Tag: Pres. Obama

Poll Finds 64% Tea Party Support for Impeaching Pres. Obama

Jon Ponder

graph-gop-ready-to-impeach

A poll from Democracy Corps found that the Republican base supports impeaching Pres. Obama by a two-to-one margin. The poll did not ask what high crime or misdemeanor tea partyists believe the president is guilty of, but presumably it is “presidenting while black.”

Congressional tea party boss Ted Cruz routinely bullied House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders in the 113th Congress into pursuing unpopular actions, chiefly including shutting down the government. Polls like this one suggest that it’s more likely than not that Boehner, McConnell, now the incoming majority leader in the Senate, and the rest will be cowed by Cruz — whose extremist caucus will have at least six new members in the Senate — into proceeding with impeachment in the 114th Congress.

Watch Rachel Maddow’s interview with the pollster, Stan Greenberg, HERE.

Sure, Obama’s Approval Rate Is Down in NC, But GOP Senate Candidate Thom Tillis’ Is Only 1 Point Higher

Jon Ponder

42% – 43%

Approval ratings in North Carolina of Pres. Obama and GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate Thom Tillis, respectively, according to a poll released Oct. 31 by CNN/ORC International. The poll found a 49-48 percent favorable/unfavorable rating for Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, the incumbent. The unfavorable rating for Tillis, who is also assembly leader, was 50 percent. Hagan holds a slight lead over Tillis, 48-46 percent, in the poll.

Deficit Drops to Lowest Level Since Before the 2008 Financial Crash

Jon Ponder

chart-deficit-lowest-since-2008

Bloomberg:

The budget deficit in the U.S. shrank in the last fiscal year to the lowest level as a share of the economy since 2007 as faster growth and falling unemployment boosted tax receipts, the Treasury Department said.

The shortfall was $483.4 billion in the 12 months to Sept. 30, compared with $680.2 billion a year earlier, the Treasury said today in Washington. That’s about a third of the record $1.4 trillion deficit reached in 2009. Revenue jumped 8.9 percent and spending gained 1.4 percent, the figures showed.

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said the fiscal improvement is partly tied to stronger growth, as the nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent in September from 7.2 percent a year earlier. Still, the deficit is forecast by the Congressional Budget Office to start widening again as an aging population prompts more spending on Social Security and health care.

Initial Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since Clinton Left Office

Jon Ponder

chart-jobless-claims-2000-2014

“The number of people who applied for U.S. jobless benefits fell 23,000 to 264,000 in the week that ended Oct. 11, hitting the lowest level since April 2000, showing that employers are laying off few workers, according to government data released Thursday,” Marketwatch reports. April 2000 was three months after Pres. Clinton left office. The chart above from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employment never recovered during the six years Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. The chart also shows that unemployment surged in advance of the financial collapse on Bush’s watch and only began to recover very slowly after the Stimulus kicked in. It’s impossible to say how much more quickly employment might have rebounded if Republicans in Congress and GOP governors hadn’t deliberately stalled the recovery by cutting funding to government services and employment.

More from Marketwatch:

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It’s True – History Will Likely View Obama As a Great President

Jon Ponder

photo-pres.obama-2014

Paul Krugman’s article, “In Defense of Obama,” in Rolling Stone has caused a minor stir. In it he counters the anti-Obama currents swirling on both the left and the right by suggesting that Obama “has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history.”

“Obama was indeed naive: He faced scorched-earth Republican opposition from Day One, and it took him years to start dealing with that opposition realistically.”
– Paul Krugman

Krugman was not always a fan. “Back in 2008, when many liberals were wildly enthusiastic about his candidacy and his press was strongly favorable,” Krugman writes. “I was skeptical. I worried that he was naive, that his talk about transcending the political divide was a dangerous illusion given the unyielding extremism of the modern American right … And I wasn’t wrong. Obama was indeed naive: He faced scorched-earth Republican opposition from Day One, and it took him years to start dealing with that opposition realistically.”

Even now, Krugman writes, the president’s most historically consequential successes — healthcare reform and recovery from the 2008 financial crash and the Bush recession that ensued — come with caveats. “Health reform is imperfect, but still a huge step forward,” says Krugman,”and it’s working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it’s much more effective than you’d think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy.”

After presenting his case on Obama’s achievements in healthcare, financial reform, the economy, the environment and national security, Krugman sums up:

[…]

Jon Stewart to FOX on the Coffee Salute: ‘You’re Just Trying to Score Points in a Game No Else is Playing’

Trish

First, I am not opposed to the United States and other countries trying to wipe out ISIL. Whether they are an immediate threat to us is not the only concern. That Americans, including and especially journalists, can move around the world freely is a huge concern.

Second, I can’t agree more about the disgusting hypocrisy, hostility, and pettiness shown the president of the country these people claim to love. He was elected by more than half of us, and those are the rules under which your “beloved” country operates so please suck it up, like we did when the moron was in power and we were under threat from abroad. Put your country, not your hatreds, first.

Pres. Obama’s Statement on Robin Williams

Trish

In full:

Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien – but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and verse thanks to Robin Williams.

May we just add, nice use of the word, “bangarang,” Mr. President.