Keeping up With Obama

1. I am reading Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky to better understand what makes Obama & Team think they way they think. I've only read the Prologue so far, but it's very consistent with the Obama playbook. It's also very obvious that Obama misread the change America was interested in. In reality, I think most voted for Obama because he was the "anti-Bush," not because they embraced his change agenda. It's clear now that he does not have the political capital to pull off his radical agenda. I will post excerpts from the book and how I think they are germain to what is going on with Obama and the resistance building against his agenda.

2. Read the AEI Political Report today. Very good insights into how Americans think of Obama and his policies and how he is handling the issues.

• Obama get the nod by >50% on 3 issues - Terrorism, the Environment and Energy. He gets 50% or less on the economy, Iraq, healthcare, the deficit, Taxes, immigration, Afghanistan and unemployment. These polls are as of October 2009.
• 5% of Americans think Obama is "too conservative." Go figure.
• Despite these critical assessments of Obama, Democrats get more positive marks than Republicans, although the gap is narrowing.
• Seemingly at odds with the last point, 62% think that Congress pays "not much or not at all" to what regular Americans think when it decides what to do.
• Despite 50% thinking that Obama is not doing what it takes to win in Afghanistan, more (38%) think that we should decrease the number of troops in Afghanistan than the number (37%) who think we need to increase the number of troops.
• On Iran, 61% think that "to precent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if it means taking military action is more important" than avoiding conflice (24%)
• 67% do not belive that Obama's healthcare plan will "not add one dime to the deficit today or in the future."
• 60% do not believe that they will not have to make a change to their insurance as a result of reform.
• 59% support surcharges on the rich to pay for reform.
• 65% oppose a second stimulus
• 83% support a photo id at polling places to help avoid fraud
• When asked what % of every dollar is wasted at various levels of government they answered:
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  50% - Federal government
  
  
  
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  42% State government
  
  
  
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  37% Local government
  
  
  

Let's hope they remember how they answered these questions the next time they are in the voting booth.