Northwest Indiana Discussion

here we go again

he fills these peoples heads with his f***in lies and then we have to wait before reality sets in again....and then even more damage will be done.

DUMBO knows his constituents are idiots...MSNBC's talking heads this morning had 95% of them saying the speech was a home run (imagine that)

Few if any of them can tell you what he said they don't pay attention content...they were simply in awe of "forcefulness" of his delivery...and the aura of the ''show''....useful idiots still in la la land listening to the messiah tell all is well.

by the way edge.....





these latest numbers you posted?

were tallied from people who actually listened to his speech.

You won't find very many Republicans that did...latest I saw was only 18 percent.

so most of these results were from YOU dumbocrats!

again you are given skewed ratings...and misleading information

as usual

anything to prop this loser up huh?

haw!

How can you see anything when you have your head up your @ss?...and I'd like to see a link about that 18%...or is that yet again you pulling nonsense out your...

Except for . . . you know . . . this . . .

CNN SPIN SPEECH 'POLL' SAMPLED DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF DEMS

And this . . .


'45 percent Democratic and 18 percent Republican'


Maybe you should get your news from a source that is fair and balanced instead.

Thanks Arc, you just posted a source that is fair and balanced, CNN.

Gee, only 18% were republicans?...yeah, that's a shame. LOL.

Not too many republicans out there, huh?

You don't understand the concept of polling or mathematics very well.

Typical.

Some Blacks Now Have Doubts About Obama

Americans of all political persuasions agree that the nation has problems. Big problems.

And here's where we all part company. The political left, who now control our government, thinks we need more government -- a lot more. Those on the right see our problems as the result of excess government and want to move things in the opposite direction.

Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin FREE

The fact that Democrats, with their man in the White House, and control of both houses of Congress, are having difficulty getting their big government programs passed says something about the strength of the grass roots push back now taking place.

Stirring is even occurring among blacks.

According to the Pew Research Center, the president's approval rating nationwide is now 10 points lower than last April. Included in this is a three-point drop in his approval among blacks.

You might say, Star, a drop in approval ratings among blacks from 95 percent to 92 percent is trivial. But I say not so.

If we assume this reflects the 16 million blacks who voted for Obama last November, a three point shift means there are about a half million blacks who now have buyer's remorse.

This is meaningful. You take real risks going against the establishment in black America. Psychological risks, professional risks, and sometimes risks to personal safety. Peeling off a black who voted for Obama means moving heaven and earth.

Even a star like Bill Cosby incurred the wrath of the black establishment when he started talking about black families and personal responsibility. As result, he backed off and toned down his message.

Recall during the campaign, candidate Obama ruffled Jesse Jackson's feathers when he spoke about personal responsibility among black males. An inadvertently "on" microphone picked up Jackson saying that he wanted to castrate Obama (not exactly in that language).

The black conservative is not that rare freak of nature that so many think.

According to a Pew Research Center report, almost a third of blacks consider themselves conservative.

However, these folks have always been inclined to be quiet because of the social pressures and intimidation.

But this is changing.

Despite slurs, intimidation, and widely reported physical attacks from union thugs, a few brave black souls have showed up at tea party protest rallies.

I'm getting more and more calls from black conservatives around the country running for local office. I see black conservative Web sites popping up and there's even black rappers rapping a conservative message.

Who, after all, could know more about the lie about government and the pretense of political answers to life's problems than blacks?

It's black families that have been devastated by welfare state programs and black kids now trapped in hopeless public schools. And it's overwhelmingly black unborn children who never see the light of day.

How can blacks who have their eyes open not have noticed that it was Obama who killed the D.C. school voucher program and sent black children back to one of the worst public school systems in the country.

The Cato Institute reports that, after adjusting for inflation, funds spent on public schools have doubled since 1970, with no improvement in education performance and a decrease in graduation rates. This is government at work.

The Israelites wandered for 40 years after they left Egypt, giving time for the slave generation to disappear and for a new generation to bear the responsibilities of freedom.

Next year marks 40 years since the decade of the '60s, which gave us the civil rights movement.

I see a new generation of freedom loving, church going black Americans coming on the scene. Many voted for Obama out of racial pride. But their values and aspirations for freedom are causing a change of heart.

Obama’s Olympic failure will only add to doubts about his presidency

There has been a growing narrative taking hold about Barack Obama’s presidency in recent weeks: that he is loved by many, but feared by none; that he is full of lofty vision, but is actually achieving nothing with his grandiloquence.

Chicago’s dismal showing yesterday, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft.

It was only the Olympic Games, the White House will argue — not a high-stakes diplomatic gamble with North Korea. It is always worthwhile when Mr Obama sells America to the rest of the world, David Axelrod, his chief political adviser, said today. But that argument will fall on deaf ears in the US. Americans want their presidents to be winners

Obama’s Glory Days Fading Fast

Sunday, October 4, 2009 11:03 PM

By: Christopher Ruddy Article Font Size




“Glory days well they'll pass you by . . . Glory days . . . in the wink of a young girl's eye.”

Barack Obama’s “glory days,” as Bruce Springsteen might have called them, are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

No president has ever come into office with so much anticipation — and no president has seen his approval ratings crumble so quickly, at least as long as such statistics have been kept.

Obama’s low approval numbers are linked closely with his increasingly unpopular “healthcare reform” plan, which is in jeopardy as it founders in Congress and in the public's eye.

One sign the Democratic healthcare plan is in trouble is the fact that most of the Sunday talk shows during the weekend were focused on Afghanistan.

Most of the major media have been rooting for Obama’s socialist healthcare plan. Now that it is encountering serious resistance in Congress, the press decides to ignore the story. Next . . . .

Afghanistan is an important issue, but healthcare should have been the big topic of the day with the Obama plan coming down to the wire in Congress.





But it wasn’t top news because polls show massive dissatisfaction with Obama and his healthcare program.

Moderate Democrats are not blind: They see the same polls and are worried. Obama is no longer popular or invincible, and congressional elections are now just right around the corner.

No wonder many people in Washington want to change the subject.

This is not the first time a president facing a daunting domestic problem suddenly changes the subject to some foreign crisis. The Obama administration clearly is ratcheting up the rhetoric about Afghanistan.

Interestingly, Gen. Stanley McChrystal revealed on “60 Minutes” that he and Obama had only spoken once, and briefly, via a videoconference since Obama became president.

For sure, Afghanistan is not the most pressing problem facing the United States, but it is a festering one that could get critically worse.

The mission to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban began as a well-intentioned one. But we have discovered Iraq redux: creating a stable puppet regime is not so easy.

Afghanistan does have some differences from the Iraq quagmire. One is that fact that the Afghan war, launched in 2001, received broad global support and was led by NATO.

As Obama mulls the idea of a “surge” — of up to 40,000 troops — the question is why he can’t use his political muscle to get NATO, not the United States, to cough up the additional troops.

One reason is that Europe simply does not take the new president seriously. Perhaps global interest in Obama is waning, and quickly.

One clue was the devastating defeat the president witnessed firsthand when he traveled to Copenhagen to lobby personally for the 2016 Olympics for his hometown of Chicago.

America and Obama were not only rejected but also rejected badly: The United States received the least amount of votes and was eliminated in the first round.

What an embarrassment for the president after making a personal plea!

Personally, I would have liked Obama to have gotten the Olympic trophy for the United States, if for no other reason that he be perceived strong on the world stage. The country faces too many serious threats abroad, not to mention an economic crisis at home, for the world to think our president is weak.

Whatever our political differences at home, we don’t want our president viewed as weak, as that could have terrible results for our country.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama is demonstrating weakness. Who advised him to go to Copenhagen and leave himself so vulnerable? Or does the president believe his own press releases and think the “Obama effect” will cause other nations simply to roll over?



The president is an amateur. We are seeing this as more and more by his actions.

We saw it with the president’s recent announcement at the G-20 to expose Iran’s secret nuclear enrichment facility. European leaders, including France’s Sarkozy, reportedly were angered that the president did not use the U.N. Security Council meeting, held just the day before in New York, to confront Iran.

Obama’s excuse? Supposedly he didn’t want the news of Iran’s facility to "spoil the image of success" he wanted after he pushed through an anti-nuclear weapons resolution at the world body.

Press reports say that Sarkozy believes the president is terribly naïve. It is widely acknowledged now that Sarkozy, not Obama, has taken the leadership role in holding Iran accountable for its flagrant violations of international rules regarding its nuclear weapons program.

On the domestic front, the president also is demonstrating weakness. Despite facing the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression (his description), he has spent the better part of his first nine months in office attempting to push through a radical healthcare bill.

Healthcare is not in immediate crisis, and Obama’s efforts do nothing to address the economic crisis. In fact, his healthcare plan, if it passes, may make things worse, as it will lead to more mandates, taxes, and “fees” to pay for 30 million new patients he wants to add to the government system.

And despite the recession, other key agenda items for the president in the coming months include a cap-and-trade bill that will add more costs to the energy expenses of consumers and businesses and immigration reform that will make millions more eligible for government entitlement programs.

As the first year of President Obama’s new administration draws to a close, it is becoming increasingly clear that Americans are realizing what European leaders such as Sarkozy see, that President Obama doesn’t have a clue.

We really shouldn’t be surprised. We elected a man whose most significant job outside of politics was as a “community organizer.”

The nation’s economic situation has not improved, and we likely will soon face serious threats abroad. We can only hope that Barack Obama begins to learn from his mistakes.



© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Another Fine Mess: Comics Whack Obama

Article Tools Sponsored By
By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: October 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — Is President Obama in trouble with his late-night comedy base?

It’s likely he hasn’t noticed or doesn’t care. He is, after all, in the midst of his oft-invoked “full plate” of supposedly “defining moments” in his presidency — a “defining” decision on Afghanistan, “defining” legislative battle on health care, among other “defining” things.

But there is perhaps another more subtle set of "defining” episodes playing out for Mr. Obama in the televised comedy salons that had previously, by and large, been relatively gentle spaces for him. The bits about him are getting harsher. They are no longer just gentle gibes about Bo the dog, big ears, bad bowling and beer summits.

A conspicuous (if not “defining”) episode occurred Oct. 3 on Saturday Night Live in a skit set in the Oval Office. The president (played by Fred Armisen) was defending his record against critics who had accused him of turning the United States “into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.” Not so, protested the faux-Bama.

“When you look at my record, it’s very clear what I’ve done so far,” he said. “And that is nothing.”

The sketch went on to show Mr. Obama/Armisen running through a checklist of things he had vowed to do — closing Guantánamo Bay prison, overhauling health care. All were marked, Not Done.

“Looking at this list I am seeing two big accomplishments,” he said. “Jack and Squat.” And ouch.

Mr. Obama has of course been a puzzle to comedians for some time. They agonized during the campaign about how his low-key and confident manner did not lend itself to edgy caricature. The challenge was made greater by the sensitivities inherent to lampooning a black candidate.

And from the outset, Mr. Obama has been praised as someone who “gets late night,” whose ironic and self-deprecating humor is well-suited to the genre’s sensibilities. He was the first sitting president to appear as a guest of Jay Leno’s and David Letterman’s. “You ignore their influence at your peril,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House’s deputy communications director. “They are often leading indicators of where the narrative is headed.”

But recent indicators could be proving ominous. There has been a proliferation of jokes that feed on — or are fed by — a resuscitated old narrative against the president that goes back to last year’s campaign when both John McCain and Hillary Clinton tried to portray Mr. Obama as an All Talk/No Walk showboat.

Last Tuesday, Jon Stewart advanced the Saturday Night Live “do nothing” theme on “The Daily Show.” It began as a standard Stewart video-clip juxtaposition of Mr. Obama (and surrogates) promising to end the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. It continued with clips from the ensuing months of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Adviser Jim Jones saying they had not yet gotten around to reversing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” citing Mr. Obama’s “full plate” of business. (“The president needs a metaphor czar,” Mr. Stewart said.)

What followed was Mr. Stewart, exasperated with a man he had supported, throwing his hands up and essentially imploring the president to, you know, do something.

“All that stuff you’ve been putting on your plate?” Mr. Stewart said. “It’s [expletive] chow time, brother. That’s how you get things off your plate.”

After a roar of laughter and applause from the audience, Mr. Stewart reminded Mr. Obama that “You are president of the United States.” It sounded like something between a liberal call to action or cry for help. As Mr. Stewart grew more animated and the crowd grew louder, the routine took on the feel of a televised catharsis.

“There have been some clear shots coming across the bow from the comic left,” observed Ric Keller, a former Republican congressman from Florida who once wrote jokes for Jeb Bush, the former governor.

Others have noted another creeping caricature of Mr. Obama as a ditherer. On Thursday, for instance, Mr. Leno joked that no one should expect the president’s decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan anytime soon. “Remember, it took five months to decide on a puppy,” he said.

Jeff Nussbaum, a Democratic speech and joke writer, disagrees that late-night comedy is a leading indicator of a cultural zeitgeist. “To use an economic term, it is more of a lagging indicator,” he said, something that responds to perceptions that are already entrenched. In practical terms, President Obama has now been in office almost nine months, Mr. Nussbaum said, and “comedians now have a greater body of work to go after, for better or worse.”

By and large, the bulk of late-night barbs directed at the president remain glancing at best. “The jokes are still largely about things like how the media lionizes Obama, or what the opposition is saying about him,” said Bob Lichter, of George Mason University’s Center for Media and Public Affairs, who has been tracking themes in late-night humor since 1988.

Mr. Lichter said it was too soon to tell whether the Saturday Night Live skit is a “harbinger or outlier” in how comics will treat Mr. Obama. At the very least, it provided a comic articulation of a potentially devastating message: “The danger is that Mr. Obama is going to be defined by inaction and not living up to expectations,” he said.

Mr. Lichter posits Mr. Obama’s Nobel Prize as a kind of test case for how people are perceiving him, and whether a caricature has taken hold of a man more celebrated than accomplished. “It will be telling to see how the comedians treat this,” he said.

As if trying to strike pre-emptively against inevitable ridiculers, Mr. Obama seemed eager to embrace the “I haven’t done anything yet” conceit in his Rose Garden remarks Friday morning. “Let me be clear,” he said. “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments.” But it was also striking how so many people seemed to greet the Nobel news with shock followed by laughter, as if truth and caricature has achieved a newly seamless blend in the Obama imprint.

Really, the words rang distinctively comic: “Did you hear that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize?” It sounded like the set up to a joke — one of those jokes where the set-up itself is the punch-line.

“That’s pretty amazing, winning the Nobel Peace Prize,” Jay Leno said, first out of the box Friday night. “Ironically, his biggest accomplishment as president so far ... winning the Nobel Peace Prize.”

CNN Poll: Half the country disagrees with Obama on issues
Posted: October 20th, 2009 12:40 PM ET

From CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser

WASHINGTON (CNN) – For the first time since he took over in the White House, Americans don't see eye to eye with President Barack Obama on the important issues, according to a new national poll. But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey does indicate that a majority approve of how Obama's handling his duties as president.

According to the poll, which was released Tuesday, 48 percent of people questioned say that they agree with Obama on the issues that matter most to them, with 51 percent saying no. That's a switch from April, when 57 percent said they agreed with the president on important issues, with 41 percent disagreeing.

"Obama is facing crunch time on a number of controversial issues, from health care to financial regulation to cap and trade to Afghanistan," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The fact that most Americans no longer agree with him on important issues makes his task harder.

Barack Obama sees worst poll rating drop in 50 years

The decline in Barack Obama's popularity since July has been the steepest of any president at the same stage of his first term for more than 50 years.

Gallup recorded an average daily approval rating of 53 per cent for Mr Obama for the third quarter of the year, a sharp drop from the 62 per cent he recorded from April.

His current approval rating – hovering just above the level that would make re-election an uphill struggle – is close to the bottom for newly-elected president. Mr Obama entered the White House with a soaring 78 per cent approval rating.

The bad polling news came as Mr Obama returned to the campaign trail to prevent his Democratic party losing two governorships next month in states in which he defeated Senator John McCain in last November's election.

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup explained: "The dominant political focus for Obama in the third quarter was the push for health care reform, including his nationally televised address to Congress in early September.

"Obama hoped that Congress would vote on health care legislation before its August recess, but that goal was missed, and some members of Congress faced angry constituents at town hall meetings to discuss health care reform. Meanwhile, unemployment continued to climb near 10 per cent."