The Morning Plum
* New CNN poll: Obama’s approval is at 54%, roughly the percentage he won a year ago, but in the same period he’s dropped among conservatives by 10 points.
* Another tidbit from CNN: “The survey also suggests that by 24 points, Americans think that Joe Biden is a better vice president than Dick Cheney.” Quick, let’s give Cheney lots more airtime to try to salvage his legacy by defending policies that no longer exist!
* Americans United for Change goes big picture with a new spot in D.C. that likens health care reform to great progressive achievements like Social Security, child labor laws, and the national parks, calling on lawmakers to “be on the right side of history”:
The main obstacles to getting the reform bill passed, of course, are centrist Dems whose concerns are rather parochial and self-interested, so it’s unclear whether the weight of history will prove all that persuasive to them.
* If there’s anyone well positioned to play the role of historical scold, it’s Obama. Maybe he’ll do that today in his scheduled meeting with Senator Blanche Lincoln.
* Adam Nagourney: Don’t buy the spin that a victory for Doug Hoffman in New York’s 23rd will prove that Sarah Palin’s populist conservatism is the GOP’s ticket out of the wilderness.
* Conservative activists haven’t gotten that memo, dream of a dozen more challenges.
* Nagourney also notes that today’s electoral results will “produce a wave of `Obama is in trouble’ commentary that, justified or not, will hinder the president’s stature.” Right, but shouldn’t we try to determine whether this reading is “justified or not”?
* NRCC’s version: The real lesson of NY-23 is that independents are moving right.
* Senator Roland Burris continues to play public option hero. To our knowledge, Burris is the only Dem Senator who has ruled out voting for a bill without a strong public plan.
* Is it back to earth for Obama on foreign policy?
* Here’s this morning’s installment in the Michele Bachmann chronicles.
What else is going on?
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I’m really curious about how the tea baggers will proceed, especially if they win the NY-23 race.
They may want to start challanging GOPers all around the country, but I wonder if they have enough financial backing and organization to handle so many races. Keep in mind that Hoffman got 95% of his funding from outside his district. If they run 30+ tea baggers…it’s going to be tough to fund them all that way. And I’m not sure there are enough of them to full organize “dozens” of campaigns all over the country.
BBQ — one related question is whether a NY-23 victory really gets conservative fundraising flowing in a big way, potentially providing resources for more such challenges.
Going by the money raised by you lie joe wilson, I would say the affected parties (corrupt corporates, wall street gangstas, insurance leeches) will do anything to take down this Prez.
However, Burris has NOT said that he will join the GOP and filibuster the bill like LIEberman has.
Greg — Do you think this is a possibility though? I mean, the left does the same thing for grassroots funding (Act Blue comes to mind), but they seem to have a bigger, and more organized pool to fundraise from. I’ve also never see a progressive grassroots candidate get 95% of their funds from outside the district they are trying to win. That’s no sustainable over “dozens” of races.
But I will admit a reall excitement over one thing though. The NY-23 race was a moderate GOPer and a Blue Dog, until Hoffman came around. The left’s grassroots didn’t care about this race, and in fact relished in it because of the coming GOP civil war. However, now I”m really curious about…Florida.
If the tea baggers successfully take out Crist, you better believe the grassroots will rally around Meeks to try and keep Rubio out of the Senate. While I don’t think Meeks is a very good candidate in general, it would be a heck of a show to see a tea baggers vs. progressives battle royale.
Mark Ambinder on the long game… http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/11/the_white_house_let_conservatives_win_for_now.php
Goodmorning all.
Don’t like the ad. No ad about health care reform should start off that ominiously at this point. I have no idea what the hell they were thinking but I hope it doesn’t air anywhere.
Also Greg, Steve Benen has a post up saying that Lieberman has promised to vote for cloture to end debate privately with Harry Reid and that he was just saying all this stuff for show. Can you take a look and see how likely that is? I doubt if Reid has it locked down like that but it would be nice if it were so.
DIA at The Economist puts some questions to Froomkin. Here’s one (h/t Andrew Sullivan)…
DIA: Do you think the media should strive for objectivity in its reporting?
Mr Froomkin: No. Journalists should strive for accuracy, and fairness. Objectivity is impossible, and is too often confused with balance. And the problem with balance is that we are not living in a balanced time. For instance, is it patently obvious that at this point in our history, the leading luminaries on one side of the American political spectrum are considerably less tethered to reality than those on the other side. Madly trying to split the difference, as so many of my mainstream-media colleagues feel impelled to do, does a disservice to the concept of the truth.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/10/seven_questions_for_dan_froomk.cfm
Greg, Since reid seems nonchalant about joe lieberman filibuster, any possibility that he has lined up some repub like snowe, collins or voinovich ?
The guest list for Thursday’s rally is really impressive, and now Beck, Rush and Hannity are also promoting it. I hope it flops, not because I don’t believe in the right to protest, but these people need to know their power is limited. This is from Rep. King. Yesterday, Hoffman was on the air with Beck, anyone catch that? Seems he considers Beck his mentor and will definitely keep in touch.
“On that day, we will have with us Jon Voight, the actor is coming in. And he’s more than an actor if you’ve seen him in the media. Mark Levin will also be here, Dr. Betsy McCaughey who has written much about this national health care in the Wall Street Journal. Tony Perkins, there will be others, but those I can announce will be here. Michele Bachmann will be here, I will be here, Tom Price, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee will be here, and we’re calling upon the American people, come defend you’re freedom.”
Aaaaaaand it’s POLL TIME!
(While we wait for the election returns)
http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/healthplan.php
Your Socialist Utopiacare looks…okay, except among Likely and Registered Voters.
Whom do you think Congressmen are going to cater to?
The guy who is registered and has voted in off-years before, or the guy who sits on his couch and whines about how bad things are?
I wonder were Americans sick and tired of conservatism when they lost big in mid terms. Was it a rejection of conservative principles?
Maybe it was because he wasn’t conservative enough!
That would be Reagan’s conservatism.
Imsinca @ 9:15: Oh what a lineup. Wonder if Pat Boone was busy? /barf
Here’s a big one that’s over at TP.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has reportedly reached a “private understanding” with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) that would ensure the Connecticut senator does not block a final vote on health care reform. “Lieberman keeps assuring Reid that he’s OK,” said one source. “But he’s one of those characters — you never know with Joe.”
Mr. Sargent:
“* New CNN poll: Obama’s approval is at 54%, roughly the percentage he won a year ago, but in the same period he’s dropped among conservatives by 10 points.”
Details…details…
“The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted October 30 through November 1, with 1,018 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.”
So he could be as low as a 51% approval ratings…among “adult Americans”.
Rasmussen, which polls likely voters, finds him at 46& approval with a 52% disapproval:
“Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove. It’s sometimes easy to get caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations of the tracking poll and miss the longer-term trend. Rasmussen Reports also compiles the data on a month-by-month basis which shows that the President’s ratings slipped a bit in October after stabilizing in September.”
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
When you remove the illegal immigrants and convicts,(they’re “adults” and they’re in America, too), the numbers don’t look so good.
But spin it some more. These moonbats are going to be hungry for good news!
“Going by the money raised by you lie joe wilson, I would say the affected parties (corrupt corporates, wall street gangstas, insurance leeches) will do anything to take down this Prez”
Good call.
Imsinca beat me to that lineup for Saturday – wow. Tony Perkins and Betsy the Wetsy liar.
“So he could be as low as a 51% approval ratings…among “adult Americans”.”
Or, he could be as high at 57%. Party time! /highfive
“Or, he could be as high at 57%. Party time! /highfive”
Woohoo!
Hey Bernie – from your link: “The White House is playing it cool”
Yeah, what else is new? I wish someone somewhere would get used to the way Obama operates.
Really.
sg — will check that out, thx.
amk, my understanding is they don’t think any Repubs are on board, period. could be wrong.
Bernie, thx for that Ambinder link. He seems to be pretty wired in.
mike – “I wonder were Americans sick and tired of conservatism when they lost big in mid terms. Was it a rejection of conservative principles?”
In the first place, mike, not that many AMericans ever were on board with the conservative movement.
Bush never did clearly win an election – it was always iffy because he didn’t get enough popular votes the first time and the second time – well – something happened at 9 PM Central Standard time in Ohio.
We are not a conservative nation.
Tena, you should relay that to Ariana Huffington. That lady
`–
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Doh, was shaking stuff outta keyboard and musta hit enter.
“Tena, you should relay that to Ariana Huffington. That lady”
I saw her headline this morning – do not get me started on Ariana. Something has totally gone to her head and made her think she’s some kind of mover and shaker or something – whatever it is, she’s gone over the edge.
Froomkin sure laid out the distinction that most journalists don’t get – the distinction between being accurate and fair vs. balanced (whatever that is). He said that about as well as I have ever seen it said.
Tena, I guess I was just making a silly statement in the hopes that bildge would answer. Many are coming to some false conclusion everything is a referendum on Obama’s radical ideas.
I don’t think the congress during Reagan’s first mid-term was a direct reflection of a rejection of him.
American’s are fickle. They forget quickly. They are also very impatient. Many throw reason and reflection out the door in exchange for faith in something that may or may not even make logical sense. Sorry if I offend some of you but that’s my observation and this is why I feel many incumbents are in so much trouble right now.
At least most of the HP commenters I read don’t agree with ariana.
Tena, I read Ariana’s article this morning, and I’m afraid I agree with most of it. Obama has gone from “Yes we can” to “Gee, we tried” in a few short months, and he’s become the flip-flopper in chief. Color me disappointed.
Yes, Ariana is often over the top, and I rarely read HuffPo because it’s mostly an electronic supermarket tabloid, but in this case she nailed it. IMHO.
via Al Giordano – Obama sends his big gun, Hilda Solis, to Honduras to keep a watch on that right wing coup regime.
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3577/big-gun-us-labor-secretary-hilda-solis-heads-honduras-tuesday
These are the things that this prez does quitely under the radar.
“At least most of the HP commenters I read don’t agree with ariana.”
Depends on who it is and that’s why I don’t read some people who post there any more – like Robert Reich, who seems to like Obama about as much as Newt Gingrich does.
There are some great writers posting there- Bob Cesca is a fave and Steve Webber is funny as hell, too.
“These are the things that this prez does quitely under the radar.”
He is damn smart doing things this way. Keep the GOP occupied with shiny objects and quietly start undoing some of the damage.
I don’t know who it is who is the photo – op hogging egomaniac the trolls talk about but it ain’t Obama. Despite overusage, the fact is that he IS no drama Obama and that is going over very well with people I know, which doesn’t mean a thing overall, just an observation.
in business – he likes to keep things under the radar until it’s too late – it’s a great way to keep your enemies from throwing obstructions in your way.
The whole first part of my last sentence disappeared – my keyboard is not working right, either. My delete key stuck. Maybe it’s the start of the Great Keyboard Rebellion -
“In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010.
Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others.
But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and helped Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman surge into the lead on the eve of Election Day, has generated more money and enthusiasm than organizers ever imagined.
Activists predict a wave that could roll from California to Kentucky to New Hampshire and that could leave even some GOP incumbents — Utah Sen. Bob Bennett is one — facing unexpectedly fierce challenges from their right flank.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091103/pl_politico/29057
The fun part begins.
“Obama has gone from “Yes we can” to “Gee, we tried” in a few short months, and he’s become the flip-flopper in chief. Color me disappointed.”
Talk about Americans and short memories –
Yeah, things around here are sux0r, just like 2003.
SMH
The survey also suggests that by 24 points, Americans think that Joe Biden is a better vice president than Dick Cheney.”
A dead dog would have been a better vice president than Dick Cheney.
Reid’s office and Lieberman’s office strongly deny Hill report on filibuster
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/reid-lieberman-offices-both-deny-report-of-an-understanding-on-filibuster/
Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes … former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut….
That goes directly to the Boston Globe article I linked to yesterday evening.
That CNN poll?
“The survey suggests that the president’s approval rating remains over 50 percent even though most Americans disapprove of how Obama is handling the economy, health care, Afghanistan, Iraq, unemployment, illegal immigration and the federal budget deficit.”
“The survey suggests that the president’s approval rating remains over 50 percent even though most Americans disapprove of how Obama is handling the economy, health care, Afghanistan, Iraq, unemployment, illegal immigration and the federal budget deficit.”
Reminds me of how consistently Americans opposed Ronald Reagan’s policies while happily approving of him.
“Reminds me of how consistently Americans opposed Ronald Reagan’s policies while happily approving of him.”
Yes, they like the person? In Obama’s case I think it is less, though, about personality and more about symbolism.