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WEDNESDAY,  MARCH 31,  2010

DUKING IT OUT – AT 8:22 P.M. ET:  How does one university, presumably one of the more "prestigious" vendors of education, manage to make so many mistakes?

Duke University, where it's legally dangerous to be a lacrosse player, is in the news again with another act of profound stupidity.  The story appears in a number of places, but I like the rendition given by a website called "The Moral Liberal":

DURHAM, N.C., March 29, 2010—Duke University’s Women’s Center has canceled an event about motherhood because the sponsor was engaging in pro-life expression elsewhere on campus. A Women’s Center representative told Duke Students for Life (DSFL) that “we have a problem” and an ideological “conflict” with the event, which was supposedly canceled to protect Duke women from encountering the event during the group’s “traumatizing” pro-life “Week for Life.” The group’s president has turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.

“Duke appears to have an unwritten but officially enforced stance regarding abortion that has resulted in pro-life groups being shut out of the Women’s Center,” said FIRE Vice President Robert Shibley. “This treatment is a deeply hypocritical violation of the Women’s Center’s promise that it ‘welcomes discordant viewpoints from varied experiences."

And...

Meeting with the group on March 18, Duke Women’s Center Gender Violence Prevention Specialist Martin Liccardo said that because the event was associated with the Week for Life and DSFL, the event could not be held at the Women’s Center.

Liccardo told the group that the prospect of holding a pro-life event in the Women’s Center during Week for Life was too upsetting for some students: “We had a very strong reaction from students in general who use our space who said this was something that was upsetting and not OK. So based on that, we said, OK, we are going to respond to this and stop the program.”

COMMENT:  Nothing like preparing students for the real world. 

This is really bad stuff, especially coming after Duke's recent history:  1) false accusations of rape against three lacrosse players, 2) inviting radical Palestinians with genocidal ideas to campus, 3) recruiting black radical Professor J. Lorand Matory of Harvard to join the Duke faculty, and 4) general politically correct nuttiness.

Duke claims in its literature, sent to prospective victims, er, students, that it values diversity of ideas.  That clearly is not the case, and some student should sue Duke for false advertising through the mails. 

Duke students are getting a raw deal, but how many understand?

March 31, 2010

THERE IS FEVER, THERE IS PAIN – AT 7:37 P.M. ET:  The left-wing blogosphere is alive, not with the sound of music, but with the sound of agony.  President Obama's very limited and very modest order to allow for some oil and gas exploration off our coasts has been greeted with a collective scream of distress.  The sky is falling.  The air is poisoned.  The seas are drying up.  Hitler is back.  Medicines are being rushed to various bloggers.  A suicide line is being established.

In fact, the president's order won't result in drilling, if any, for some time.  It's baffling that he didn't make it broader, and allow for greater exploration that would make more of a dent in our need for foreign oil.  But any compromise on drilling gets the crazies going.

Most of the borderline hysterical opposition has nothing to do with thoughtful environmentalism, which most Americans favor...with an emphasis on the word "thoughtful."  It has to do with a certain contempt that some trendies have for the American lifestyle, with its emphasis on the family car and high energy use.  Thoughtful environmentalists understand that we'll be dependent on oil for many decades, and that we must make a careful transition.

This is going to be debated now.  Some on the left will probably introduce legislation to block even the president's modest step.  On the right, the president will be urged to broaden his order. 

March 31, 2010

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING – THE SEQUEL – AT 7:23 P.M. ET:  There is much to-do, and considerably phony excitement, about a "breakthrough" with Iran.  Don't get enthusiastic.  There is no breakthrough.  From The New York Times:

UNITED NATIONS — After months of resisting the idea of new Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, the Chinese government appears to have taken a step closer to supporting them, agreeing to enter negotiations over the language of a new resolution to intensify international pressure on Iran.

Uh, just wait a gosh-darned minute.  Read the fine print.  There is nothing here, despite all kinds of statements by official "spokesmen" that a new day is dawning.  The Chinese have only agreed to begin talking about drafting a resolution.  Nothing clear about the substance of the resolution.  You know, that little detail. 

So, what do we have?  After seven years of negotiations by the Europeans, and a year and two months of "engagement" by Barack Obama, a group of nations with vastly differing interests will sit down at the UN to draft a "resolution."  It will have no teeth.  That's a guarantee.

The fact is, as Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard said on TV late this afternoon, that the highest priority of the Obama administration is to avoid military action.  Thus, we go through these games. 

Iran will have the bomb.  Then we'll be told there's nothing we can do about it without provoking a "nuclear" war.  Then we'll turn to trying to contain one of the most fanatical regimes on Earth.  Those who express alarm will be called "right-wing warmongers."  Does the script sound familiar?

March 31, 2010

STRANGE POLL RESULTS – AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  After a dip at the end of last week, President Obama is showing another bump upward in the Rasmussen poll.  But it's a bump created entirely by Democrats:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 33% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -8 (see trends).

This is the first time since February 4 that the President’s Approval Index rating has improved to negative single digits. It’s the first time since September 24 that the number who Strongly Approve has reached 33%.

The bounce in approval for the President has come from a strong increase in enthusiasm among Democrats. Currently, 65% of Democrats Strongly Approve of the way Obama is performing. That’s up from the mid-to-low 40 percent range before passage of the health care legislation.

However, firing up the Democratic base may also carry a cost for the President. Currently, just 19% of unaffiliated voters Strongly Approve while 45% Strongly Disapprove. Those numbers are a bit weaker for the President than they were before the health care bill passed.

COMMENT:  A polarizing president, obviously.  He cannot sustain himself politically with strength only among Democrats.  It was his appeal to independents and even some Republicans that gave Obama his major victory in 2008.  Against an effective GOP candidate in 2012, he may have rough sledding.  Of course, we have to find that effective GOP candidate.

March 31, 2010   Permalink

IT'S ALL FOR THE KIDS – NOT – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  We love to take on the education establishment here.  Who doesn't?  It's such a juicy target.  But few stories I've seen reveal, as much as this one does, the ignorance and arrogance of at least part of that establishment.  The action takes place in New York State, once known as a functioning entity:

The state failed to get a penny in education funds doled out by Washington this week after clueless bureaucrats were dopey enough to admit to the feds they would have blown more than $200,000 on expensive furniture for their offices.

They apparently thought designer chairs, desks and bookcases for themselves were more important than training teachers or turning around failing schools.

The bizarre equipment wish list was so outrageous that three of the five judges who reviewed New York's "Race to the Top" application blasted it in written comments -- focusing on 24 "executive chairs" that cost $550 each, or more than $13,000 total.

State officials also sought 15 regular desks at $3,000 each, nine L-shaped desks at $1,800 a pop and 15 printers that each cost more than $1,500. "There are projected expenses (e.g. $550 for executive chairs) that call into question NY's judgment on responsible stewardship of funds," wrote one reviewer.

Another judge wrote, "These inclusions compromise the state's narrative as a careful steward of public funds."

And New York was once famous for its public education. 

You cannot make this part up:

State education officials said they were hampered by Albany's purchasing rules, which forced them to order supplies from a vendor named CorCraft -- whose goods are made by New York prison inmates.

The inmates do better work than a lot of the educators.

According to the reviewers' comments, New York's application was also hindered by a lack of union support, the looming charter-schools cap of 200, and a data system that has barely gotten off the ground.

COMMENT:  Please note that New York has some of the highest tax rates in the country.

March 31, 2010   Permalink

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO HIM ON THE WAY TO DIVINITY – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  Any dreams at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that the passage of health-care "reform" would open the floodgates to new, "progressive" legislation, are being thwarted, not only by Republicans in Congress, but by Democrats as well.  "Caution" seems to be the new byword.  From The Politico:

The president’s push to turn health care reform into a catalyst for the rest of his agenda is getting mixed early reactions on Capitol Hill, where Democratic leaders' desire to take advantage of healthy majorities before the November elections must contend with lawmakers’ survival instincts.

White House aides told POLITICO earlier this week that an emboldened Barack Obama plans to parlay his win on health care into a crack down on Wall Street excesses, a rewrite of education and campaign finance laws and possibly a climate change bill — all before the fall's midterms.

But aides and members, Republicans and Democrats alike, say that a Wall Street crackdown was coming — and progress on climate change, immigration and other contentious measures probably wasn't — no matter what had happened with the health care bill.

“I don’t see it creating momentum,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has negotiated across party lines on several significant issues in his first term.

Yes, of course, some Democrats want to use their large majorities in Congress – majorities that will probably melt away in November – to pass their favorite bills.  But they're getting a big "wait a minute" from the endangered species among them. 

But as party leaders plot the course for the rest of the year, some fatigued Democrats in tough re-election races may yell “uncle” at the first sight of another controversial bill.

“If [Obama’s] saying he’s got the stride going and he’s on a winning streak and that was just the first of many things he thinks he can get through, I would actually say the opposite,” said the top aide to a member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition. “That ship has sailed. That capital was expended on cap and trade first and health care second.”

COMMENT:  A wise president would, at a moment like this, reach out to the opposition and challenge the GOP to work with him in coming to agreement on critical issues, like energy policy.  But there's so much anger left over from the health bill that this probably won't happen.  The election in November will decide how this president and Congress will mesh.

March 31, 2010   Permalink

REALLY? – AT 8:10 A.M. ET:  Is it that the White House just has a tin ear, or do those guys really think they can fool us just by issuing a public statement?  Sometimes they push much too far:

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House expressed puzzlement Tuesday at widely-held perceptions that President Barack Obama delivered a calculated snub to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.

As a row over Israeli settlement building raged, Netanyahu held late-night talks at the White House a week ago, but did not get a press appearance with Obama and the administration failed to even release an official photo.

He returned home to a torrent of criticism in the Israeli media over his treatment, with some commentators arguing he had been humiliated in a test of wills with Obama over sharp differences on Middle East peace diplomacy.

"I'm puzzled by the notion that somehow it's a bad deal to get two hours with the president almost entirely alone," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"That doesn't seem like a lot of punishment to me."

COMMENT:  In the immortal words of the great philosopher, Jerry Lewis:  "Bad looks you can change, stupid is forever."

I mean, come on.  Everyone knows that Netanyahu was humiliated and treated, as one paper said, like a toxic third-world dictator.  The result was predictable.  The Arabs have stiffened their demands, our resolve as to Iran is being openly questioned by other allies, and the pro-Israel community in America is outraged.

But the White House continues to assure us that nothing was meant by the crude behavior.  Why, the Israeli prime minister got two hours alone with the king of the universe.  That's like saying that a guy who's been whipped for two hours should feel honored because the whipping was done by a member of the royal family. 

Spare us White House "explanations."  Soon we'll be told that an Iranian nuclear bomb is simply a means of providing extra light and clearing unwanted debris.

March 31, 2010   Permalink

EARL!  WE STRUCK EARL! – AT 7:55 A.M. ET:  What?  Am I reading this correctly?  Could it be that a sanity bomb has exploded over the White House?  From The probably devastated New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.

The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.

COMMENT:  Uh, well, you gotta work the details.  There's probably less here than meets the eye, and apparently part of the logic is to persuade on-the-fence moderate members of Congress to vote yes on a climate-change bill.  Also, actual drilling wouldn't begin for years.   

But, it is a beginning to some intelligence in energy policy.  Al Gore has not commented, but we understand that medical personnel and a minister from the Church of Global Warming are on their way to inform him, gently and in a sensitive manner.  They will bring gifts of tofu and ethanol.

We will need a much larger program than the one outlined today to lessen seriously our dependence on foreign oil.  But a dent is being made.  Also, we will need oil for decades as new energy sources are developed, tested, and are proved or disproved in the marketplace.

March 31,  2010   Permalink

TUESDAY,  MARCH 30,  2010

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN? – AT 8:18 P.M. ET:  Well, not really.  However, the Washington Post is suggesting that President Obama is back on track, fresh from victories, and dreaming of becoming the giant he knows he is:

On Tuesday, with audience members shouting "fired up!" and not a protester in sight, Obama signed a sweeping higher education funding overhaul into law along with the last portion of his health-care bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Jill Biden joined him onstage for what amounted to a Democratic love-fest...

...It may be too soon to tell whether the conventional wisdom -- that Obama changed the course of his presidency with the passage of his health-care bill -- turns out to be correct. But with its completion, finalized Tuesday, the president has finally turned to other things, and is allowing himself to enjoy the moment of triumph, albeit in his understated way.

Yes, understated and modest.  Just so modest.  Yeah, right.

"What has gotten overlooked amid all the hoopla, all the drama, of the last week is what happened in education -- when a great battle pitching the interests of the banks and the financial institutions against the interests of the students finally came to an end," Obama said. "This week, we can rightly say the foundation on which America's foundation will be built is stronger than it was one year ago."

Huh?  Can you figure that out? 

Actually, the student-loan reform program, inserted into the health-care bill, was probably a pretty good idea.  But what the president doesn't seem to get is that his methods are turning off many Americans.  There was no debate allowed over the student-loan reform, and even Dick Morris agrees that it will improve the student-loan program.  But members of Congress have the right to debate these things, to offer amendments, to enhance the final bill. 

We used to say, many decades ago, that Joe McCarthy's cause was right, but his methods were awful.  That was the rallying cry of the conservatives who eventually led the fight to bring him down.   The same can be said of Obama.  Sometimes we can embrace his goals.  But his street-style practice of politics is not helping his cause.  You can't put a halo over yourself one minute, and replace it with a dagger the next, without people noticing.  And people have noticed.

So, let the president have his moment of celebration.  But maybe it should also be a time for reflection.  He's president of the United States, not a ward healer on the South Side.

March 30, 2010   Permalink

THE IRANIAN NUKE – AT 7:32 P.M. ET:  In 2007, the CIA put out a remarkably misleading report claiming that Iran had stopped its nuclear weaponization program in 2003.  George W. Bush was in the White House, and the knee-jerk, everything-jerk anti-Bush press seized on the report immediately.  "Now they tell us," shouted TIME, the weekly viewsmagazine. 

A wave of contentment swept over many in the media, similar to the effect of a better-grade narcotic.  We had nothing to worry about.  The Iranians were just peaceful, good-guy Persians interested only in better production methods for colorful rugs. 

Saner and more mature observers at the time thought the report was a crock.  And, indeed, crockdom had reared its ugly head.  Now, though, sobriety has apparently returned.  From Fox:

A recently published report by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iran is still working on building a nuclear weapon despite some technical setbacks and international resistance -- and the Pentagon say it's still concerned about Iran's ambitions. The mandated report to congress reads, "Iran continues to develop a range of capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so."

"Iran continued to expand its nuclear infrastructure and continued uranium enrichment and activities related to its heavy water research reactor, despite multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions since late 2006 calling for the suspension of those activities," the report says.

The CIA's new characterization of Iran's nuclear program stands in contradiction to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which determined the country halted its nuclear production efforts in 2003.

The CIA report is unable to determine if Tehran has come to a decision about whether or not to build a bomb.

COMMENT:  I wouldn't get too hung up on that last paragraph.  I doubt if Tehran is putting all this effort into a nuclear-weapons program just to have the "knowledge" of how to build a bomb.  We have to assume they'll build one, unless stopped.  And there's not much stoppin'  goin' on out there.

March 30, 2010   Permalink

IRAN IS BACK – AT 7:22 P.M. ET:  Back in the news, that is.  Suddenly there are a number of stories about the boys from Tehran, what they're up to, and what we're (presumably) doing about it.  From ABC:

An award-winning Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared last year under mysterious circumstances, has defected to the CIA and been resettled in the United States, according to people briefed on the operation by intelligence officials.

The officials were said to have termed the defection of the scientist, Shahram Amiri, "an intelligence coup" in the continuing CIA operation to spy on and undermine Iran's nuclear program.

COMMENT:  Word of caution.  Intelligence agencies are trained to be very careful about defectors.  This may well be an intelligence coup.  We hope it is.  But a defector 1) can have ulterior motives, 2) tell interrogators what they want to hear, in return for a good deal, 3) may not know as much as he claims, 4) may have defected because of a grudge, and might give distorted information to get back at someone, or 4) can be a double agent.

But let's hope for the best with this dude.

March 30, 2010   Permalink 

POLL DANCING – AT 12:17 P.M. ET:  There were deep and profound predictions that President Obama would get a big boost in the polls once health-care "reform" was passed, and Americans understood the brilliance of the man.  Has it come true?  The Politico reports:

Democrats who held out hopes that President Barack Obama’s health reform win would mean a quick boost to the party’s political fortunes are getting a reality check – a reminder that it takes more than one good week to shake up a year of sliding polls.

Obama and his health reform plan did get a bump in several surveys immediately after the House vote eight days ago – but the numbers in some of those polls flattened out, showing how difficult it will be for Obama to capitalize on reform, even after his top legislative goal cleared Congress.

“It helped a little bit, but I think it’s within the margin of error,” said Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac Poll, which recorded a slight drop in disapproval of Obama after the bill passed. “The Democrats said the American people will grow to love this. We’ll find out. At this point, they’re not exactly jumping up and down.”

COMMENT:   I don't underestimate Obama a bit.  He's a first-class campaigner, if nothing else.  (Well, nothing else.)  But he won't rebuild his popularity on unpopular schemes.  I think what we're seeing in his failure to enjoy a sustained bounce is a certain skepticism toward the man personally, a skepticism that has grown as he's revealed himself to be a pretty conventional big-city politician with a silver tongue.  The halo is gone.  I think part of the trust is gone as well.

March 30, 2010   Permalink

OH, COME ON – AT 10:10 A.M. ET:  Related to the post just below, the Dems as the party of whiners, is the latest political assessment by the president of the United States:

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says he believes the Tea Party is built around a "core group" of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist.

Cheap, cheap, cheap.  Begin with a slur.  Question the sanity of the opposition.  Kind of reminds me of the way they did things in the old Soviet Union – putting anyone who disagreed into a mental institution.

But beyond that, Obama tells NBC he recognizes the movement involves "folks who have legitimate concerns" about the national debt and whether the government is taking on too many difficult issues simultaneously.

Gee, thanks, Mr. President.  We're glad you acknowledge that these American citizens have legitimate concerns.

In an interview broadcast Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, Obama said he feels "there's still going to be a group at their core that question my legitimacy." But he said he didn't want to paint Tea Party activists "in broad brushes" and he hopes to win over members who have "mainstream, legitimate concerns."

Of course you wouldn't want to paint these folks "in broad brushes."  No, not at all.  Then why are you saying these things?

And, by the way Mr. President, why is it always about you?  There are real issues out there, and real worries, and not everyone wakes up every morning debating your "legitimacy."

March 30, 2010   Permalink

THE WHINING DEMOCRATS – AT 9:27 A.M. ET:  I remember the days when Democrats were seen as tough, thick-skinned politicians, many from the wrong side of the track.  No one accused Jack Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson of being wimps.

No more.  As Wes Pruden points out in the Washington Times, the Democratic Party has become a party of whiners.  Take a victory lap after winning a major fight in Congress?  Nonsense.  There's too much to complain about:

We're not yet a nation wholly of whiners, but some of our congresspersons are working on it. Democrats who should have been taking a victory lap spent a week cowering in fear of the contents of a tea cup. No wonder real men — mostly but, by no means all, white — are shunning the Democrats...

...Unless the president and his party find a way to reverse this trend they must prepare for an epic bath nine months hence.

And...

Accomplishing such a turnaround would require first of all for Democrats to pipe down about what a tough life they have. Life is real, often hard, and, as Damon Runyon famously said to a whiner at the poker table, "three out of three people die, so shut up and deal." Democrats in Congress who got their way in the health care "reform" debate are frightened now that the people they abused are angry and determined to do something about it. With the help of the compliant "mainstream" media, they have created the specter of a tsunami of hate, bigotry, racism, slander, rock-throwing, spitting, irritable bowel syndrome and seven-year itch. Sarah Palin has got the Democrats particularly spooked.

Finally...

What most Democratic whiners don't understand — and what some of their betters understand very well — is that people get mad when they're ignored and punished by consequences imposed on them. Barack Obama understands it, and is contemptuous of the backlash, as anyone knows who saw the curl of his lip and heard the disdain in his voice when he celebrated the signing of Obamacare.

The Democrats know they have shoved an unwanted and despised health care "reform" down the throats of Americans, and they understand that arrogance, like elections, sometimes invites consequences. Once upon a time the liberal establishment — now the terrified whiners — didn't have to worry about consequences, since it had silenced the great unwashed. But the unwashed have found their voice, and they're not giving it up.

COMMENT:  It's strange, but the Democratic establishment historically embraced the kind of people we find in the tea-party movement.  Or at least they claimed to.  As Pruden points out, they'd effectively silenced these people, often by handing out benefits and entitlements.  Now those very people have legitimate grievances, and the Dems don't know how to deal with those individuals.

Tammany Hall, the historic Democratic machine in New York, used to hand out Thanksgiving turkeys to keep the peasantry in line.  This year's turkey was the health-care bill.  Can't eat it, gotta pay for it.  The peasantry figured it out.

March 30, 2010   Permalink

THE CORRECT WORD – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  Bernie Goldberg, who has become an acerbic and usually accurate press critic, had it right in a TV commentary last night.  He said that the behavior of the mainstream media has gone beyond bias and has now entered the arena of corruption.

He is correct, and "corruption" is the correct word.  The behavior of the press in the last week, in reporting charges against tea-party demonstrators, would have been enough to get a student expelled from any decent journalism school...at least at one time.

Reports started surfacing a week ago Saturday that some tea partiers demonstrating at the Capitol had hurled the "n" word against African-American congressmen walking past them.  One of the congressmen later charged that he had been spat at.

There was virtually no attempt on the part of the mainstream media to check these reports.  The charges simply went out, and what we saw was a major smear that would have made Joe McCarthy blush.  Even as a few brave journalists, mostly at Fox, dissected the accusations and examined the sound portion of videotapes made that day, the charges were lazily accepted as fact.  It was a sickening example of fringe journalism at its worst – destroying people without any evidence whatsoever.

No audio recorded that day picked up any racial slur.  The congressman who claimed he'd been spat at made a pseudo-gracious statement saying he wouldn't press charges.  But Capitol Police said they'd investigated and found no criminal violation.  So there was nothing to press charges about.

This is no longer bias.  This is corruption, a wilful portrayal of events that a press outlet knows is either wrong, or may well be wrong.  There's an old adage in journalism:  "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."  Today, too many stories go unchecked, as long as they support the prevailing party line.  Case in point – the early reporting of the Duke University lacrosse case, in which three innocent boys had their lives almost destroyed by false allegations of rape. 

I have no doubt that there are racists in a variety of political movements, and probably some racists among the tea partiers.  There are also racists on the left, especially in some labor unions.  But journalism, to win public support, must be based on fact, not assumptions or an accepted "narrative."

The mainstream media has been dying.  The Titanic captains among them keep convincing themselves that it's the internet that's doing it.  No, it's not.  It's a loss of faith by the public, and precious little is being done about it.

Don't depend on the journalism schools to help correct the problem.  They are heavily left-wing, and they are in the tank for the media outlets who hire their graduates.  They're silent when they should be shouting.

March 30, 2010   Permalink

ONE WEEK LATER – AT 7:55 A.M. ET:  You may have noticed what makers of war documentaries like to call "a lull in the fighting."  It's clear that many people in Washington are exhausted by the fight over health care.  The barbs are still being thrown, but little is really happening. 

For the American people, though, the worries are just starting.  A new Gallup poll, announced today, shows that, contrary to the liberal image of America, the citizenry is engaged, interested, knowledgeable, and concerned.  Who are these peasants to think for themselves?

PRINCETON, NJ -- One week after the passage of historic new healthcare legislation, Americans remain worried about the bill's effect on costs -- both for the nation as a whole and for them personally. A majority of Americans say healthcare costs in the U.S. and the federal budget deficit will get worse as a result of the bill. Half of Americans believe that healthcare costs for themselves and their families will get worse...

...These data underscore the results of previous Gallup research on healthcare reform legislation; costs have been the most frequently cited response when opponents have been asked to explain their opposition in their own words.

The public does not view all aspects of the bill negatively. Americans are slightly more positive than negative about the bill's impact on healthcare coverage in the U.S. and on the overall health of Americans in the U.S.

Americans break even in terms of whether the bill will make their and their families' overall health better or worse (although the majority say it will have no impact either way). Americans are more negative than positive when asked about the impact of the bill on their healthcare coverage and quality of healthcare received.

COMMENT:  You would think that, given the vast changes this bill will bring to American life, more care would have been taken to have the American people on board.  But the arrogance of the crowd running things in Washington never allowed for that.  Nanny is in charge, and nanny knows best.

It's worthwhile to read all the poll results.

March 30,  2010   Permalink