60 in June. As the last of 30,000 reinforcements ordered by Obama enter the country, the international military force is encountering heavy Taliban resistance in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.

"It's hard to find any positive news that would boost public opinion," says Richard Eichenberg of Tufts University, who studies presidential polling and foreign policy.

The drop in support also follows the online posting of more than 76,000 documents by WikiLeaks. Two-thirds of those polled said it was wrong for the website to publish the documents.

Obama said Monday that he'll stick to his war plan: training Afghans to provide their own security, then beginning to withdraw troops in July 2011. The poll showed most Americans agree: 57% want a timetable for removing troops, and two-thirds of those say withdrawal should be done gradually.

"We will continue to face huge challenges in Afghanistan," Obama told the Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta. "It's important that the American people know that we are making progress and we are focused on goals that are clear and achievable."

In a CBS interview that aired earlier Monday, Obama said, "If I didn't think that it was important for our national security to finish the job in Afghanistan, then I would pull them out today, because I have to sign letters to these families — families who have lost loved ones."

Obama's address in Georgia was focused on this month's end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq — a commitment Obama made early last year. A force of 50,000 U.S. servicemembers will stay to train Iraqi security forces, conduct counterterrorism missions and protect civilian operations.

"Make no mistake: Our commitment in Iraq is changing, from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats," Obama said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-08-02-afghan-poll_N.htm

[Mornac]

[IM2]

This idiot seems to forget that the people opposed these wars from the very outset when Bush decided to fight them.

[Mornac]

That's why he's smiling??? Strange.

[IM2]

Your ignorance allows you to forget that these are Bushs wars. And like everything else Obama has to clean up his mess.

The reason he's smiling is because you grabbed a picture where he is smiling so that you could try making a point that is non existent.