Day: January 22, 2007

ABC/WaPo Poll: 40% Still Believe Bush Is Honest

Jon Ponder

We are surrounded by idiots:

56% of Americans do not trust their president in a crisis.

Forty percent describe Bush as honest and trustworthy, equaling the low point of his presidency.

Thank goodness 57 percent of us have realized he’s a liar; unfortunately 3 percent aren’t sure.

Other numbers:

  • Right track: 26 percent. Wrong track: 71 percent. Post says this is the worst these ratings have been in more than a decade.
  • Overall approval of Bush: 33 percent positive (lowest in this poll since he took office) and 65 percent negative.
  • Job performance: Only 17 percent strongly approve of the way he is handling his job; 51 percent strongly disapprove.
  • Handling of war: 29 percent approve; 70 percent disapprove.
  • Trust Bush in a crisis: 42 percent yes; 56 percent no.

State of the Union:

Only two presidents have had lower approval ratings on the eve of a State of the Union speech. Richard Nixon was at 26 percent in 1974, seven months before he resigned in disgrace because of the Watergate scandal. Harry S. Truman was at 23 percent in January 1952, driven down by public disapproval of the Korean conflict and his firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Air America May Have Buyer

Jon Ponder

Reuters:

The bankrupt parent of talk-radio network Air America is close to being bought by a group of investors led by a New York-area family, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing sources.

The French family of Westchester, New York, owner of New York City-area television concern WRNN, is leading a group of investors in a bid to buy the assets of Piquant LLC, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Richard French Sr. has owned WRNN since 1993.

Is St. McCain Depressed?

Jon Ponder

Sen. John McCain’s performance on “Meet the Press” yesterday was decidely lackluster. The current GOP 2008 frontrunner and former maverick’s snap and crackle seemed to be replaced with a sodden doughiness. Perhaps it was the topic of the Iraq civil war and the “McCain surge,” which has been dragging Pres. Bush’s numbers lower since it was announced a few weeks ago.

The senator also made a wildly inaccurate reference to polling data ahead of the first Gulf War, which was caught by C&L. Sen. McCain said:

Only 15 percent of Americans supported the first Gulf War at the beginning.

But the actual data, from January 18, 1991 was the opposite:

The initial reaction by the American public to President Bush’s decision to go to war with Iraq is positive, according the Gallup Poll.

Seventy-nine percent of those interviewed on Wednesday night said they approved “of the U.S. decision today to go to war with Iraq in order to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait,” while 15 percent disapproved, and 6 percent had no opinion.

We all make mistakes. But why so glum, Senator? Perhaps you’ve seen polling about how the war would affect your chances in 2008 if it is still raging? Or maybe you know some (new) dark truth about the current administration that is about to be revealed.

Florida’s New Jeb Trying to Befriend the Press

Trish

The man who pledged to voters to be as much like Jeb as possible without surgical alterations is making some changes. Gov. Crist-Crossin’ Charlie has changed his mind again, this time for the better.

Reporters’ comfort and happiness were rarely concerns of Bush, who notably locked reporters in his office in 2000

Crist also ended Bush’s tradition of meeting with the media at the bottom of a spiral staircase in the Capitol basement before the biweekly meetings of the Florida Cabinet. The meetings became mini-melees as a dozen or more TV and newspaper reporters crowded Bush. The image on TV stations around the state was similar to a “60 Minutes” encounter, complete with a sense of tension.

Crist has moved those meetings to an office where reporters can sit and the governor can appear more statesman-like with a new sign containing a picture of the Old Capitol behind his podium.

“A little change of venue,” Crist said Thursday. “I wanted to have this [room] open to visit with you, make sure you’re comfortable and you’re happy.”

Reporters’ comfort and happiness were rarely concerns of Bush, who notably locked reporters in his office in 2000 when they wouldn’t leave lawmakers who were staging a sit-in to discuss an issue with Bush.

No Protection for Surge Troops — or the Ones Already There

Trish

The problem with having a commander in chief whose only personal consideration in fighting a war was how to get out it is becoming clearer. Bush keeps sending troops off to fight in his private war of aggression without armor or protection.

Most of the 21,500 troops President Bush has ordered to Iraq as reinforcements will not have access to specialized blast-resistant armored vehicles

…the Pentagon’s effort to protect its troops against roadside bombs is in disarray, with soldiers and Marines having to swap access to scarce armored vehicles and the military unsure whether it has the money or industrial capacity to produce the safe vehicles it says the troops need.

On Jan. 10, The [Baltimore] Sun reported that most of the 21,500 troops President Bush has ordered to Iraq as reinforcements will not have access to specialized blast-resistant armored vehicles because they are in such short supply.

…In congressional testimony and interviews last week, senior Army and Marine Corps officers acknowledged that they are struggling just to meet the needs of service members already in Iraq. Even if the Pentagon can find millions of dollars not currently budgeted, and even if it can find factories to produce the armored vehicles, most U.S. troops in Iraq will not have access to the best equipment available, as President Bush has often promised.

The Army acknowledged last week, for example, that it is still 22 percent short of the armored Humvees it needs in Iraq despite heated criticism in 2004 and 2005 over the lack of armored vehicles. Army officials said it will be another eight months before that gap can be filled.

Maybe part of the problem is the current leadership’s decision to use big-ass, tough-looking Humvees. Didn’t wars used to get won without those?

To augment its fleet of armored Humvees, the military is intent on buying thousands of new armored vehicles whose V-shaped hulls deflect blasts from beneath upwards and outwards, unlike the flat-bottomed Humvees that absorb the blasts. These Mine-Protected Vehicles, or MPVs, designed and manufactured for years by South Africa and other countries, have a proven record of surviving powerful blasts.

Based on requests from commanders in Iraq, the U.S. military needs 6,465 MPVs, according to Lt. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes, the Army’s top supply officer. Under the current program, the first portion of those vehicles wouldn’t be delivered to Iraq until March 2008 or later, even if the services can find the funding.

Let’s hope most of the troops will be elsewhere (and I don’t mean Iran, North Korea, or Afghanistan) by March, 2008.

None of these facts will keep Bush from continuing to lie like a rug. Let’s all pledge to drink a shot during tomorrow night’s State of the Union address every time he mentions how dedicated he is to providing the best protection for our troops in the field.

Let the Obama Bashing Begin

Buck Banks

Mudslinging madrassah: It’s bad enough having “Hussein” as a middle name, but when the Moonie-owned Insight magazine starts putting it out that you were educated in a radical Muslim school and the New York Post prints the headline “‘Osama’ Mud Flies at Obama,” Barak has to know the campaigning truly has begun. The allegation that
illinois Sen. Barak Obama was indoctrinated in a radical madrassah in Indonesia when he was 6 was also picked up and reported repeatedly on FOX News, with the only source noted as Insight magazine, which conveniently failed to provide its own source.

It’s an obvious right-wing hit job by a Moonie publication that was designed to attack Senator Clinton and Senator Obama at the same time.

Worse yet, the FOX folk put it about that it was Hillary Clinton’s people who were slinging the Muslim mud at Obama. It’s a twisted tale, and is likely a precursor to what we can expect as the race heats up and the campaigns typically sink to the lowest common denominator:

Thus, in the first media controversy of the 2008 campaign, two of the leading candidates find themselves forced to respond to allegations lacking a single named source.

“The allegations are completely false,” says Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs. “To publish this sort of trash without any documentation is surprising, but for Fox to repeat something so false, not once, but many times is appallingly irresponsible. This is exactly the type of slash-and-burn politics the American people are sick and tired of.” Obama, aides note, is a Christian and belongs to a Chicago church.

Clinton campaign officials were relieved that what they regard as an absurd allegation was not picked up more widely. “It’s an obvious right-wing hit job by a Moonie publication that was designed to attack Senator Clinton and Senator Obama at the same time,” says Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson. Insight, like the Washington Times, is owned by a company controlled by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. No one answered the phone at Insight’s office yesterday and its editor did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.