Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Another Poll and Gruesome Beasts on Ballots

The good people at NBC and the Wall Street Journal are back to asking Americans questions. What they've found is we're not a happy lot.

In fact the Vox Populi is pretty much disgusted with everyone and everything. According to the poll, Barack Obama's approval rating dropped to 40%, a new low for him. It isn't the only bad news for the president. Only 36% of Americans approve his handling of foreign policy while 43% think he is doing okay on the economy.

Things aren't a lot better for congressional democrats. 31% of those asked consider them favorably and 46% rate them unfavorably. In addition only 43% of those polled say they prefer a congress controlled by the party of Jefferson.

Yikes.

Looking at numbers like these it easy to imagine corks on champagne bottles being popped at the headquarters of places like FreedomWorks and Club for Growth, while Sheldon Adelson yells, "Free drinks for everyone," at a few of his casinos. Not to mention Rush Limbaugh perversely exposing himself on some broad urban avenue as he does the jelly belly to the sounds of Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever."

Well, GOP movers and shakers might want to keep the bubbly on ice for a little bit longer and Rush should probably hold off on emptying that extra large tube of KY Jelly onto his naked torso just yet.

43% might have said they want a democratic controlled congress, but the republicans could only beat that number by a single point, which is well within the margin of error. What isn't within the margin of error is the mere 19% of Americans who rate republican members of congress favorably as opposed to the 54% who gave them an unfavorable mark. The poll also says the party of Richard M. Nixon trails among women by double digits.

Everyone knows, or should know, both the left and right are going to spin these numbers in the most favorable way and try to discredit the other side's version. In fact the right wing media is already claiming NBC is trying to shift the dissatisfaction with Obama to Washington as a whole.

Actually NBC doesn't have to shift anything. According to the poll a grand total of 79% of everyone asked thinks this congress is unproductive and 50% of those people say it has been very unproductive. 71% believe national economic problems continue due to the inability of all elected officials to get anything done. And while Obama's approval rating is at 40%, the number of people approving of congress right now is 14%. It is the 7th straight time over a three year period the figure has stayed under 19%.

While all that is appalling the most frightening number to emerge is the 79%  who said they weren't only dissatisfied with the players, but the entire political system. That's right, nearly eight out of every ten people who were asked are so pissed off at what is going on in Washington they seem to be saying they'd like to toss out everything--what they want to replace it with is a little scary to contemplate.

Meanwhile, up in Iowa presidential hopeful, Rand Paul told a crowd of believers there is nothing wrong with GOP policy, it is just that if people don't think you care about them they won't listen to your ideas.

In order to dispel the entire notion of republicans not caring about people the party had two candidates to choose from in the senate primary held in Kansas yesterday.

The incumbent, Pat Roberts has been in congress so long his permanent home is in northern Virginia. His voting residence is a room he supposedly rents from a political supporter in the state.

What an asshole, right? He's Exactly the type of guy all those poll results say America is fed up with. His opponent was a fire breathing tea party type named Milton Wolf who, coincidentally, is a distant relative of Barack Obama. He is also a doctor and a kind of of political newbie--which made him the perfect sort to take out some dude who, as they say, is part of the problem.

NBC is reporting Roberts won the race, despite all his baggage. One of the main reasons he did is during the campaign a Topeka newspaper found out in January of 2010, Dr. Wolf posted a bunch of patient X-rays on his Facebook page along with some, let's say, morbid jokes about their conditions.

On his campaign website Wolf claimed he was against Obamacare because, in his words, it was "immoral."

While it might be tough for the senator from Kentucky to fathom how millions of people can come to the conclusion republicans don't care about them, less than 24 hours ago there was a major hint in Kansas.

Hey, it's just an observation..





8-6-14

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