Obama drops under 50% approval … in California:

How far has Barack Obama’s star fallen? KPIX reports on a new Survey USA poll in California, where Barack Obama beat John McCain by over 20 points and which anchors the liberal Left Coast. Since winning 61% of the vote in November 2008, California voters have cooled considerably on Hope and Change, with Obama dropping to a 46/49 approval rating. And that spells bad news for Barbara Boxer

As Ed Morrissey adds:

If Obama’s star is fading, Boxer’s will be descending even further, and for the same reasons — a lousy economy and too much spending. Voters can’t punish (or support) a President in a midterm election, but they can take out their frustrations on those who closely aligned themselves to him, which Boxer has certainly done over the last two years.

Remember, Boxer has consistently run behind Obama.  So, if he’s below 50%, then she’s probably lucky to be scraping 40%

(Via Instapundit.)

Every now and again, I get e-mails from readers asking if I agree with a post one of my co-bloggers has written.  Usually (but not always), I agree with what Bruce and Nick have to say, though sometimes I share their conclusions while questioning their tone.

A couple of readers asked me for my thoughts on Bruce’s recent posts on Log Cabin.  I agree that the Log Cabin of LA “tea bag” stunt was in poor taste.  While aware of it before Bruce blogged on it, I doubt I would have posted on it myself.  Yet, the more I think about the issue, the more I realize how right Bruce was to publicize this stunt — and criticize the LA group for staging it.

And here is why.

Ever since Log Cabin leapt onto the national (media) stage in 1992, the organization has taken for granted its loyalty to the GOP.  To be sure, those in the media portray them as loyal Republicans.  But, that is not how rank-and-file Republicans see them.  When, I, in 1997, founded the Log Cabin Republican Club of Northern Virginia, I found we had to prove our commitment to the party to convince our fellow partisans that we weren’t just using the label “Republican” as a means to gain access to the media and so use that platform to attack our fellow Republicans.  A Trojan horse as it were.

Republican leaders and activists in Northern Virginia were aware that the organization had refused to back George H.W. Bush’s re-election in 1992 and that the then-executive director repeatedly criticized Republicans in the news media.

What we saw in the 1990s continued into the 2000s.

Given the organization’s history, with past leaders badmouthing the GOP to the media and the organization very publicly refusing to endorse George W. Bush in 2004 (while muting their criticism of his Democratic opponent), Log Cabin today needs to do more to show its commitment to the GOP.  Engaging in stunts which ally them more closely with the conservative-hating talking heads on MSNBC will not help them accomplish that goal.

One of the reasons I’ve been proud to support GOProud is that they have been making an effort to speak out not just on gay issues but on issues of concern to conservatives, very often showing how conservative policies benefit gay people.

Stunts like the tea bag toss will do little to ease concerns rank-and-file Republicans have about Log Cabin’s purpose.  And serve to strengthen the case for GOProud.

As I’ve been pondering Bruce’s post on the left-wing blogger who contended my co-blogger engaged in a “perpetual celebration of fascism”, I wondered if that left-winger had even the slightest idea of the basic ideas undergirding modern American conservatism as well as the ideology of fascism.

For such left-wingers, it seems “fascism” has been the all-purpose political insult to hurl against people they don’t like — or whose worldview they refuse to understand.

Modern American conservatism is, in nearly all ways, the exact opposite of fascism.  It is based on the notion of freedom — and the necessarily concomitant decentralization of power.  Fascism involves the centralization of power.

As advocates of freedom, we believe such folks as that blogger critical of Bruce should have every right to express their criticism.  We believe government should leave individuals and entrepreneurs alone to live their lives and run their enterprises as they choose.  Do our critics, particularly those who hurl the insult fascist on a regular basis, even understand that aspect of conservatism?  Do they know what freedom means?

Based on a handful of signs amidst the hundreds of thousands of protesters at Tea Parties nationwide, the MSM has concocted a narrative of the racism endemic on the right.  But, rank-and-file Republicans just won’t conform to media stereotypes.

With “68 percent of the vote” South Carolina State Rep. Tim Scott “beat his former Charleston County Council colleague Paul Thurmond, which makes him likely to become the first black Republican to serve in the U.S. House since J.C. Watts of Oklahoma retired six years ago.”   Hmmm. . . . Republican voters in one of the most conservative states in the union overwhelmingly picking a black man over a white guy1!?!?!  Heads must be exploding in news rooms around the country.

In the same state on the same day,

Nikki Haley ["the daughter of immigrant parents from India"] trounced Gresham Barrett on Tuesday to win the GOP’s nomination for governor, breaking gender and ethnic boundaries, and sending a message to the Republican establishment: Conservatives are tired of entrenched politicians and they’re sick of the status quo.

The daughter of immigrant parents from India defeats a white male Republican.  Hmm. . . . equally confusing to those who see Nixon’s “racist” Southern Strategy as continuing to define the GOP.

In the aftermath of the president’s decision to oust General Stanley McChyrstal as Commander in Afghanistan and replace him with David Petraeus, he has received praise in the media — and even kudos from conservatives.

Had Obama’s predecessor similarly replaced a military commander, I dare say we would have seen a different reaction.