Down in Negative Territory

For the second time to date, and far more significantly than previously, President Obama's RCP average has dropped into negative territory.  Gallup, Rasmussen, Fox, and USA Today/Gallup are all negative.  The friendliest of the most recent polls to the President, The Marist (which typically has a high bias toward self-identified DNC responders) is down to it's lowest point; +3.  Today's RCP average is -1.2.  The best poll that is currently out of the average (their last poll closed 3/26) is the Washington Post poll (also significantly biased leftward) at +10.  This poll has been dropping more slowly than the others, but has also shown a significant decline over the last six months.  It will be interesting to see a snapshot in June, when the mid-cycle campaigns are in full swing.

The RCP average for Congressional Approval polling is also dismal (-56.5); Health Care is at +12 Oppose (52.4 oppose: 40.4 approve) and the Election 2010 polling is looking increasingly red.  It's going to be a long, hot summer.

Vote for Freedom of the Press

Whether you like or dislike the commentary on the Fox cable channel, their news division is out there gathering and reporting on the news just like any other news division. And yet, the White House is trying to treat them like a political enemy. Freedom of the press is one of the most cherished rights in the country, and no administration has the right (or is right) to try to suppress that freedom. Despite some fairly large ideological gulfs between various news agency members, many in the press are rallying to the side of Fox News in defense against the silly (and at times self-demeaning) attacks by the White House. Apparently, the White House thinks that this issue that's not going away any time soon, but I have to wonder why an administration facing so many grave and important decisions is spending its time trying to squelch unfavorable coverage.

The NPR News Blog has a short survey on this issue if you care to vote.

UPDATED: No We Won't - Oh Wait, We Will

UPDATE 1: Link here to an interesting editorial on a better use for White House talent.

After throwing the equivalent of a four-year old's tantrum over the posturings of puffed-up opinion commentary on Fox, the White House has decided that it might be in its best interest to allow Administration officials to appear on Fox News shows after all. In the last posting, I discussed the increasingly partisan, and over-hyped coverage on all of the cable news shows (of course, both the left and the right have long concluded that media bias is rampant), and the increasingly competition between the various outlets.

What seems particularly ridiculous is the personal offense the White House seems to feel whenever Beck or Hannity goes off on a rant. I feel little sympathy for much of the sentiment behind those rants, but the President is supposed to be a little thicker-skinned than this. So what is Beck says something ludicrous - ignore it if possible, or rebut with facts. Don't scream, yell and cry for Momma. Like all modern politicians, Obama has made full use of the media when it suits his purposes, even 'permitting' ABC to broadcast, from the White House, a full-throated defense of his approach to health care reform. When the President of the United States engages in a particular attack on one media outlet, ignoring the bias of the very outlet on which those accusations are made (by proxy), he looks the fool.

Cable News Wars Heats Up

CNN aired an ad in the South Florida market tonight with a voice-over by a woman calling herself "... a lifelong Democrat." In the spare ad, she states that she listens to CNN's Anderson Cooper (AC360) because she knows that he "... holds right-wing Republican Congressmen ..." accountable when they "lie." Nothing in the ad says anything about holding left-wing politicians who lie accountable. One comes away with the impression that CNN is now firmly a Democratic organ. The ad is not yet available on the Internet, but will be posted here when it is.

This ad seems to be part of a larger trend for the cable news networks to directly attack each other, head-to-head. Most recently, Fox News and CNN have gone after each other over coverage of the 9-12 (Tea Party) protest in Washington, D.C. on September 12. Both networks covered the protests fairly extensively (having spent part of the day going back and forth between the coverage, my own estimation was that while Fox spent more time and resources on the coverage, both networks covered the event extensively). Fox took out an ad stating that all of the major news networks, including CNN, missed covering the event altogether. Most of the other networks mentioned the event, but did little coverage, but CNN was incensed to be included among this group, and fired back with an ad and reporting directly accusing Fox of lying.

MSNBC aired an ad early in the year, attacking both CNN and Fox, implying that they both were distorting the facts, and siding with (by implication) the Bush Administration. Both networks fired back immediately.

It's difficult to know what to think of these tit-for-tat attacks between the networks, although it does seem clear that most news networks are increasingly turning to new interpretation rather than straight reporting. Once thing seems certain: the conflict is going to continue to heat up for now.

UPDATE 2: I'm Not Shocked - Are You?

Update 2: Multiple calls for Van Jones to resign are going out based on his participation in the 9/11 'truther' movement, including signing the '9/11 Truth Statement' and participating in a rally based on that statement to demand a new investigation of the CIA and Bush Administration.


Update 1: Van Jones kind of, sort of, apologizes, while delivering a back-handed compliment.

HuffPo thinks it humorous that Fox News acted shocked over this. Personally, I'm not in the least shocked. It's right in line with the behavior I would expect from the man who seems to have deliberately radicalized himself in a very short period of time, and in part, because it's what all the cool people were doing:

'Jones had planned to move to Washington, DC, and had already landed a job and an apartment there. But in jail, he said, "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.'" Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. "I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary." In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist."'

I have no issues with the 'green jobs not jail' mantra of the Ella Baker Center, but Van Jones is simply an activist who went looking for a cause. His statement toward the end of the clip, that he too can be an ass, is probably correct, but what really strikes me in the video is not his language, but rather his total lack of thought. Van Jones fails to attempt to answer the, rather pathetic, question put to him. He either does not know, or does not care to think through, why Republicans able to successfully enact multiple programs and legislation that he himself does not support. Neither the questioner nor Van Jones seems able to move beyond the simplistic explanation of 'Republicans are a-holes.' The language is unworthy of someone appointed by the President of the United States to lead a large program. The simplistic thinking is unworthy of the anyone who aspires to lead.

Update #3: Burris Must Go

The newly sworn-in Senator from Illinois, Roland Burris, is now in hot water himself. He is now being called to task (the word perjury is being bandied about) for his testimony before a House panel at which he denied inappropriate contacts with Blago's administration.

"I did not donate one single dollar nor did I raise any money or promise any favors for the governor," he said, adding that anyone who suggested otherwise was "playing partisan politics."

Anytime a politician says things like this (think, "I did not sleep with that woman..."), I become suspicious. Call it my cynical nature, which was honed by living near DC (when a certain mayor was brought low by a drug and prostitution ring), Chicago (when a certain governor was brought low by a complex funding scandal that included license plate for illegal truckers out of Florida), and South Florida (hanging chads anyone?).

Burris is denying that he committed perjury, but the Republicans in Illinois smell blood in the water:

Earlier Sunday Burris issued a statement.

"I wish to supplement my answer with other events that I have been able to recall, to make certain the record is complete. ... I recall that Governor Blagojevich's brother, Rob Blagojevich, called me three times to seek my assistance in fund-raising for Governor Blagojevich," he wrote.

The disclosure reflects a major omission from his testimony in January. Burris, who entered the Senate the same week he testified at the panel, said he filed the affidavit because he didn't have the opportunity to lay out all the facts during his live testimony, a claim Durkin rejected.

Durkin said the information was evidence withheld by Democrats. Cross said he only learned about the affidavit after reading about it in the news on Saturday, even though the Illinois Democratic Majority Leader Rep. Barbara Currie received the affidavit on Feb. 5.

"I think somebody in the Burris camp finally realized that these conversations were probably on tape," Cross said explaining why he thinks the information became public.

The Chicago Sun-Time broke this story today, and Illinois lawmakers are already talking about hearings and removal from office.

Here we go again!

UPDATE #1:
Burris is insisting that his amended statement to the House panel is consistent with his original statement, and that he has done nothing wrong, and that he did not file the affidavit out of fear that his conversations with Blagojevich had been recorded.

UPDATE #2:
Burris is apparently losing all trust and respect, even among his own party members, as he changes (or 'amends') his story repeatedly. The Chicago Tribune is now calling for his resignation, as are members of both parties in the Illinois Congress. One wonders if Illinois will ever get a government that even approaches honesty.

UPDATE #3:
This has become a joke. Illinois is now the laughingstock of the nation. Sen. Burris must put his state and nation ahead of himself and resign. If he's incapable or unwilling to be that responsible, than the Senate should remove him - now!

Only $75 billion to go!

Fox News is reporting that the 'stimulus' plan has now ballooned to $925 billion, and that Senator Reid is trying to get a vote through today or tomorrow. Good luck with that one, Senator, given that the White House is off-message and mired in Limbaugh land, that support for the bill declines with every $1-million tacked on, and that there's dispute among the Democrats themselves. $1-trillion, here we come.

Meanwhile, sites like this one have been springing up offering to help you get your share of the pie - for a fee of course.


Get your pork here!