Some random thoughts from perusing the web…
Obama’s Approval Rating Surges - Well, that didn’t take long. There was speculation that the GOP’s stubborn, and foolish, stance against a 2-month extension of the payroll tax holiday would end up benefiting Obama politically. The new Gallup poll on Obama’s approval rating shows a 5% spike over the last week or two, a spike which is at least no doubt partially due to the House GOP fiasco. It may be a short-term boost, but more than that, I think people are starting to realize just how scary GOP control would be. Voters have flipped between just about every GOP candidate that’s running, in desperate hope to find someone palatable. They’re still looking. Independent voters who want bipartisan cooperation in Washington see how the GOP operates in the House, they see the ridiculous extremist stances the GOP candidates have been forced to adopt, and will also be reluctant to hand over control in Washington to such a dysfunctional party.
Gingrich unraveling – Gingrich hasn’t exactly been known for his integrity or morality in the past. Somehow, even social conservatives had decided to forgive him and overlook his shady past (which tells you more about what social conservatives REALLY value, other than morality). That may be ending, as the evidence of his outright lying continues to come out. First we have documents coming out and contradicting his claims that his first wife is the one who wanted (and filed for) divorce. We have old memos of Gingrich praising Romney’s health care plan in Massachusetts. Perhaps folks should have gotten just a WEE bit suspicious of Gingrich when he tried to position himself as some kind of Washington outsider…despite once being Speaker of the House, and despite his now documented monetary ties to Fannie Mae. The man is dishonest, even for a politician! Thank god the media is doing their job and calling him on it.
Ron Paul’s pathetic record as a legislator – I love this story from the Washington Post. Ron Paul has sponsored 620 bills on the House floor. Only ONE of these ever became law, and only 4 even ever made it up for a vote. Ron Paul is just so out of the mainstream, and his ideas are so incredibly ridiculous, that he can’t get any support for his legislation in Congress. But yet, Ron Paul has a real chance to win in Iowa next week. That should scare the Republican party. They’ve become a party of extremists, and a party that is incapable of governing.
