The Martin Luther King Memorial was unveiled and given to President Obama to present to the people of the United States of America. This is the first monument on the mall that is not a war memorial or a presidential monument
The memorial was supposed to be dedicated on August 28, the anniversary date of Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech. It had to be delayed because of the hurricane and the earthquake.
President Obama’s speech:
From the Washingtonpost.com:
The poll provides a view of the impact of bin Laden’s death in a state widely viewed as a bellwether for Obama’s chances for reelection nationally. The interviews were already underway when Obama delivered the news late in the evening of May 1; 677 were conducted before the announcement, with 503 afterward.
Against all five potential GOP contenders tested in the poll, Obama stretched his margins after the death of bin Laden. In a hypothetical matchup against former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, for example, interviews before the bin Laden announcement showed voters splitting 48 percent for the president and 46 percent for Romney. Afterward, Obama edged ahead, 51 to 44 percent.
Against former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and businessman Donald Trump, twin 19-point Obama advantages swelled to 31 points in interviews conducted in the three days after bin Laden’s death.
Still, big vulnerabilities remain for the president, the first Democratic presidential nominee to win Virginia in more than 40 years. More than half of all Virginia voters are dissatisfied, even angry, with the Obama administration’s policies, and a vast majority retains a bleak view of the economy. Those opinions did not change with bin Laden’s death, leaving open the question of whether, or how long, the spike in Obama’s fortunes will last.
The poll reveals the movability of voters in Virginia, which firmly established itself as a new battleground in 2008. Two years later, in the tea-party-infused, low-turnout elections of 2010, Virginia swung in the opposite direction, ousting three of the state’s six Democratic congressmen.
What will it take for President Obama to claim Virginia? What will keep Virginia blue? How will the outcome of this election affect the state election in 2013? Is the Prez’s bump artificial, a flash in the pan, or can he sustain it? Why does killing Bin Laden increase Obama’s popularity?
From Rawstory.com:
State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R), the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader, must have forgotten his talking points while appearing on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show. This afternoon he admitted on-air what many liberals have long-suspected: rescinding collective bargaining rights from state workers is Wisconsin is as much about the 2012 presidential election as Wisconsin’s 2011 budget shortage.
As first reported by ThinkProgress, Fitzgerald told Kelly: “If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.”
During the Bush Administration, the ‘conscience clause’ allowed health care providers to decline care to patients if it would violate their religious beliefs. President Obama has tried to clarify the new rules which come after consideration of more than 300,000 public comments. Basically, the new rules say that contraception is not abortion; specifically: “There is no indication that the federal health care provider conscience statutes intended that the term ‘abortion’ included contraception.”
According to NPR:
“The language published today reaffirms the principles of protecting the doctor-patient relationship by repealing the most onerous and intrusive parts of Bush’s last-minute refusal rule,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
NARAL said the rules, as originally written, “could have allowed insurance companies to deny claims for birth control pills, hospitals to refuse emergency contraception to rape survivors, and employees at HMOs to refuse their patients referrals for abortion care.”
It was a fair interview. Everyone did a good job.
Big difference in this interview and the one done by Brett Baier.
I probably wouldn’t have said Obama-care.
Just released: Bill Reilly will interview President Obama right before the Super Bowl pre game. O’Reilly interviewed Obama as a candidate but he has not interviewed him as president. The President has granted one interview with Fox News so far and that was with Brett Baier. Baier was not on his best behavior. In fact, he was very rude to the President and continually interrupted him.
O’Reilly is a much more skilled interviewer. According to Politico:
O’Reilly interviewed Obama as a candidate, but as president Obama has given just one interview to Fox News, last year with Bret Baier. The Obama Administration has had a famously contentious relationship with Fox News, with then-White House communications director Anita Dunn calling it “not a real news organization” in 2009, but the relationship has thawed someone over time as Obama administration officials went on shows like “Fox News Sunday.”
O’Reilly is smart. I don’t always like him but I have confidence that he will handle this situation as a professional commentator, if not journalist. This might just be an opportunity to see the President and the President both shine. It might be a great night for both Mr. O’s. O’Reilly can be very fox or he can outfox the foxes. I predict he will rise about all the Murdoch fox doo and conduct one hell of a good interview.
So is the President slumming or is this a great move for him? How about O’Reilly?
Richard C0hen has a scathing op-ed regarding Sarah Palin and her lack of knowlege about other Americans, in particular, Michelle Obama. From the Washington Post, in its entirety:
When I was 11, my father thought it was time to show my sister and me the nation’s capital. I have only vague memories of that trip – the heat, the expanse of the White House’s grounds, the Jefferson Memorial. I do remember we took Route 1 through Baltimore (no I-95 yet) and it was there that I saw my first sign with the word “colored” on it – a rooming house, I think. This was 1952, and the United States was an apartheid nation.
It is Sarah Palin who brings back these memories. In her new book, she reportedly takes Michelle Obama to task for her supposedly infamous remark from the 2008 campaign: “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” Instantly, Republicans pounced. Among the first to do so was Cindy McCain, who said, “I have and always will be proud of my country.” It was a cheap shot, but her husband’s selection of Palin for the ticket and plenty of cheap shots from Palin (“death panels,” etc.) were yet to come.
Many of the talking heads are now commenting on President Obama’s10 day trip to Asia. The purpose of the trip is to attempt to open up jobs in countries like Indian, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, etc. The president is taking a business entourage with him on the trip
Already misinformation is spreading about the cost of the trip. One rumor that surfaced and went viral is the the trip will cost $200 million per day which includes presidential protection. This figure is being vehemently denied as outrageous. The report that 34 war ships are accompanying him is also being denied by the Pentagon. News sources all report the disclaimer by the Pentagon spokesman:
“I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy, some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier, in support of the president’s trip to Asia,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. “That’s just comical. Nothing close to that is being done.”
The Sun News reports that both Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann spread the cost rumors as fact. The foreign press is adding to the rumor mill. Bachmann, in particular, should be held accountable for spreading misinformation. Beck, we expect no better from.
Other critics are up in arms that during a recession, the president would leave the country again. Many feel he should be staying home (and off the golf course) and tend to domestic business.
Leaders in the last century and in the 21st century have traveled abroad. Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to leave the country. Presidents should be able to set their own agenda and as long as they are doing the business of the country, this travel should without criticism and certainly without government officials lying about the cost. Good will and jobs are excellent goals to seek.
Respond please to the President’s address.
Do you know what is done in your children’s or grandchildren’s school to cut out the bullying? Can anything be done about bullying?
The Pew Institute released the following graphics to visualize the shift in perception regarding the religion of the president:
The Pew Institute asked the poll question:
Now, thinking about Barack Obama’s religious beliefs… Do you happen to know what Barack Obama’s religion is? Is he Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, or something else?
Contrast the difference in opinion from 2009 to 2010 regarding the received religion of President Obama:
According to the Washington Post:
White House officials expressed dismay over the poll results. Faith adviser Joshua DuBois blamed “misinformation campaigns” by the president’s opponents…
Among those who say Obama is a Muslim, 60 percent say they learned about his religion from the media, suggesting that their opinions are fueled by misinformation.
But the shifting attitudes about the president’s religious beliefs could also be the result of a public growing less enamored of him and increasingly attracted to labels they perceive as negative. In the Pew poll, 41 percent disapprove of Obama’s job performance, compared with 26 percent disapproval in its March 2009 poll.
More than a third of conservative Republicans now say Obama is a Muslim, nearly double the percentage saying so early last year. Independents, too, are now more apt to see the president as a Muslim: Among independents, 18 percent say he is a Muslim, up eight percentage points.
Does it matter what the president’s religion is? Does it matter if a president attends church on a regular basis? Did either Bush attend church regularly? How about Clinton? Reagan?
Did the fact that Joe Lieberman is Jewish affect the outcome of his bid for vice president when he was on the Gore ticket?
What is your explanation for why the misperceptions about the president’s religion have shifted so much?
How much of the shift in perception is deliberate rumor mongering?
Is the Muslim issue in part because of 9/11? How much of the negativity is because it is perceived that President Obama is not Christian vs. Muslim?
Continuing similar themes from last week:
From Reuters: (In its entirety)
Analysis: Race issues beset Obama’s “post-racial” presidency
By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON | Wed Jul 21, 2010 6:12pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Many supporters of Barack Obama hoped his election as America’s first black president might herald an era of post-racial politics, but race has been an issue his administration just can’t seem to avoid.
Division and tension between black and white Americans has cropped up repeatedly over Obama’s 18 months in office, hurting his popularity and distracting from his political agenda.
The issue surfaced this week when the Agriculture Department pushed a black official to resign after allegations she discriminated against a white farmer, only to apologize a day later for acting too quickly and without the facts.
Some said the White House was too eager to prove to its critics on the right that it does not favor blacks.
“The Obama administration lost some political capital because they acted without thinking things through,” said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University.
Obama and race relations have often grabbed headlines.
Last July — in the heat of the White House fight for its healthcare overhaul — when Obama was subjected to scathing criticism for saying police had “acted stupidly” when they arrested Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, on charges he was breaking into his own home.
More recently, the Justice Department dismissed voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party, prompting criticism from conservative groups who said the black president was unwilling to prosecute fellow blacks for civil rights violations.
“When the right-wing noise machine starts promoting another alleged scandal, you shouldn’t suspect that it’s fake — you should presume that it’s fake, until further evidence becomes available,” columnist Paul Krugman wrote in The New York Times.
Jon Stewart examines what is known about Elena Kagan. He then moves on to look at the conundrum that Republicans have found themselves creating. It seems that what Bush did while in office now belongs to Obama which takes them back to the point of having to admit there was some bad policy. Like all conundrums, it is hard to spit out, so you will just have to let Jon Stewart say it best.
We are moving from let’s blame Bush to let’s blame Obama. Seamlessly.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Release the Kagan | ||||
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From the Washington Post:
The Pentagon has recommended that the White House consider awarding the the Medal of Honor to a living soldier for the first time since the Vietnam War, according to U.S. officials.
The soldier, whose nomination must be reviewed by the White House, ran through a wall of enemy fire in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley in fall 2007 in an attempt to push back Taliban fighters who were close to overrunning his squad. U.S. military officials said his actions saved the lives of about half a dozen men.
It is possible that the White House could honor the soldier’s heroism with a decoration other than the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor. Nominations for the Medal of Honor typically include detailed accounts from witnesses and can run hundreds, if not thousands, of pages. The review has been conducted so discreetly that the soldier’s family does not know that it has reached the White House, according to U.S. officials who discussed the nomination on condition of anonymity because a final decision is pending.
Pentagon officials requested that The Washington Post not name the soldier to avoid influencing the White House review. Administration officials declined to comment on the nomination.
This is a great mystery. There is something about having to die to be given the Medal of Honor that just isn’t right. If the White House agrees to the Pentagon request, would that make the tradition permanent? Who sets up the guidelines?
More from the Washington Post
Tuesday night there was much grumbling and grousing about President Obama. His usual critics on the right were critical of everything he said or did. He didn’t show enough emotion, he didn’t talk tough enough, he inhaled wrong, he exhaled wrong. He was also criticized for discussing alternative energy at a time of crisis. He should have called this person and that person.
Those on the left weren’t too pleased either. They felt he didn’t go far enough. He didn’t show emotion, he didn’t hold BP accountable enough, blah blah blah. He didn’t wash enough pelicans.
Then Wednesday something short of a miracle happened. President Obama went into a meeting with the BP folks and members of his administration. He came out with $20 billion dollars allocated in escrow for damages to the environment, the economy and people’s livelihoods and an apology to the American people. Dividends won’t be paid out and BP remains intact.
Not too bad for a guy who couldn’t shoot straight on Tuesday.
[Sorry, wrong video posted]
If one reads this blog one might assume that the current president is very unpopular. However, we have been overly blessed with those who feel he is lower than a snake’s belly. There are also a fair number of people who also don’t engage.
Posted below is a comparison chart of presidential approval ratings. President Obama has gone from about an initial approval rating of 65% to a current one that vacillates between 42-50% approval. Compare that to these guys:
Remember Bill Clinton who was vilified by the right even before he took office? Remember the reports that showed he would have been elected for a third term? This was a president who went through an impeachment. It goes to show you that the people who are dissatisfied often are loud and proud and those who have no beef remain silent. It’s easier to get through the day.
As for the oil leak, what is it we would have him do?
