Obama Worse Than Bush

See this CNN poll which asks in question number three:

Do you consider the first six months of the Obama administration to be a success or a failure?

The results: 51% consider the Obama administration to be a success, 37% consider it a failure.

Compare these results with those for the Bush administration (asked at the same point - August, 2001) where 56% considered it a success and 32% considered it to be failure.

Notes:
1. These ratings for the Bush administration were taken before the tragic events of September 11 which caused approval for the Bush administration to rise.
2. CNN tends to be more favorable to Democrats than Republicans.
3. Hat tips to Matt Drudge and RealClearPolitics for the links to CNN.

Quote of the Day

John Hinderaker, one of the three authors of the PowerLine blog, taking a swipe at the President:

Increasingly, it seems that Barack Obama's affinity for the regime in Iran is that of one corrupt government for another.

Ca-ching! Don't hide your feelings, John.

Missing the Point

This article from The Nation, and others like it, go on at great length about how bottled water is no more pure than tap water. Who knows, they are probably right. And yes, the plastic bottles do clutter up our landfills.

I believe all such screeds miss the point of bottled water. Except in third world countries where tap water is clearly unfit for drinking, people don't buy bottled water because it is safer. In developed countries, people buy bottled water because it is convenient and because it tastes better than tap water.

Much municipal tap water tastes awful. It is so heavily chlorinated it could almost be used to bleach clothes. Running tap water through a charcoal filter makes it taste as good as bottled water. Perhaps we should filter tap water and use refillable containers. However, that is inconvenient.

I am somewhat sympathetic with the viewpoint that bottled water is wasteful. However, the way to get people to stop buying bottled water is to have good tasting municipal tap water. Simply scolding people to stop buying bottled water won't do the job.

Elegant Phraseology

Scott Johnson, one of the three men who create the PowerLine blog, writing about the 2003 Obama health care quote we cite below and the White House's semi-denials since:

He (Obama) nevertheless finds it useful to deny his support for such a government takeover. But it is the object of his desire, and it is the direction in which he is moving, Linda Douglass to the contrary notwithstanding.

I love it when someone correctly uses a phrase like "Linda Douglass to the contrary notwithstanding."
Way to go, Scott.

Isn't It Obvious?

The Washington Post runs this article which expresses amazement that Republican senators opposing the Sotomayor nomination aren't worried about Hispanic backlash. I believe the Post knows better.

Republican senators might worry about Hispanic backlash if any substantial number of Hispanics had voted Republican in the last two elections. Since few Hispanics voted Republican, I suspect the GOP senators are of the opinion that you cannot lose what you (a) don't have, or (b) don't have a reasonable chance of getting.

Probably the only candidate the GOP could run who would have a decent shot at the Hispanic vote is former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Jeb has an Hispanic wife and is a Roman Catholic convert.

What He Really Wants

President Barack H. Obama, speaking in 2003 at an AFL-CIO Civil, Human, and Women's Rights Conference, about what he would prefer in a health plan:

I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see.

Please forgive the lengthy quote. You can find the video of this speech and the rest of the text of the quote here on Breitbart.tv. The quote doesn't make clear the identity of the "Jim" he mentions, presumably the prior speaker.

Hat tip to Matt Drudge for the link to the site.

Quote of the Day

Robert Samuelson, speaking of the lesson we should learn from California's budget problems:

The state's wrenching experience suggests that, as a nation, we should begin to pare back government's future commitments to avoid a similar fate.

This is an amazing thing to hear from a liberal economist. The article can be found at RealClearPolitics.

Travel Blogging, Epilogue

We've been home from Canada for a week or more, enough time for impressions to ripen and thoughts to emerge. On this trip we traveled only to the province of Alberta, which Canadians say is the most like the U.S. Take that as a caveat for what follows.

As an American, traveling to Canada, I experience the two countries as very similar. So similar, in fact, that there is virtually zero culture shock. As an experienced traveler, I look for differences and, if I look very carefully, see a few. What amazes me is how few I do see, substantially fewer than there were 30+ years ago when I first started going north.

Canadians focus on the few differences that do exist; they magnify and value them as indicators of their independence. For example, they converted to metric and do business in kilometers and liters. On the other hand, they didn't choose to drive on the left or use 220 volt, 50 cycle power as the rest of the Commonwealth does. So be it.

The difference that most fascinates me is how much the average Canadian knows about the U.S., and how little the average American knows about Canada. It's like when a mouse lies down to sleep alongside an elephant, the mouse sleeps with one eye open, the elephant doesn't. That is, things that happen in the U.S. can really affect life in Canada; things that happen in Canada are much less likely to affect life in the U.S.

However minor the differences, I like Canada a lot - enough to want to visit every 2-3 years during the short but pleasant summers.

Social Class in Politics

Go here for a very interesting discussion in the San Francisco Examiner of the conflict between the "elitist left" and the "populist left." I have nothing to add to this discussion as I have no particular expertise concerning the left.

On the other hand, perhaps this dichotomy gives us insight concerning what has recently happened on the right - our operational territory. The populist right was excited about Sarah Palin, whereas the elitist right couldn't stand her. Ditto the division of opinion between the social conservatives (i.e., religious right) and the fiscal/foreign policy conservatives (i.e., "country club Republicans"). The former tend to be populist while the latter tend to be elitist.

I suspect each of the "big tent" major parties struggles with a social class division between the populist (i.e., "lower middle and working class") and the elitist (i.e., "upper and upper middle class") wings of the party. We seldom get so clear an opportunity to consider it.

Peters: Afghanistan a Mess

Ralph Peters writes knowledgeably about military matters for the New York Post. He has here a very gloomy assessment of our situation in Afghanistan; which we at COTTonLINE have labeled "Obama's War" and Peters calls "Vietnam-istan."

Peters' key point is that Afghanistan has never considered itself a country and is therefore unlikely to do so under our tutelage. His conclusion is chilling:

The echoes of Vietnam keep getting louder. Our well-intentioned aid only corrupts. We never pause to try to think like Afghans. And we comfort ourselves with platitudes, then lie about our prospects.

Brrrr.

Resort Whimsies, Part II

I forgot to include in my last post on this topic what was perhaps our most interesting encounter with celebrities here in western Wyoming. About 10 years ago we sold our first Wyoming house to NASCAR racing legend Richard Petty and his wife Lynda.

"The King" looks in person exactly as he does on TV; wife Lynda is no latter-day trophy wife, but an authentic real person and very nice. She does most of the talking when they're together because Richard's hearing is shot from all the years of screaming engines.

Our little place was around the corner and down the road from their much bigger place. They bought it so their pilots would have a place to stay when the Pettys flew in to spend a few days.

According to our realtor, the Pettys flew an electrician, a plumber, and a carpenter in from North Carolina. We hear these three climbed all over (and under) our house inspecting everything before the Pettys closed the deal.

Pew: Obama's Approval Slips

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, a polling group that tries to be neutral but ends up leaning somewhat left, reports some interesting results here. Between June and July, Obama's approval rating among their white respondents dropped from 52% to 48%. His ratings among blacks dropped even more, from 93% to 85%.

On certain policy issues, Obama's approval ratings are much lower, and have dropped substantially since April.

Just less than four-in-ten Americans (38%) now say they approve of Obama’s handling of the economy, down from 52% in June and 60% in April. In total, this rating has dropped 22 points from April to July.

Approval ratings for Obama’s handling of the federal budget deficit show a similar pattern. His performance rating on this issue dropped 18 points since April, going from 50% to 32%.

Approval for Obama’s handling of foreign policy has slipped from 61% in April to 47% – a decline of 14 points.

On the other hand, people say they like the President as a person. As JFK demonstrated, that is a valuable trait for a public figure.

Easter Island

Jeremy Hildreth has written an interesting article about Easter Island for The Wall Street Journal. He captures the feel of the island, which is a very special place. The other DrC and I visited Easter Island a couple of years ago.

The article is worth your time if you can filter out the environmentalist cant. He alleges that the Polynesians (our term) or Rapa Nui (their term) destroyed the island's trees and thus trapped themselves on the island without boat-building materials. This is likely true.

Hildreth then tries to make an analogy from isolated Easter Island to planet Earth. For me, at least, that analogy doesn't work. Easter Island is an isolated, homogeneous environment whereas Earth is a interconnected, highly diverse environment; in my eyes they are not analogs. See what you think.

Hat tip to Roger Baum for alerting me to the article.

A Hymn to America

Read this "hymn" to life in the United States by a BBC correspondent who is headed home to Blighty, and isn't sure he should. Justin Webb writes a sort of sweet-and-sour love song about his experience in the U.S.

He sees the bad along with the good, and admits to both. If you can handle the ambivalent nature of the American experience, you'll enjoy this article.

Shribman on Obamacare

David Shribman writes a very interesting article for Yahoo News on the politics of enacting major social programs. He compares what is proposed with the passage of social security and medicare, and notes both passed with substantial majorities of Republican legislators. For a historical perspective, this is a good article.

Resort Town Whimsies

Spending an afternoon almost every summer week in Jackson, WY, is an interesting proposition. Most days you don't see famous folk but every now and then you meet a celebrity. Today the folks eating hamburgers next to us were Mario Gabelli and his family. He has been a frequent guest on financial programs like CNBC and some years back Louis Rukeyser's show on PBS. He is, by the way, a very pleasant fellow as well as being an investment guru.

On other occasions, in that same burger joint - Billy's, we've chatted with Dick Cheney's Secret Service detail. Dick would spend August here during the 8 years of the Bush presidency, his plane parked on the apron at Jackson's airport. We privately called it "Air Force Two" although we know that isn't what the Air Force calls the Vice President's plane.

Cheney's Secret Service detail were a fit looking group of young men each with a curly cord running from his ear piece down into his shirt. They viewed spending August in Jackson Hole as much better duty than if they'd been in Crawford, Texas; the temperature probably averages 20 degrees cooler here.

Probably the best known local resident is Harrison Ford. We've seen him in KMart and also walking down the sidewalk outside the Cadillac restaurant, carrying a sixpack of exotic beer. Ford is very fit looking, but perhaps not as tall as you'd gather from his films.

The last time we lived in a place where seeing celebrities was normal was some decades ago when we spent 2 years living and working in the Washington, D.C., area. We'd see senators walking with their aides on Capitol Hill and run into famous folk at the region's three airports. When you live in DC your local news is everyone else's national news.

Protest = Solution

The largest public employee union in California has voted to approve a strike, in protest against the monthly furloughs the Governator has imposed to balance the budget. Here is a Reuters article which indicates that unfortunately strikes are only one of the possible things to be done in protest.

If the union goes on strike, then the State won't have to pay the strikers during the time they are AWOL. If they stay on strike long enough they could be the solution to the State's budgetary problems. Therefore, they probably won't go on strike.

Perhaps, if the union employees' behavior is disruptive enough, the State might lock them out. The dysfunctional possibilities are endless and fascinating.

Quote of the Day II

Bradley R. Gitz, writing for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, about the falling ratings for President Obama reflecting buyers' remorse:

However historic his presidency, however much the media serve as his auxiliaries and however personally appealing he might be, there is still no way to forever disguise the fact that he is a left-wing ideologue trying to govern, in conjunction with other left-wing ideologues like Nancy Pelosi, a fundamentally conservative country.

No kidding.

Quote of the Day I

The ever-insightful Mark Steyn, writing for National Review, about why government-controlled health care is just wrong:

Freedom is messy. In free societies, people will fall through the cracks — drink too much, eat too much, buy unaffordable homes, fail to make prudent provision for health care, and much else. But the price of being relieved of all those tiresome choices by a benign paternal government is far too high.

In other words, the price is the loss of personal freedom. Well said, Mark.

US Healthcare Not Broken

You really owe it to yourself to read this Hoover Digest article by Scott W. Atlas, who is chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical School. In it he lists ten reasons why US health care is better than that of Europe or Canada.

The article is not long, and not so technical you can't understand it. If you want facts to back up your sense that our health care system isn't really broken, and doesn't need radical repair, here are those facts.

Hat tip to Jonah Goldberg of National Review for the citation.