Of all the major polls, I’ve always consider those from CBS and AP the most skewed to the left.  Well, today, the CBS poll registers a lower approval from the president than does Rasmusen’s survey:

A new CBS poll puts Obama’s approval rating at 44 percent.

Rasmussen has him at 46 percent.

Guess, he didn’t get that expected bump from pushing his health care overhaul through.  Ed Morrissey writes, “Two weeks after finally getting his ObamaCare agenda item signed into law, Barack Obama has reaped the reward of pushing a deeply unpopular bill through Congress.”  The CPAC Blogger of the Year (and all around nice guy) also observes:

. . . this poll surveyed the general adult population, not registered or likely voters, a sample that should have been more sympathetic to Obama.

Two issue approval ratings did get released this morning, and both show even worse approval ratings for Obama on key issues.  He hit a new low on health care, with only 34% approving of his job performance.  Small wonder Obama has taken to campaigning again for health care; he’s getting buried by it.  Obama might do better to change the subject, but the next most pressing issue is another which Americans don’t like the job he’s doing.  He only gets 42% approval on the economy, sinking closer to his all-time low of 41% in January.

Maybe the slight improvement in the employment situation might slightly improve the president’s approval on the economy even though we’re still “8.1 million jobs short of the 138.6 million he promised the American people.”

UPDATE:  Glenn Reynolds offers, “Okay, so my prediction that he’d get a popularity bounce from passing healthcare wasn’t wrong — I just had the directionbackwards . . . .”  I had also expected a bounce. . .

Remember, how, during the eight horrible, no good, very bad years of the George W. Bush Administration, Democrats (and their allies in the MSM) regularly demonized that good man, calling him as a divisive force in American politics.

Well, I’m wondering if during those eight years, that Republican president ever called his critics “troublesome” as the Democratic president called his Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck in an interview with CBS’s “The Early Show” co-anchor Harry Smith:

Asked by Smith whether he’s “aware of the level of enmity that crosses the airwaves and that people have made part of their daily conversation” about him, Mr. Obama replied, “Well — I mean, I think that — when you’ve listened to Rush Limbaugh or Glen (sic) Beck it’s …”

“It’s beyond that,” Smith interjected.

“It’s pretty – apparent,” the president continued, “and — it’s troublesome. . . . “

And I’m wondering if, an interview with then-President Bush, any “reporter” or anchor asked that Republican about the level of enmity that crossed the airwaves and that people had made part of their daily conversation?

Fascinating yet again how the media only discovers “uncivil” political discourse when Democrats are targeted.  Seems Mr. Smith has learned his Democratic talking points well.  Note above Smith’s interjection which helps push that narrative along.

If Obama were indeed the kind of man he portrayed himself to be on the campaign trail, instead of calling Limbaugh troublesome, he’d have responded by saying that we always get this kind of discourse in politics and he’s not going to let it get to him, “My predecessor experienced it as did his.  And I’m not going to let it get to me.  I’m doing my job and have confidence in the American people’s ability to see the decency and good will of my Administration and see for themselves the effectiveness of our policies.”  Or some such.

It’s telling that Obama must regularly attack his critics.  Can’t remember W ever doing that.

California’s last auto plant shuts its doors.

FROM THE COMMENTS:  Sonicfrog says most of the blame lies with the Democratic candidate for Governor of the (once-)Golden State:

This is on AG Jerry Browns’ head. They left as a result of his lawsuits against all the auto manufacturers for emitting pollution and CO2 into the atmosphere. Yes, the lawsuit even included Toyota and Honda, makers of some of the cleanest cars on the planet.

Got an email yesterday from my Congressman, Diana DeGette, imploring me to return my Census form. This is on the same day I returned from the Mountain Lair to find the second Census form delivered to Headquarters. (I had already sumitted my form; more on that in a second.) I called the 800 number and asked, Should I fill out another form? The brain scientist who represents one of the billions of new jobs saved or created replies from the script (paraphrasing):

The Census department has determined that to save millions of dollars, additional forms were sent to addresses of those from whom we’ve not yet heard back [clearly I'm paraphrasing, as this proper grammar would never have been written into the actual script]. If you’ve already submitted your Census form, you needn’t reply again and may discard this additional form.

Fortunately, the rocket surgeon got the irony after I pointed it out. Anyway, yes, I have replied to the Census, and so should you. It is Constitutional…Article 1, Section 2:

Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

My emphasis added…although who knows? Perhaps they had bold back then? Their insistance in knowing your race, however, is pernicious and meddlesome. I followed Mark Kirkorian‘s advice and wrote in “American”. Eat that, CRD!
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Make me fries, Potato Wave:

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, has not been drinking at HQ)

ROFLMAO.  Again, I say… “welcome back to reality, America.”   Your Obama cocaine high is over.

U.S Rep. Bart “Stupak [D-MI] had no events planned over the recess to discuss healthcare.”

(H/t:  Instapundit)

This is devastating news…. for Al Gore.

Barring an about face by nature or adjustments, it appears that for the first time since 2001, Arctic Sea ice will hit the “normal” line as defined by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) for this time of year.

Uh oh.

On the good side of Global Warming, here’s the forecast for Charlotte, NC this week.  Lots of sunny GW coming my way!  Yaaaay!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Wow.  This is rich.

“In one of the first television interviews of her 2010 campaign,” California’s outgoing junior Senator says, “These are tough times we’re going through in American and California and I’m not going to sugar-coat that…Because people are grumpy and they have a right to be grumpy“.

And the times sure got tougher since your party took charge in Washington, with the state losing 700,000 jobs in the past year alone.  Now, one in eight California is out of work–after Boxer promised 400,000 new jobs if Congress passed the president’s “so-called stimulus.”

And maybe, Ma’am, you’d be less grumpy if instead of trying to fit reality into your imaginary world drawn from Democratic talking points, you tried to face reality and adopt policies to meet it.  But, instead on she spins about how Democratic policies are wonderful . . . and working!

Boxer said when the voters realize the health care reform plan actually will benefit most Americans and that the administration is working hard to create jobs and stimulate the economy, that mood might change again.

Ma’am, you keep hoping that people will come ’round to your way of thinking, but one thing we’ve seen after nearly a year debating health care reform is that opposition has been steadily increasing.  It’s one thing to work hard to create jobs, it’s quite another to implement policies that make it easier for employers to create them.

Seems, Ma’am wants to make this her campaign song:

Up here in Colorado we call today Gaper Day:

(h/t, The Corner)

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

April Fool’s Joke? Don’t I wish it! Here is an actual Congressman (Hank Johnson from Georgia), elected by actual Americans, who had an actual choice, and were allegedly cogent at the time, questioning in an actual committee meeting, the commander of the Pacific Fleet if the island of Guam is in danger of capcizing.

(h/t, Michelle)

These are the people now in charge of your health care. Good night and good luck, America.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

Here’s something that ought to scare the crap out of you. Check out this list:

Joe Biden
Nancy Pelosi
Robery Byrd
Hillary Clinton
Timothy Geithner
Robert Gates
Eric Holder
Ken Salazar
Tom Vilsack
Gary Locke
Hilda Solis
Kathleen Sebelius
Shaun Donovan
Ray LaHood
Steven Chu
Arne Duncan
Eric Shinseki
Janet Napolitano

This, according to U.S. Code, Title 3, Chapter 1, § 19, is the list of succession for the President of the United States.

You know, in spite of the hyperventilation on the Left about supposed threats coming from the Tea Partiers and the Right, have you ever been more hopeful for the health, safety, and general well-being of our government representation, specifically the president himself?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

Last week, I received a dewy-eyed e-mail from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, all misty because Congress had just passed health care reform.  You see, when it comes to items on the Democratic agenda, they just have to be good for gay people, you see, because, well, they’re on the Democratic agenda and the Democrats are good people.

And anyway, Republicans opposed it and those nasty obstructionists are meanies!

The last time Miss Kendell got all misty-eyed was last September 11, when ignoring the anti-gay animosity of Islamicists, you know, those folks who had orchestrated the attacks eight years previously on that very day, she insisted that LGBT people, need health care reform “as much as anyone, and because [Obama's] entire national agenda of greater inclusion, security, and humanity for all of us hangs in the balance.”  And anyway, those who oppose it are Republicans who are meanies who hate gay people.

Yep, she devoted her 9/11 letter to attacking and vilifying conservatives for opposing Obama’s agenda.  (Wonder if Barney’s gonna ask Democrats to “differentiate themselves” from Miss Kendell.  If not, we can deem her a spokesperchild* for his party.)   You see, for her (and folks like her toiling for the national gay organizations), the Obama agenda is the gay agenda because she so closely ties her politics to left-wing ideology and Democratic partisanship.

Doesn’t bother her Obama’s health care reforms will likely make it easier for government bureaucrats to gain access to our medical records.  It doesn’t matter “that a provision giving” same-sex partners “the same tax exclusion” as different-sex “spouses on the value of employer-provided health benefits was also removed.”  What does does matter to her that this was a big bill high on the agenda of a Democratic Administration.

As Charles Winecoff put it in his most humorous must-read post on folks like Miss Kendell, ever faithful to “their religion (D-ism)”:  ”Domestic fairies enjoyed many fetishes, but none was so great as their fetish for the letter ‘D.’”  It’s all about that “D” and because of that (D) after Obama’s name, any provision he supports must needs be most excellent.

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It now appears most of the forward motion in the Obama Administration on scaling back Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell comes from appointees with Republican backgrounds.  Last week, we reported that the only Bush appointee in the Obama cabinet, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, had approved new rules making it harder to discharge gays from the military.

Now, we learn that

The secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh, said Wednesday that he was effectively ignoring the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law because he had no intention of pursuing discharges of active-duty service members who have recently told him that they are gay.

Mr. McHugh, the Army’s civilian leader and a former Republican congressman from upstate New York, said that he had initiated the conversations with service members in recent months as part of the Pentagon’s review of how best to carry out a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, which requires that gay service members keep their sexual orientation secret or face discharge.

Seems if Obama wants to get something done, he turns to a Republican.

While this is a step in the right direction, it appears only to apply to conversations openly gay soldiers have with the Army Secretary.  Still, that he will allow such exchanges indicates he’s willing to listen to such service members, a necessary step toward understanding the concerns and learning how best to allow their service while continuing to maintain the army’s effectiveness.

The New York Times headline, Secretary of the Army Says He Will Not Pursue ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Discharges, does seem to miss the mark, not accurately summarizing the article’s content.