CBS Polls - Obama Down, Health Care Down, Gitmo Up

Obama sure is cooking with gas now!  Or maybe getting gas:

President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to 46 percent, according to a new CBS News poll.

That rating is Mr. Obama's lowest yet in CBS News polling, and the poll marks the first time his approval rating has fallen below the 50 percent mark. Forty-one percent now say they disapprove of Mr. Obama's performance as president.

Support for his effort on health care reform continues to fade, but Gitmo continues to rise in popularity as a lovely destination resort (one might say, the last resort) for terrorists:

In the wake of the Christmas Day terror attempt, President Obama recommitted to his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Yet more than half of Americans think the U.S. should continue to keep the facility open, a new CBS News poll shows.

Fifty-five percent of Americans think the prison should be kept open, according to the poll, which was conducted from Jan. 6 – 10. Last November, by contrast, 50 percent of Americans thought the prison should remain open, and just 46 percent thought so in February 2009.

Comments

[bgates]

Were the nine percent who changed their minds surprised to find out that there are terrorists who are trying to kill us?

The public disagrees with Obama on closing Gitmo, bankrupting the coal industry, raising taxes on American businesses to pay tribute to foreign dictators, putting his feckless bunch of boobs in charge of all medical care....

Is there anything besides his skin color that the public likes about this guy?

[Danube of Thought]

Well, I kind of like the absence of a Negro dialect.

[Danube of Thought]

You would think that at some point these polls would cause a Dem senator or two to re-think the healthcare vote. You would think that, but you would be wrong.

[Mike Myers]

A little more "Club Fed" at Gitmo, and a heck of a lot less letting crotch bombers "lawyer up" might help Obama's ratings.

[daddy]

Well if Obama really wanted to get the inmates relocated out of Gitmo perhaps he could simply http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=349519&CategoryId=14091 "> hire Mel Gibson to make a prison movie there.

[daddy]

I'm stunned, stunned,

Mark McGwire took steroids! Who'd a thunk it.

What next, that John Edwards admits he fathered a Love Child?

[daddy]

Even more stunning unexpected news.

The BBC's Climate/Environment Correspondent Richard Black has a new column up:

"World's biodiversity 'crisis' needs action, says UN."

I swear, I'm not making this up.

[jimmyk]

You would think that at some point these polls would cause a Dem senator or two to re-think the healthcare vote.

On the contrary, the polls make them realize that this is their last chance to impose socialism on all of us ingrates who are too stupid to appreciate their wisdom, and who continue to cling to our guns and religion.

[your mama]

hope this trend continues.

[Cecil Turner]

I wonder what the results on the gitmo poll would be if it were done by someone who understood the difference between a detention facility and a "prison"?

[peter]

Not sure what to make of the Iranian nuclear scientist killed by motorcycle bomb at LUN. Was he a bad guy?

[Janet]

Radio news this morning said union leaders met with Obama to complain about the taxing of their "cadillac" health care plans. Apparently they chose better health care benefits rather than a pay raise in the past and they don't want to be penalized now.

Yeah well, get in the "not fair" line with the rest of us you morons.

[rse]

Do you mean to say unions deliberately took some of their compensation in a form that would be nontaxable?

What unpatriotic behavior!

[Old Lurker]

And he appears to be clean. Must shower every day.

[Old Lurker]

I am afraid jimmyk at 6:43 might be right. That is the game of chicken going on right now.

[Janet]

LUN is that article on the Amish opting-out of the "get health care or pay a fine" law that the rest of us will have to live under. This was interesting to me -
"Congressional aides said the exemption is based on a carve-out the Amish have had from Social Security and Medicare taxes since the 1960s."

[Janet]

Sometimes I am Janet the Luddite. Can I be exempt?

[narciso]

The moral of the story is people can get out Sanaa central jail, (Wuhayshi, Badawi) or Bagram, (one of the Libis) no one gets out of
Gitmo, If we don't want them to. Al Shehri
should have reminded them of this fact. Brennan of all people, should be cognizant of this, the next fellow will not come with as many bars and whistles of Mutallab

[Clarice]

We're all Amish now. My religious forbids mandatory insurance, it's the Clarice religion, it's called federalism and you can join for a reasonable fee.

***
BTW as Taranto noted yesterday of Jane Hamsher etc are so opposed to the health care bill why aren't they supporting Brown?

[Old Lurker]

After we have made enough pitchforks, I suggest we convert the assembly line to making Buggies.

[SWarren]

Just what I needed this morning to get my blood boiling. This hit piece by Halperin at Time Magazine re “the facts” about Sarah in Game Change.

The question, however, is what will happen now that the omertÀ has been broken. So far Palin has not responded (beyond a blanket nondenial denial) to the facts about her in Game Change or the views offered on 60 Minutes by Schmidt. But with her new Fox contract making her a professional TV talking head, Palin may soon have no choice but to engage with her critics - an engagement that may well embolden them in ways that threaten her public image more than anything else so far.

Sheesh! LUN

[Old Lurker]

Distracted this morning. Trying to figure how to make money on DoT's identification on the other thread of the guy with the 13.5" penis. Maybe Clarice was right yesterday that these Mall Penis Shops will be anchor tenants after all.

I commend Daddy's Nantucket ditty (other thread) as the last word on Jane's stealing my wine when the UPS guy delivers it.

[Old Lurker]

SWarren I am always relieved when I see your light blue avatar that you are not he whose name must not be spoken.

[centralcal]

O.L.: Me too, ha ha.

[SWarren]

Heh, OL. Usually my comments are pretty short compared to the "other" light blue avatar.

[narciso]

Sheesh, in deed, Swarren, she told them as politely as possible, that their moose offal
needs to be packed away upstairs. From my lights, the only one who didn't seem like they were going through a nervous breakdown
was her. This is was passes for journalism, and we have the nerve to castigate the Brits
for their lack of standards (Bah humbug)

[MikeS]

Obama sees his main problem as those Bible Klingons who are just too dumb to realize how wonderful Obamerica could be. His adversaries are primitive knuckle dragging American voters who can't understand that the world hates us because we run around saying, "Oh we're so rich. We're so free. We're so powerful. We're so generous, etc."

Obama has plans to end all that pride and arrogance crap about being the greatest nation on Earth.

[Extraneus]

Halperin Translation: Hey, my attack didn't hurt her public image yet. :-(

[pagar]

"compensation in a form that would be nontaxable"

Every four years during my military career
I made the decision to reup, using as part of the decision that we were promised free medical treatment for life. I never once thought that I made an unpatriotic decision. I doubt if the others who reupped than thought so either. Of Course, as we later were told by the courts, that promise was never authorized by Congress. Apparently, the only people Congress ever authorized free medical care to were Congress persons.
--------------------------
The CBS polls are apparently not the only sign that CBS may be dropping their Support the Democrats at all cost policy. Or at least thinking about it.

"
CBS Exposes Congress Wasting Money At UN Climate Summit"

Bonus question: When was the last time CBS reported that Congress was wasting money?

[Thomas Collins]

Scott Brown was great in last night's debate on treating terrorists as enemy combatants. Martha Coakley generally supports treating terrorists in the same manner as johns caught in a soliciting sex for pay sting or common burglars (not her words, but that really is the import of the Obama/Holder approach). She did hold out the possibility that terrorists might be treated as enemy combatants in certain circumstances, but she was vague on what those circumstances might be.

As to holding enemy combatants at Gitmo vs. holding them here, I would support bringing the most vicious Gitmo detainees to the US as long as Noam Chomsky would put them up in his abode. In addition, I'm sure Michael Moore has some extra space where he lives that some Gitmoites might find appealing.

[Danube of Thought]

I should point out that before awarding 13.5" man the record, the Guiness people did not consult me. Just sayin'.

[Old Lurker]

You do spring from a good Navy family, DoT, where the word "Mast" figures prominently.

[MikeS]

I don't doubt that at 13.5" the guy deserves the record. I am surprised though that there is an official certification or rating method as opposed to just anecdotal remarks.

[Danube of Thought]

Ain't it grand to watch a real-time laboratory experiment in socialism being carried out before our eyes by Hugo Chavez? A few days ago they did some kind of whacked-out two-tiered currency devaluation. Now thay've got soldiers closing down shops that are "profiteering."

Stay tuned.

[Fresh Air]

How do we know the guy is unemployed? Did they paint it or something to be sure it hadn't expanded from the flaccid condition?

How does he certify his status? Is this like History of the World, where Bea Arthur asks Mel Brooks, "Did you try to bullshit last week?"

[Janet]

Perhaps hidden in the Amish exemption is the answer to ending all federal government health care and the social security ponzi scheme...everyone become an Amish-_____. Amish-Methodist, Amish-Catholic, Amish-Jewish, etc.

[hit and run]

OL:
I commend Daddy's Nantucket ditty (other thread) as the last word on Jane's stealing my wine when the UPS guy delivers it.

Now that right there is funny.

The UPS part,I mean.

[Old Lurker]

Hey Hit...Happy New Year.

Work's working I gather?

[ROA]

John Zeigler had a column on the "60 Minutes" piece on Palin which he said was a joke (LUN).

"As cynical as I have become about the news media, even I never thought I would see the day where "60 Minutes" provided far more comedy than "Saturday Night Live," but Sunday’s edition of the formerly respected news magazine gave the educated viewer infinitely more laughs than SNL delivered (although Charles Barkley’s pathetic performance may have still somehow been even worse than that of Anderson Cooper).

Specifically I am referring to the segment that was allegedly devoted to the new book “Game Change” about the 2008 Presidential election. Quite simply, (partly because it dealt with subjects about which I have devoted much of the last two years of my life and fortune) this was the worst piece of “journalism” I have ever witnessed on 60 Minutes."

[Janet]

From Ace -
"Coakley ad attacking Brown says that Brown isn't right for Massachusettes (sic). I guess she's running for Senator, not Speller."

[hit and run]

OL:
Work's working I gather?

Yup. Going great. Speaking of...break's over...gotta run.

[Janet]

Amish-Secularist...
and for Charlie and Tiger...Amish-Buddhist!

[narciso]

is there such a thing, as Amish Catholic?

[Janet]

Only if Catholics want to be exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes....and now the fed. health care reform requirement - carry health insurance or pay a fine.
I guess I'm now a Amish-Evangelical!

[cathyf]

I have a friend who describes his church growing up as "evangelical Quaker". Haven't quite figured that out!

[Mary]

Narciso,

Why not Amish Catholic? Most Christian religions are the children of Catholicism. Or is that step-children?

[centralcal]

Hey, narciso, I am definitely an Amish Catholic! Janet, thanks for reminding me of that.

[Fresh Air]

I'm guessing we're going to see a lot of people changing their name to "Levi" in the next couple of years. Well, it's time to split. I've got a barn-raising to go to.

[Janet]

Perhaps businesses can get in on the special tax exemptions given to the Amish.
Micky D's - an Amish business...

No tax for you!

[Wellescent Health Forums]

Until Obama moves past health care, he really won't have any chance of improving his popularity. The nature of the uncertainty over the reform and the deal making with the more self serving senators leaves a bad taste in many people's mouths, but the Democrats seem determined to finish what they started even if the result is not what they had wanted. The question will be how long the public holds the health care reform activities against him after the effort is complete.

[daddy]

"Sometimes I am Janet the Luddite. Can I be exempt?"

Janet, I don't think Luddite fits the bill. I think you also have to be a Troglodyte to qualify.

A Luddite as you know is:

1 : one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly

2 : one who is opposed to especially technological change.

Whereas A Troglodyte is

1 : a member of any of various peoples (as in antiquity) who lived or were reputed to live chiefly in caves
2 : a person characterized by reclusive habits or outmoded or reactionary attitudes

As I understand it, you have to be both a Luddite and a Troglodyte to qualify for exemption.

I refer you to the proposed HealthCare Bill, Page 1.7 trillion, Subpara: 2012, subsection 911, item 666: "To qualify for the Amish exemption you have to be both afraid of technology plus hate it."

Perchance are you reactionary and do you live in a cave?

[Janet]

Hahaha...well, I'm no housekeeper but cave is a bit harsh. Love the "item 666".

[JM Hanes]

JiB:

My other favorite sound bite came from this exchange:

“He wants to go back to those Bush-Cheney policies that provide for the very wealthiest,’’ [Coakley] said.

“You can run against Bush-Cheney, but I’m Scott Brown,’’ Brown responded. “I live in Wrentham. I drive a truck.’’

[Sir Toby Belch]

1. McGuire took steroids.

2. Barry sniffed snow.

The only difference is that #1 finally came
clean. The other is destroying your country.

[Sir Toby Belch]

When the Obama machine is reduced to "road
kill" on Pennsylvania Ave., will the MSM be carping about "Cheney and his Meanies"
destroying the NEW Camelot? Or will they
admit that Obama, Pelosi, Reid et al
were the Apple-Dumpling Gang? I am a
"dark-skinned white" and demand an answer.

[dhiraj]

www.doctoruncle.blogspot.com