Tag: polls

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

It takes three polls to tell us what many of us already knew without being told.

Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high.

Among political independents – a prime target of Obama’s new outreach – 78 percent see the country as off-kilter. The percentage saying so in January 2009 was 79 percent. Pessimism was even higher among independents – and everyone else – during the depth of the financial crisis in late 2008. But for Obama, things are back to square one.

The debt-limit showdown and the stalled economy have tarnished President Barack Obama’s standing with voters and dampened their optimism about America’s future, with nearly three out of four voters now saying the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll.

snip

Capturing a rapid erosion of confidence through the summer months, the poll found 72 percent of voters believe the country is either strongly or somewhat headed in the wrong direction, a jump of 12 percentage points since May. Only 20 percent of voters say the country is going in the right direction, a 12-point drop in the same period.

In trying to get one-time Obama supporters to volunteer for the November election, I often hear this refrain: “The Democrats have sold us out. I’m tired of their spinelessness, their subservience to corporate interests. I’m staying home to teach them a lesson.”  Not everyone responds this way, but enough do to make me worry, because if these people don’t show up and work to get others to vote, it could make the difference in race after neck-and-neck race, as a similar withdrawal of Democratic volunteers and voters did in 1994. As I’ve written, we either get past our broken hearts  to help elect the best possible candidates between now and November, or cede even more power to the most destructive interests in America.  

The Ryan Budget’s Radical Priorities

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

By Paul N. Van de Water — July 7, 2010

I. Summary

The Roadmap for America’s Future, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) – the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee – released in late January, calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.[1]

The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, costly tax cuts by reducing income tax rates on high-income households;

eliminating income taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest;

and abolishing the corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the alternative minimum tax.

At the same time, the Ryan plan would raise taxes for most middle-income families,

privatize a substantial portion of Social Security,

eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance,

end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid,

and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

It is said, as individuals, we can achieve all we conceive, if only we truly believe.  President Barack Obama once knew this.  He lived this veracity.  Indeed, candidate Obama’s audacity and accomplishments gave Americans hope.  When Barack Obama reached for the sky he realized what no one thought he could. The electorate was energized.  People came to expect the country was in for a change.   Now, it seems Mister Obama is bogged down by what Eisenhower understood, concerns of the Military Industrial Complex.  

The intricacy of the Armed Forces mission does not confine itself to forceful martial escalation.  Nothing escapes the wide reach of combative nation building.  Lives are lost.  Limbs crushed.  With bullets ablaze, brains are battered or blown to smithereens.  Hope suffers.  Hearts are hurt.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Under the spreading chestnut tree

I sold you and you sold me

– George Orwell, 1984

     Funny thing is, I don’t remember the part where I sold anyone.

    Okay, so the White House is circulating an upbeat polling memo citing a bunch of public surveys showing that public opinion still tilts heavily in Obama’s favor on health care.

    The memo, by Obama pollster Joel Benenson, doesn’t mention the public option (the White House may not be committed to it) and largely cites general numbers showing support for action and for Obama’s plan.

    But here’s the funny thing: We went back and checked, and virtually every poll cited in this memo also found strong support for the inclusion of a public plan.

By Greg Sargent

theplumline.com

    More analysis and my own take on things below the fold.

It is NOT a Center-Right Country!

We may have a Center-Right Media.

We may have a Center-Right Punditry-ville.

But our Country, and the majority of the American People in our “Two America’s” are NOW decidedly a deeper shade of Blue!

Larger Map

Source: NYTimes

Tide of the Country has shifted … Dramatically!

I really needed this!!

I believe I just hit on our next Texas Common Sense put to Good Writing and Humor, though my guess is he’s been around for a while, and that would be one John Kelso.

“Americans strongly oppose giving the president more power at the expense of Congress or the courts, even to enhance national security or the economy,”according the Associated Press-National Constitution Center poll.

“There is clearly a concern about executive power and the balance of power that comes out in a couple of different ways,” said Joseph Torsella, president of the Philadelphia-based organization. The nonpartisan center is dedicated to educating the public about the Constitution.

Many people say that talking about Sarah Palin is a waste of time, a distraction.  I strongly deisagree.  The Republicans have used Palin, successfully I might add, to distract the public from 1) the lack of excitement of candidate McCain, 2) the paucity of any new ideas or issues from the Republicans, and 3) the wholesale boiler-plate duplication of Bush-NeoCon failed policies.  

But Palin aspires to be one heartbeat away from becoming the most powerful person on the planet.  A full examination of who she is, what she thinks, believes and does is in no way a distraction.  It is imperative to study, research, discuss and ask hard questions about her qualifications for the position.  We must not be sidetracked from fully vetting Palin in a manner the McCain camp did not.   And we must not be turned away from this pursuit by attacks that our examinations are sexist.  

Mr. Obama:

  As one of the relatively few people in this country who saw through your act early on, and for the right reasons, let me first say how utterly ashamed I am to call myself a registered Democrat.  You are a disgrace not only to the party at large, but to the thousands — perhaps, dare I say — even millions of Americans who were and remain so desperate for someone to come and rescue our once-great nation from the fascists that they placed their hope and faith in you.  Hang your head in shame, and then look me straight in the eye and don’t turn away until I’m done.

  According to an article in New York Magazine, the electorate has had about enough of you.  A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has you running in a statistical dead heat with Republican John McCain, FiveThirtyEight.com’s poll doesn’t look good for your chances either, and Zogby has your GOP counterpart five points ahead.  Are you trying to blow this election for us?!?  Because it sure as hell seems as though you are.

  The NY Magazine article gives several reasons for your pathetic performance thus far, but it left out the most obvious: not only your consistent refusal to fight back against the smears of the far right and its tired old champion for this election cycle, but, most importantly, your deliberate alienation of your own political party’s base.  Time and again, you have demonstrated that you do not represent Americans on any issue of importance, and voters realize this.  Long before you secured the Democratic Party nomination to be the ringer candidate against the election sham’s already-chosen victor, you were taking positions including (but in no way limited to):

• Your vile “Harry and Louise” attack mailers, which used the same right-wing talking points against Hillary Clinton’s health care proposals that were used to great success in the 1990s,
• Your purging – quickly followed by a reinstatement after the inevitable uproar from outraged supporters – of roughly nine hundred anti-war delegates from California, probably out of fear that they would defect over to the Clinton camp once they caught wind of your impending flip-flop regarding a pullout from Iraq,
• Your regular, condescending, talking down to Blacks in speeches,
• Your praise of the traitor Ronald Reagan,
• Your betrayal during the FISA battle,
• Your allegedly telling the Canadian government that your initial apparent criticism of NAFTA was “just campaign rhetoric,” which was quickly buried thanks in large part to a denial by Canada that you had said any such thing,
• Your provocative and unnecessary pandering to Israel’s fascist government over the topic of Jerusalem, and
• Your embrace of the horrendous Friedman school of economic policy.

  That’s just off the top of my head, nor is it the most worrisome reason for your refusal to campaign like someone who wants to win.  I have a friend named Dave who has worked on numerous Democratic political campaigns, including yours.  He is witness to the stupid things you’ve got your people in critical states such as Ohio doing, such as:

• Failing to even install a working telephone system in your Lakewood, Ohio, campaign office,
• Sending your people out to register voters — REPUBLICAN-leaning ones at that — whom you MUST know will NEVER vote for you, and
• Deliberately avoiding mentioning that it was under the presidency of Bill Clinton that average American incomes were higher, while it was under the shrub that those same incomes fell.

  This isn’t rocket science, Obama; it’s politics.  You’ve been in the proverbial game long enough to know this.  You seem hellbent on losing this election, and you need to explain why to those who placed their faith and hopes in you before you dash them just a little over two months from now.  It’s that, or pull your head out of your rear orifice and start trying to win this thing.  This race has never been, nor shall it ever be, about you; it’s about this country and the people in it, and turning back from the precipice of fascist empire your predecessors have brought us all to.

  That’s all I have to say to you, Obama.  You have your choice to make, though I am certain you made it long ago.  Just know this: no matter what happens in November, you’ll still be comfortably employed, while the rest of us will have to continue suffering the conservative policies you support.

Sincerely,

Archangel M

Thanks to Dennis Kucinich and his submission of 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush, impeachment talk is once again in the air!

Although, there are not many polling companies who have asked the question, “Should George W. Bush be impeached?”, there have been a few. And, it’s time to catalog those in one place and take a close look at what they tell us.

With impeachment diaries once again popping up and heated discussions on whether or not impeachment is warranted, popular or stands a chance of succeeding, are regular topics again. And many in the blogisphere seem to have some misconceptions. I’m going to focus on public perception here.

Here’s what we know…