Week of June 15, 2009
At last, there is convincing evidence that Obama's poll numbers may be descending to earth. While his approval remains high -- and his personal favorability is even higher -- the underlying numbers suggest that a decline may be in the offing. Even as he stands on his pedestal, the numbers under his feet are crumbling.According to a Rasmussen poll, more voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle the economy, by a margin of 45-39. Scott Rasmussen notes that"this is the first time in over two years of polling that the GOP has held the advantage on this issue." Last month, he had the Democrats holding a one-point lead, but they lost it in June's polling.
Interestingly, Obama's polling is now the exact opposite of President Clinton's in the days after Monica Lewinsky. Back then, the president's approval for handling specific issues was his forte, while his job approval remained high but his personal favorability lagged 20 points behind.
I reject the idea that James W. von Brunn, the alleged Holocaust museum gunman and known white supremacist and anti-Semite, is right wing -- as well as the implication that racism and conservatism somehow are connected. The KKK is not welcome at any conservative event I've ever attended.
VOA says Mir-Hosain Mousavi, the opposition candidate who says the Iranian election was stolen, held that supposedly forbidden and cancelled rally in Tehran after all. And an estimated 100,000 protesters showed up, thronging the streets.Near an HQ of the paramilitary Basij pro-regime militia, shots rang out, leaving a protester dead and panicking the crowd.
The problem with shooting protesters in Iran is that there will be a funeral, which will be another occasion for protest; and then a memorial service (more protest) and then a 40-day memorial (more protest). If more protesters are shot at these commemorations of the fallen, there will be memorials and protests around them, too. This thing could grow.
Iran's late twentieth century might have been a bright one except for the curse of geopolitics: its nascent democracy was sacrificed on the altar of the Cold War.