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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (624217)	8/13/2011 9:19:54 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1574446

Exasperated lib columnist admonishes Obama ................................................................................................................................ by Thomas Lifson August 13, 2011 americanthinker.com I confess that I'm having great fun watching the liberals waking up to the fact that the image of President Obama they bought into was a fantasy, and underneath is an arrogant, cold, and incompetent executive, with no experience at all in running anything. This morning brings Colbert King, the liberal Washington Post columnist, who take his first step down the path to a reality-based perception of The One. King displays a certain annoyance with Barack Obama, explaining to the president why it is so stupid for him to be going on vacation: Is there anyone in the White House with nerve enough to tell Barack Obama that Martha's Vineyard is the last place on earth that the president of the United States should find himself next week? (snip) But to be leaving town to spend 10 days luxuriating in an affluent, New England summer town when millions of Americans can't find work? To fly off to the Vineyard when the public is losing faith in Washington's ability to fix the nation's economic problems, and with people anxious about their futures? What is he thinking? It's not as if the Obama family is living in deprivation in Washington. Without leaving the White House grounds, they have access to five full-time chefs, a tennis court, a bowling alley, a swimming pool, a jogging trail, a putting green and a movie theater that shows first-run films on demand. That's hardly roughing it. King goes on to list many other facilities and luxuries available to the president and his family. What's fascinating here is the indirect allusion to the parties, the hobnobbing with stars and athletes, the exuberant exploitation of their supreme position in the American status hierarchy. The Obamas take such pleasure in using to the utmost, all of the privileges and facilities made available to live large. The sheer number of parties they throw is astounding, though almost unmentioned in the liberal media, so far. This is not the way a president should be spending his time. Not when, for the first time in U.S. history, the country's credit rating has been downgraded; when so many families are barely scraping by, many not knowing where the next mortgage or rent payment is coming from. It is by now obvious to King and many others, that President Obama spends an awful lot of time in leisure activities and just isn't very good at running things. He is implying that things are going to hell because Obama is lazy, not spending enough time at it. None of this is explicitly mentioned, of course. But the foreknowledge is out there for both King and his readers. So I take this as evidence that the more unappealing side of Barack and Michelle's personalities is sinking in, now that Obama's performance in office has so miserably and obviously failed to meet expectations.

To: bentway who wrote (624217)	8/13/2011 9:38:20 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 1574446

Obama Approval Goes Underwater in Democratic New York .............................................................. August 12, 2011 Devin Dwyer reports: blogs.abcnews.com More voters in the heavily Democratic state of New York now disapprove of President Obama than approve of him – the first time he has ever received a negative rating – according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. The 49 to 45 percent split reflects growing popular angst over the country’s economic woes and frustration with Obama’s response, even in one of his electoral strongholds. In June, New Yorkers approved of the president by a 57 to 38 percent split. Overall, New Yorkers split fairly evenly on whether Obama deserves re-election. His strongest support is concentrated in New York City and among union households, while majorities of upstate and suburban voters strongly say Obama does not deserve a second term. “The debt ceiling hullaballoo devastated President Barak Obama’s numbers even in true blue New York,” Quinnipiac’s Maurice Carroll said in a statement with the poll.

To: bentway who wrote (624217)	8/13/2011 9:46:54 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 1574446

REUTERS: Confidence in Obama's leadership shaken ............................................................................................................................ By Alister Bull WASHINGTON \| Fri Aug 12, 2011 reuters.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A spree of bad news -- market gyrations, fears of a double-dip recession, stubborn unemployment and fallout from a debt deal -- has shaken confidence in President Barack Obama's leadership and could cloud his chances for winning re-election. Obama is seeking a second term in office in an election that is still far off -- November 2012. But a persistently weak economy coupled with rising perception of political dysfunction in Washington could complicate his political fortunes. The political spectacle that preceded a bipartisan deal this month to raise the debt ceiling and the subsequent downgrading of America's credit rating by a leading rating agency have spawned stories in the media about America's decline as a world power on Obama's watch. And opinion polls show that Obama's job approval ratings are edging downward even as members of his own Democratic Party grumble about his leadership and fault his willingness to make concessions to opposition Republicans in Congress. A Reuters/Ipsos poll Wednesday found that 73 percent of Americans believe the country is off on the wrong track. This was the highest reading since October 2008 when the financial crisis was raging and just weeks before voters turned away from the Republican Party of then-President George W. Bush to put Obama into the White House. "It is hard to imagine public optimism being more negative about the economy than it is right now. ... In terms of pubic opinion he has got a huge hill to climb," said Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank. "I think Americans would like to re-elect the first African American president, but ultimately the presidential election is a referendum on performance," she said. Obama also faces a daily drumbeat of criticism from the field of Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination to face him in the 2012 general election. The field grows this week with Texas Governor Rick Perry, seen as a potential tough challenger, set to join the race Saturday. MARKET TURMOIL There have been huge swings in the markets this week. The Dow Jones industrial average has swung hundreds of points in either direction amid concern over the economy, the debt crisis in Europe and the U.S. credit downgrade. "The debt ceiling fiasco and the downgrade, punctuated by ... stock market gyrations, has made something in me snap," said Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "It's the sound of confidence in Obama's leadership breaking," he wrote in Friday's Washington Post." "The president has failed up until now to produce a coherent explanation about where we are and what we need to do that Americans can understand," said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. Obama has promised to deliver a steady stream of good ideas to lift hiring, and will head out on a three-day bus tour of the Midwest Monday to talk about his vision. But so far he has only renewed calls for action on a batch of measures that he has talked about for months, including the extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment aid. In the meantime, Americans have been worried by the recent turmoil that has been reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis, with stock prices down by 10 percent from last month amid concern over another recession.