Month: September 2017

Americans About America: ‘Meh’

Buck Banks

28%

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that just 28% of adults called America the “single best place to live in the world,” with another 17% calling it “among the very few best places.” More respondents put United States closer to the middle of the pack, with 37% calling America merely “above average” and 14% rating the country as “average.” An additional four percent called the U.S. “below average” on the global scale.

Huge Majority Oppose Deporting DACA Dreamers

Buck Banks

85%

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds voters overwhelmingly support allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country: “A majority of voters, 58%, think these undocumented immigrants, also known as Dreamers, should be allowed to stay and become citizens if they meet certain requirements — a sentiment that goes well beyond the existing DACA program. Another 18% think they should be allowed to stay and become legal residents, but not citizens. Only 15% think they should be removed or deported from the country.”

Obama Bashes Trump Over DACA Decision

Buck Banks

“To target these young people is wrong — because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating — because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel.”

— Barack Obama, bashing President Trump’s decision to rescind an immigration order shielding some children of undocumented immigrants from deportation, calling the move “cruel” and “self-defeating,” CNN reports.

Perfesser Trump’s Ineffective President Course

Buck Banks

Courtesy Pixabay
Courtesy Pixabay
Charlie Cook points out that Donald Trump is not just President of the Electoral College, he’s also qualified to teach a course in presidential ineffectiveness:

“If you wanted to offer a graduate-school class in how not to be an effective president of the United States, Donald Trump could write the textbook and teach the course.”

“The first lesson would be to cater myopically to your base, alienating those in your party who are not in your core constituency—particularly the congressional leadership and power players who would be the ones instrumental to actually getting anything done. The second lesson would be to offend independent voters, those not married to either party who are at least theoretically open to the arguments from both sides. Finally, the third lesson would be to do everything possible to eliminate any chance of getting defections from the ranks of the other party while riling up the other party’s base, giving them an intensity that they may have lacked when they lost last year’s election.”

“That’s pretty much how you would do it—and it’s what Trump has done.”

The Trump Legislative Effort in a ‘Shambles’

Buck Banks

“Donald Trump last week suffered enormous setbacks on his three highest legislative priorities and Congress wasn’t even in session. … Each of these losses took away most or all of the leverage Trump is going to need to get Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, fund his wall and do something on taxes. As a result, Trump’s legislative agenda, which was already in deep trouble before last week, is now in a complete shambles.”

— Stan Collender