Doing a poll dance

The polls are interesting. President Obama still has a fairly high overall approval rating, at around 60 percent as of this writing, but his numbers are slipping when it comes to specifics. I’m reminded of Ronald Reagan’s poll numbers, which overall were high even as most people disagreed with his position on specific issues.

But pollsters aren’t stupid. They’re not going to ask questions that people aren’t equipped to answer. And they certainly can’t ask essay questions, which is a shame. I like essay questions, because I like to explain why I think the way I do.

So if I were asked who’s to blame for the lack of progress with the economy, jobs, health-care reform, and energy, I would want to say “Conservatives,” even though that probably wouldn’t be a choice.

I doubt if any question would be framed that way, though. It would probably be something simplistically stupid like, “Is President Obama doing a good job with the (insert one of the above)? And the choices of response would be “yes, no, or no opinion.” Dumb.

“Who’s to blame…” is a better question to ask — and the correct answer would indeed be “conservatives.” Why not Obama? Well because he has the right ideas, but he’s a little handcuffed by conservatives. So why not Republicans? Well, because conservatism isn’t the proprietary domain of the Republican party. It’s the %&#!* Blue-Dog Democrats who hold the key to the handcuffs, those so-called Democrats who represent conservative districts or states and have to promote themselves as “fiscal conservatives” in order to get elected.

Politics, we’re told, is the art of compromise — and that’s often true. But sometimes it isn’t. Obama made promises for sweeping change, and voters bought into that. Many new Democrats won seats on that platform, yet some of those may as well have run as Republicans. They are getting in the way of desperately needed change — and the have one unfortunate trait in common with their Republican colleagues: a terrible lack of foresight.

It’s easy to take a poll about the president. It’s much harder to create a poll that asks people to think. But you can’t think without information — and that’s what often slips through most people’s mental cracks.

Conservatives count on that.

A message to Congress

President Obama was elected by a healthy margin because the promises he made struck a chord with voters. Democrats were given a healthy margin in Congress because voters knew Obama would need Congress to deliver on those promises.

So, dear Congress, what part of that message don’t you get? Meanwhile, you leave us with the impression that you were elected to serve private health-care interests, rather than we who elected you. You leave us with the perception that you’ve been bought and paid for by drug, health-insurance, and private hospital corporations. But your lame excuses for not being able to do this and that don’t wash.

Show us you care, for a change. There are reasonable ways to pay for (at the very least) a public option that would provide coverage for everyone. Appeal to the charitable nature of your devoutly Christian friends, who I’m sure would happily do what Jesus would do if you reminded them. What is so wrong with asking the wealthy to subsidize health care for the poor? Goodness knows much of their wealth results from one kind of subsidy or another, all gifts from you. Isn’t it time they gave a little back?

The results of some hard thinking

It still amazes me that there are those out there who think the last eight years have been pretty good and we should have more of the same. But there are, and among those who don’t there are a lot of short memories to go around. Me, well… I hold a grudge — and while the Constitution prevents George Bush from running again, he’s been aided and abetted by the other Republicans in government.

A lot of us are concerned about the Democrats self-destructing come convention time, somehow turning off the independents and sending them McCain’s way. Those would be the ones with short memories. We have a mess to clean up right now, and another Republican administration isn’t going to go far in the fixing department.

Neither Obama nor Clinton were my top choices, and to be honest I favor neither over the other. I’m of the mind that either would be better than any Republican. What I want is a ticket that will bring in a few more senators and representatives with it, enough in both houses prove a real mandate for change.

With that in mind, I suggest that Clinton and Obama make a deal… end the primaries and declare a ticket, real soon. It would show unity and in my mind put the interests of the country above politics. In other words, a Clinton/Obama ticket — almost a shoo-in (barring more closet bigots than we realize). They would then campaign against Republicans all the way to election day, and they should succeed.

With a successful administration, Obama would be positioned to be the natural Democratic presidential candidate in 2016. He’d be older, wiser, and more experienced.

This is what we’re stuck with, but as they say… when someone hands you lemons, make lemonade.