Zen & The Art of Self-Contradiction

John McCain might be so old his passport lists Pangea as country of birth (yay, plate techtonics joke!), but that wisdom of age thing seems to be a bit hit and miss. Or is he a Zen master whose deep pronouncements sail over the heads of the average herd?

With Obama's approval rating now so low, and Palin's so inexplicably high, there's only a one point diff between the two in a hypothetical presidential race. So what does McCain say about his goofy veep pick now she's become so powerful?

"I think that Sarah Palin … has earned herself a very big place in the Republican political scene," says McCain. But he then adds "She’s irrelevant."

Very Zen. Or is McCain just being nonsensical and self-contradicting? What the hell is he talking about?

Maybe this signifies nothing more than a leading GOP'er admitting that the 'Republican scene' itself is irrelevant. Spent, used, degraded... much like himself.

GOP Civil War

Says Andrew Sullivan:

"Senator Lindsey Graham is censured by the Charleston GOP for supporting cap-and-trade legislation to tackle climate change, for supporting the bailout of the banks, and for backing McCain's immigration bill. The base of the GOP's position seems to be that climate change is a hoax, the banks should have been allowed to fail, and illegal immigrants should be rounded up and sent home. This is not a serious platform for a party interested in actually governing."

Yet, inexplicably, Gallup polling from yesterday shows voters favoring a generic Republican over a generic Democrat by 4% with 22% of independents backing the GOP. How the f*** does this happen?

Wishing Bad Numbers on Obama

Only 20% of Americans call themselves Republicans - the lowest in 26 years.

The Republican party continues to struggle. According to recent polls, they're all set for further losses in the mid-terms.

"Only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans, little changed in recent months, but still the lowest single number in Post-ABC polls since 1983. Political independents continue to make up the largest group, at 42 percent of respondents; 33 percent call themselves Democrats.

The wide gap in partisan leanings and the lack of confidence in the GOP carries into early assessments of the November 2010 midterm elections: Fifty-one percent say they would back the Democratic candidate in their congressional district if the elections were held now, while 39 percent would vote for the Republican. Independents split 45 percent for the Democrat, 41 percent for the Republican."

I can't help but 'yay' a little in my head reading that. But there are negative implications for those of us who support Obama but find his reluctance to actually do stuff frustrating.

With the GOP on the ropes, it's too tempting for him to dance out the first round and wait for the bell. And that sucks for all of us who are still waiting for those fine campaign words to translate into policy. Popularity sucks.

But a quick look back at the Bush administration shows that unpopularity can be a big advantage. When your approval ratings languish in the twenties, it's a great time to push your agenda because you have nothing to lose. Even a policy disaster can't hurt you when you're at rock bottom anyway.

So, snarky as it may sound, I'm wishing unpopularity on Obama. If his approval ratings were in the twenties right now, he'd sure as hell drop his obsession with process and start bullying the Senate into passing a few bills that would help non-corporate America. Hell, if he was as unpopular as Bush was in his second term, he'd probably still be pushing for single-payer healthcare.

My advice to liberals: next time some schmuck from Rasmussen interrupts your dinner, just lie and tell them you disapprove of Obama and you're voting Republican in 2010. Maybe then he'll get some useful unpopularity to work with.

News Flash From The Birther Bunker: Victory Declared!

After 9 months of sifting through the Internet Wayback Machine, they've finally hit pay dirt: a 5-year old screw-up by the AP as it appeared on the East African Sunday Standard online. I'm sure Obama is tendering his resignation and packing his bags as we speak... Gushes John Charlton at Infowars:

"Seeing that an AP reporter is too professional to submit a story which was not based on confirmed sources (ostensibly the Obama campaign in this case), the inference seems inescapable: Obama himself was putting out in 2004, that he was born in Kenya."

Err... did they spell his name as 'Barrack' in the story because they're way "too professional" too? And are there currently 166,000 pings for "Associated Press retracts" on Google because they'd "never submit a story which was not based on confirmed sources"?

Funny how the notoriously sloppy AP is suddenly the word of God because they want it to be. Yet the unproven Limbaugh quotes are totally and utterly false and you'd have to be an idiot to believe them.

Oh, and by the way, that "too professional" AP is still spelling Obama's first name wrong. Easy mistake to make when you're an American news service. He's only President of the United States after all.

Sarah Palin Approval Shocker

I wasn't particularly surprised about Sarah Palin's 69% approval rating among Republicans. But a 14% approval rating with Democrats? Who are these people? If you know any, please do us all a favor and ask "Dude, WTF?!"

Down But Not Out

2008 Campaign flashback... Wish I could find the picture of McCain wearing a dashiki in Watts that same day.

Obama's approval trajectory might look disappointing right now but, at the same 200 day mark in his presidency, Bush was 3-4% less popular. (Then, of course, 9-11 happened and the resultant mood of national solidarity pushed him up to a stratospheric 90%.)

Those amongst us who are not shedding faith in Obama, should take comfort in the stats. At this point in his presidency, Clinton was also behind Obama by a full 8 points. Even so, and in spite of Gingrich and co's determination to destroy him, he went on to leave office with a rating almost double that of Bush.

So if Obama does have Clinton-league balls and is able to grow stronger by feeding off the hatred like Bubba did, he's all set for a second term and a chance of being remembered as a top ten C-in-C.

It wouldn't hurt to start following through on some campaign promises as well.