The President of the United States traveled to Galesburg, Illinois today in order to make a speech on his economic plan and policies. Frankly there wasn't a lot there we haven't already heard about.
In fact prior to the address, John Boehner, the rube who is rumored to be in charge of the house of representatives, asked rhetorically, "What's the point? What's it going to accomplish?" Those might have been valid questions if they'd come from anyone besides Mr. Boehner. Obviously the guy who has allowed the house to vote 38 times to repeal Obama Care when he was fully aware that each one of those votes would lead no where, has very little credibilty in the, what's the point area.
Well there is a reason practically everyone in the nation loathes congress. And make no mistake about it, the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal sponsored poll shows just that.
The numbers are breathtakingly bad. Obama's job approval rating has slipped to 45%, which is a single point above his all time low. However, when compared to the numbers congress put up the man is practically as popular as George Alexander Louis, Prince of Cambridge.
A stunning 83% of Americans disapprove of the job congress is doing. The 12% who think things are going along swimmingly represent the lowest approval number in the history of the poll. In addition, 57% of those polled say that if the option was available to them in 2014 they'd vote to throw each and every member of congress out onto the street and replace them with someone new. That number stays constant when the participants were asked about their own representative. 57% said get rid of the loser while only 32% said they'd vote to keep him, or her.
As the poll progressed those participating were asked, "When you hear republicans say immigration reform must wait until our borders are secure, is that a legitimate concern or an excuse to block the legislation?" It appears the public has caught on to exactly how republicans work. 36% said it was a legitimate concern while 59% said it was just a bull shit excuse to block all immigration reform.
In addition, those taking the poll were asked to give their reaction to a list of names. The response choices were, Very Positive, Somewhat Positive, Neutral, Somewhat Negative, Very Negative, and Don't Know. 48% responded on the positive side when it came to the president, while 40% responded on the negative end of the spectrum. On the other hand, Mr. Boehner's numbers were 18% in the positive and 36% in the negative. To put that in perspective the only people with worse numbers were George Zimmerman, who shot and killed an unarmed teen and Edward Snowden, the former NSA contract employee who might end up being charged with treason.
Yes, it seems new lows abound everywhere and just about everyone sucks. Unfortunately for the president and the nation as a whole, the average tea party bobble head doesn't give a rat's ass about poll numbers. They are on an ideological kamikaze mission. They've become adept at procedural terrorism and obstruction and that is all they are interested in. The moderates, if there are any actually left, live in dread of them.
Obama recognized that today when he told the crowd in Galesburg, "The fact is there are republicans who privately agree with me on many of the ideas I'll be proposing, but worry they'll face swift polictical retaliation for saying so."
Indeed, thanks to the crass gerrymandering that took place in 2010, most republicans in the house don't even worry about general elections any more. Their greatest fear is a bug eyed ultra right rogue wolverine running around their home district, financed by the crazed Koch brothers, claiming they are soft on Obama. Yes, complete fealty must be maintained, or one of purer faith will end up in the seat they currently occupy. It is almost as if the reincarnation of ol' Max Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety has taken charge of the party and decides who stays and who makes the walk up the steps to the guillotine.
Barak Obama's presidency is going to fail, not because of his leadership, policies, lack of tact, or negotiating skills--certainly not because of any unwillingness to hunt down and kill deadly terrorists. It is going to fail because the hard core right--their philosophy heavily contaminated by intractable racism and an abject fear of the future, has no other purpose than to make it fail. Tragically, at this point in time, they have just enough numbers to make it so.
That is America today.
And it stinks.
If you don't think so just ask the people who took the poll.
7-24-13
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