And isn't it amazing that after all the corporate media frenzy .. all the dire warnings .. he is 'tainted' .. 'the cloud' that will follow him .. all the rapid bullshit from all of them .. for days .. never mind he did nothing and the prosecutor said so .. and now do we hear any of them saying that they are sorry ? to expose themselves ? right .. and merry xmas

A couple of weeks ago, Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst, said, "An Obama job approval rating of 79 percent! That's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster."

Not to belabor the obvious, but Obama is taking office after 8 years of the Bush administration. Unfortunately, the notion that the Bush administration has been a national disaster is not too far off the mark (perhaps not off the mark at all).

It's always puzzled me a bit that John F. Kennedy came into office with approval ratings resembling a post-crisis spike. That's what this reminds me of.

But JFK--while charismatic--was elected by a narrower margin than Obama; he was following an extraordinarily popular president by historic standards instead of a generally hated dud like GWB; and, while the Cold War was in a tense period, there was no immediate, acute crisis like the one going on now. So this isn't an exact repeat, and I'm still not entirely sure what was going on with Kennedy.

they may want to remember that Obama will enter the White House with a very deep well of public support.

I expect obstructionism on a scale not seen since the Irish sat in the Wesminster Parliament in the days of Parnell and Biggar and O'Donnell.

Just remember, for much of the Opposition, one man with Jesus, is a majority. The Antichrist's poll numbers don't matter.

Given the irony of Mr. Bailey's post (It's a Wonder Life popped into my mind the moment I saw that name), it would be entirely possible to envision the Bush hackministration as synonymous to an eight-year-long "Potterville."

thus qualifying, of course, as a national disaster of epic proportions....

Wow. I have a long-standing theory that we have a base of hard core Republicans who will never approve of anything Democrats do, and will always approve of anything Republicans do, no matter how disastrous. I've always figured this group at a little less than 30% of the electorate. They are the people we will never reach. In evidence, back when Mark Felt "outed" himself as Deep Throat, there was a poll showing that 30% of people polled said he was unpatriotic to blow the whistle on Richard Nixon's law breaking. And that kind of gave me a "Huh?" moment, that so many people would still think what Nixon did was OK. So these poll numbers are incredibly surprising. Even if they don't last, it's a sort of milestone that we got past the mental barrier.

That's up 3 points from when we asked this question at the beginning of December.-- CNN

That's only because of the warm and fuzzy goodwill feeling everyone's experiencing during The Season. Don't take it too seriously.

CNN IS IN THE TANK FOR OBAMA! OR OBAMA CONDUCTED THIS POLL HIMSELF AND COOKED THE NUMBERS AND MADE CNN RUN THEM! JUST LIKE HE EXONERATED HIMSELF IN THE BLAGO CASE AND FORCED PAT FITZGERALD TO PLAY ALONG! THERE IS NOTHING THIS POWER-MAD STREET POLITICIAN WON'T DO! AND HE'S A MUSLIM!

That's only because of the warm and fuzzy goodwill feeling everyone's experiencing during The Season.

My pal exlibra's just extrapolating the reaction she had to those photos of the shirtless president-elect. And who can blame her?

exlibra wrote:

CNN IS IN THE TANK FOR OBAMA! OR OBAMA CONDUCTED THIS POLL HIMSELF AND COOKED THE NUMBERS AND MADE CNN RUN THEM! JUST LIKE HE EXONERATED HIMSELF IN THE BLAGO CASE AND FORCED PAT FITZGERALD TO PLAY ALONG! THERE IS NOTHING THIS POWER-MAD STREET POLITICIAN WON'T DO! AND HE'S A MUSLIM!

I am writing:

GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, OBAMA IS NOT MUSLIM HE IS A MORMON!!

Let's hope this will give Obama traction in the early days of his Administration

Hopefully, his stimulus package will pass largely intact

Going from there, let's hope Obama is ready with a package of reforms for our nation, re-regulation, anti-trust, health insurance, a green economy, tax reform, global warming, rebuilding our manufacturing base, finding good, well paying jobs for the middle class......

I trust the Obama team to be jsut as efficient in office as they have been during the campaign and during the transition

Let's wath out for Mitch McConnell and his band of Southern Senators who seem to WANT to cripple our economy in order to kill unions

Maybe it's time to LOWER weapons/defense/empire spending.
God knows the spending is bloated when we spend more on war and death than the rest of the world combined

I think a good part of these numbers reflects the enthusiasm that most of us feel at the idea of the current adminstration leaving office on January 20. (Oh, why do we have to wait that long!) It will be interesting to see what the polls look like once Obama begins to actually enact policy.

...we spend more on war and death than the rest of the world combined

Yeah, but are we getting value for our war-and-death money? Sure, we've privatized around the edges. But core labor costs? Outsourcing. It's the answer.

That's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster.

Exactly! That one sentence says it all.

Because of this support, I expect the consumer confidence numbers, and thus the economy, to start showing signs of life after January 20th. People desperately want the economy to improve and will look to Obama to fix the mess we're in. The increase of confidence due to the fact that someone who knows what they are doing is in charge will lead to a self fulfilling prophecy of better economic times ahead.

now would be an opportune time for Obama to use his high approval and the corporate media scandel mongering to rail against the corporate media and their innuendo-based, fact-free tabloid sorry-ass excuse for reporting.

oh my, the paulbots are back. fortunately, they can't read this.

I voted against Obama, but I have to admit I am pretty impressed with the way he has handled things so far.

I may not agree with all of his decisions/policies, but at least I get the impression he is making informed decisions, unlike his predecessor.

exlibra wrote:

CNN IS IN THE TANK FOR OBAMA! [etc] -- Akinola,@13:42

Sorry, Akinola. But, as Shortstop is my witness, Exlibra would *never* have done that; her caps lock is perfectly functional and she knows how to use it. My posting was the one above the all-caps abomination, perpetuated by someone named "The unreachable" (a play on "the untouchable"?.

Therefore, I feel free to ignore your advice to "get my shirt together" and will remain,

Shirtless (you know me too well, Shortstop) and disheveled,
Exlibra

This 82% approval rating for Obama, even it being within a context (transition), is good news and a sign of the nation's health. Lots of people were afraid there were too many racists, too many Republican dead enders. Those are still out there but must be a small chunk of America. (BTW it is kind of funny, that 18% seems about the same as the lowest rock-bottom Bushite dead enders.)

What's the other choice? Impeachment and a new election with another two years of campaigning?

I wonder how much glory McConnell and the rest of the old southern Senators gathered when they voted down the auto industry bailout because they wanted to bust the UAW? I bet a lot of folks to away the idea that Republicans hate people just like them.

The information in this case made it clear that Obama wasn't playing ball. For most Americans that was the end of this make believe Blago story.

Nothing post election gives any reason to believe the general public is warming to the Republicans. Schafer was right. Obama is riding the kind of crest reserved for Presidents post disaster. Maybe a lot of rich folk like Schafer don't yet understand that the American economy is a disaster.

Bill Schneider not Schafer. Sorry.

Suzanne Malveau (CNN) thinks Obama's approval ratings are largely due to Bush's assistance with the transition. There was a time when a journalist would have had to support that kind of conjecture with facts. But these are strange times.

The fact that there is and never has been anything to this narrative has NOT stopped the bobble heads on MSNBC from raising the subject every twenty minutes for the past two weeks...

The narrative always starts "There's no indication that the Obama camp did anything illegal in dealing with Blago over his successor, BUT....."

Then the concern trolls go on an on about some mysterious black cloud over Obama if he doesn't turn all of the records of contacts over to reporters so they can sift methodically through them and decide for themselves...

These are the same a**hats who seem to have ZERO concern about the millions of emails that Cheney and Rove have deleted from their files, and the fact that they used personal computers and blackberries to conduct Government business..

As has been stated, the DC crowd has suddenly rediscovered their duty to be watchdogs for Democracy, after abdicating that job for the past 8 years...

AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

"It's always puzzled me a bit that John F. Kennedy came into office with approval ratings resembling a post-crisis spike. That's what this reminds me of.

But JFK--while charismatic--was elected by a narrower margin than Obama; he was following an extraordinarily popular president by historic standards instead of a generally hated dud like GWB; and, while the Cold War was in a tense period, there was no immediate, acute crisis like the one going on now. So this isn't an exact repeat, and I'm still not entirely sure what was going on with Kennedy.

Posted by: Matt McIrvin on December 24, 2008 at 1:08 PM"

There was a quite similar feeling of liberation and pride among Catholics in 1960 as there is among African-Americans now. John XXIII's papacy was brand new, there was a palpable feeling of having broken through a stultifying wall, and the scent of change was on the wind, that's why. McCarthy's villany was easily as tangible as Cheney's, and emotionally tainted the Eisenhower administration much like this whole Bush bullshit has. I was a child, but I did do emotional nuance back then, even if I didn't get the sense of it all until I was much older.

My mother who is quite Republican, has been happy with Obama. Now to some that may be a bad thing, but get this country on its feet again, having scared Republicans running around doubting the presidents intentions and advisors is conterproductive.