Thursday - May 07, 2009

What’s everyone complaining about on BMEWS? According to this report, USA is soothed. ??

Soothed?  Why?
Just thought this item which I’m way behind in posting, was worth sharing with other folks who are not so convinced.

Even if I read about stuff at home reported here, or go to an American source directly, I don’t guess that can measure up to being at home and seeing things for myself. 

I know this will hand you all a laugh. Hmm, maybe not. Judgment reserved.

America is soothed by no-drama Obama
The president’s cautious, mollifying approach is winning ever more support
by, Andrew Sullivan, The Times.

As I sat watching President Barack Obama’s 100 days press conference I realised, after only a few minutes, I was bored. What a wonderful feeling. It’s not something I have experienced for many years when contemplating the government of the United States. Every time I began to feel twitches of irritation or anxiety or engagement, the president soothed them away with a flow of reasoned and unemotional responses. The one network that decided not to run the press conference beat the president in the ratings with a drama. That said a lot. Obama is no drama.

That seems to me to be the upshot of his first 100 days. It is far too soon to know if his strategy of easing the banks out of their toxic assets will work, if his recasting of America’s image abroad will result in real changes for the better, if his decision to expose the torture policies of the past without aggressively seeking accountability will hold up over time.

It’s too soon to know if he will secure healthcare reform in this Congress, or if he can get his carbon trading bill and immigration reform passed. Events, dear reader, events have yet to have their say. But there does seem to be a palpable shift in the underlying shape of American politics three months in. Almost all of it is in Obama’s direction.

Don’t know if I like the sound of, “seeking accountability.” In fact, I don’t like that at all.  That’s a cave in to the far left for sure if he does. And I have read that he’s waffled on that issue.  Also, this carbon trading thing looks like a move towards the European way of thinking.  Do I have that right?
To be honest, I haven’t read any real details with regard to the carbon subject, except someone (joking? don’t know) said Gore would be pleased. Huh?  That most definitely would worry me.  Frankly, reading this edited version (see entire article HERE ) I don’t find much to be encouraged about if this fellow has even part of it right.  I just see a gradual swing further to the left, and more PC and strangling rules and regs the left love so much.  And trust me on this, I see enough of that here. 

The polling tells you something important. His approval ratings have actually gone up since he took office. Take away the party labels and, in the latest Gallup poll, Obama is winning the support of 90% of liberals with 7% against but, much more significantly, he is winning self-described “moderates” by a massive 73% to 19%. Even conservatives are split on him — with 42% approving and 53% disapproving; 41% of weekly church-goers approved of him just before the election — and now that number has risen to 57%. That’s a direct hit at the core Republican appeal.

In the critical battle for image and comfort, Obama has trounced his opponents without aggressively attacking them. And they have done themselves in, to a large extent, by prematurely attacking him. Few events revealed this as starkly as the veteran Republican senator Arlen Specter’s decision last week to become a Democrat.  Specter, facing rejection , jumped before he was pushed overboard.

Specter has long been a genuine maverick, with a deep legal mind and quirky temperament. But he’s also an opportunist and a realist.

Obama has been in moving the US out of the Bush era, especially among the young. A clear majority now favours immigration reform that includes some version of amnesty for illegal immigrants already in America. A huge majority of even Republican voters — 64% — now favours regulation of greenhouse gases. For the first time in any national poll, ABC News last week found supporters of marriage rights for gay couples outnumbered opponents. Even on a question such as marijuana decriminalisation, the public is now close to evenly split: 52% against to 46% in favour. These are seismic shifts from only a few years ago.

Black Americans are, predictably, monolithic in their support for the first black president. More significantly, Hispanics have emerged as an unexpected Obama strength. He has an 85% approval rate in that demographic, which, if it holds for his party, all but guarantees further Republican collapse in the southwest and west. A recent survey of voter participation in the 2008 election reveals the significance of this huge gap: some 22% of all voters were black, Hispanic or Asian last year, compared with 13% 20 years earlier. Karl Rove and George Bush knew this and adopted plans to win over black and Hispanic voters. But they failed — and Obama rubbed it in.

Every now and again conservative writers let their frustration show. Last week Byron York, the respected conservative reporter, penned an atypically sloppy sentence: “Obama’s sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are.” What he meant was: than they actually are among whites alone. And he’s right about that. If today’s America were racially that of 1958, Obama would have only about a 60% approval rating rather than a whopping 68%. The biggest factor? The Latino factor. Wonder why Obama spent so much time in Trinidad hobnobbing with Latin and South American leaders two weeks ago? He knows the new face of the country he is now leading.

Will this endure? I cannot know. Obama is riding his honeymoon and his big picture ratings are not outside historical norms. Racial and generational dynamics have propelled him further upward and may be distorting the overall picture. But first impressions matter; and the calm and confidence Obama has displayed in testing times strike me as real achievements. He got lucky as well. Shooting three pirates in the head on the high seas is more good fortune than Jimmy Carter ever had. But there is also a stylistic conservatism in a still small-c conservative country that should not be underestimated.

Posted by peiper     on 05/07/2009 at 07:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Editorials • Obama, The One •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner