With his approval at 51% in the RCP poll of polls, Obama is polling significantly higher than both Reagan and Clinton at this point in their presidencies.
Just as important, Obama's disapproval of 42.8% is lowest in a year.
We'll look for an additional bump after Obama's State of the Union Address.
Look at GW Bush's approval graph by comparison, a continuous downward slope. He only eeked out a 50% approval rating right at the time of his reelection. It is now revealed that Bush broke Federal Campaign Law, and got away with it. So much damage in his 8 years.
It's OK by conservatives that Glenn Beck tells people "You're going to have to shoot them in the head" ... because Beck wasn't appealing to his supporters, so that makes it OK.
This astonishing apologist rhetoric comes streaming to us with denials and supportive comments (all non-supportive comments are of course deleted) from the Patterico blog. And these bloggers consider themselves "Christians"! How's that for Christian behavior... defending this quote?
"They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You're going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you. They are dangerous because they believe Karl Marx is their George Washington. You will never change their mind. And if they feel you have lied to them — they're revolutionaries. Nancy Pelosi, those are the people you should be worried about." -- Glenn Beck, Fox News, 6/10/10
Yes, the same Glenn Beck who pulled a photo of himself with a gun from his website after the Tucson shootings.
In the title of Patterico's post: "Glenn Beck Did Not Tell His Viewers to Shoot Anyone in the Head" ... no, but it's ok that he told Democrat leaders to shoot so-called radical members of their party in the head.
WTF is wrong with these people ... defending a statement like that?
Tell us Teabaggers, on what political side do we see gun fetish blogs? On what political side do we see anti-government militias? On which side do we hear most of the anti immigrant hate coming from?
Answer the question teabaggers. How are those "second amendment remedies" workin out for you?
Why did Sarah Palin remove the crosshairs then say they were just "surveyors scopes."
Why did Glenn Beck remove a website photo of a gun?
Why has Roger Ailes told his Fox News employees to "tone down the rhetoric."?
Who is responsible for the gun culture? Gov. Jan Brewer [R] signed a bill allowing loaded guns in bars and restaurants, as well as another that prohibits property owners from banning guns from parking areas, so long as the weapons are kept locked in vehicles. And in July, Arizona became the only state in the nation with a large urban population to allow U.S. citizens 21 and older to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Lawmakers in 2010 blocked a bill that would have allowed university and community-college faculty to carry guns on school grounds, but Rep. Jack Harper [R], has proposed the bill again this year.
Noooo, the teabagger conservatives don't want to answer these questions. Ingram Entertainment employee Serr8d was too much of a coward to entertain these questions. In his remarkably twisted mind he reasoned that the shooter was a liberal because he was not a Christian:
This skull crap means the guy wasn't an EVIL WHITE CHRISTIANIST, but a Democrat; outreaching to and embracing TEH OTHER religions and beliefs, as Democrats are so fond of doing.
The AZ shooter was upset that people in his district were "illiterate" (read:Mexican). Kind of reminds me of what teaparty racist candidate Tancredo said in Nashville last year that Obama was elected by: "people who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English.'... Further characterizing Democrats as "the cult of multiculturalism" and endorsing the return of Jim Crow laws.
The AZ shooter also was paranoid about US currency and returning to the gold standard... a topic that Glenn Beck talks about all the time. Wonder where he heard that?
There are extremists on both sides of course, but with the Right-wing, it's a bit different. The paranoid and conspiratorial style is much more mainstream, especially with Beck and Fox. On Fox, there are shadowy links between Soros, the Tides Foundation, and other liberal causes that aim to bring America down. Obama is at once fascist and a socialist. Don't forget Palin's dark insinuations about Obama's ties with terrorists and HCR's agenda to impose of Death Panels. Of course, you have questions about Obama birth certificate sadly mainstream when Republican representatives and candidates claim it's still an issue. Candidates and elected officials calling for "second amendment remedies", carrying signs promoting insurrection "Don't Tread on Me" and saying they want their constituents "armed and dangerous." Wake up, this is not an isolated incident. (H/T: the Atlantic)
-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.
-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself.
-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.
Exactly how many "liberals" can you find out there who walk into churches, museums and political rallies and shoot people in the head?
Enough of the BS false equivalencies, we can see where this vitriol is coming from.
UPDATE:
Another nut-job was arrested TODAY 1/12/11 by the FBI for threatening to kill Rep. Jim McDermott (D - WA). Check out the afidavit and see how ingrained the right-wing talking points are in his threats.
The first day of the Republican controlled House, they intend on reading the Constitution.
Why is it that Tea Party Republicans that have wrapped themselves in the Constitution are so bent on changing it? They want to change the 14th amendment, the 17th amendment, they want to reject the supremacy clause Article VI, Clause 2, and federal taxation Article I, Section 8, ...clause 2.... and if it were up to them, they'd have a religious (Christian) test for political office which violates Article VI, paragraph 3.
Actually, Republicans want to change the Constitution in a dozen different ways.
Now that's respect for the Constitution!
To top it all off, they had Antonin Scaliaschool them on the Constitution - he's the guy who thinks that the 14th Amendment - "equal protection under the law" - does NOT apply to women, despite a 1971 unanimous SCOTUS ruled that the equal protection does apply to women.
Scalia also has no problem with promoting religion in government (which is unconstitutional), and is basically one of the most dangerous people of power in America. Let's hope for a retirement soon.
UPDATE: Denialist blogger who can't handle debate - Patterico - stikes again. I commented on Scalia yesterday. My comment was of course deleted but wha-lah .... he has a post on Scalia today. heh...
What's a "loose canon"?
Differing from a "loose cannon" which means - an irresponsible or reckless person, a "loose canon" refers to a loose set of rules, in this case ... my rules. Unlike many conservative bloggers that stifle debate and delete comments, I don't!
Conservatism: clinical tendencies
A study funded by the US Government's National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as: a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity". (see report) ---------- A study by NYU and UCLA published in the Journal Nature Neuroscience showsliberals have a greater cognitive ability to problem solve and cope with changing conditions than conservativeswho are more "persistent and structured" and are more reliant on "habitual responses." From the study:
"Liberalism was associated with stronger conflict-related anterior cingulate activity, suggesting greater neurocognitive sensitivity to cues for altering a habitual response pattern."
Essentially, conservatives tend to rely on ‘persistence’ in a ‘habitual response pattern,’ despite signals that this response pattern should change... (i.e. "stay the course")
Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity - the anterior cingulate cortex, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear - the right amygdala.
