House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, a very shrewd vote counter, said today that she is “very excited about the momentum that has built” around the national health care reform bill, slated for vote this Sunday. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio is, let’s say, less excited, vowing retribution if the bill is passed.
** HEADING INTO THE WEEKEND … The word out of the White House regarding this weekend’s vote on the national health care reform bill can be described as one of quiet confidence. With the not unexpected endorsements today of the American Medical Association and the American Association of Retired People, and a steady stream of House Democrats coming on board the bill, victory is at last looking assured. Or, I should say, is again looking assured, as it was prior to the shock election of Republican Scott Brown to the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s old seat two months ago. Obama and the Democrats have finally regrouped. Now, to borrow an old Schwarzenegger line, it will be up to Obama to not only win, but sell the win.
** ROMNEY LEADS 2012 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE. Mitt Romney, who put on a dual Romney for President/Meg Whitman for Governor event last Friday night at the California Republican Party convention in Santa Clara, is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in a new Public Policy Polling survey.
It’s Romney 28%, Mike Huckabee 24%, and Sarah Palin 23%.
Romney is viewed as the most electable by Republican voters.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: MEG WHITMAN TRIES TO SWITCH SIDES ON OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING. Billionaire Meg Whitman, that unavoidable presence on television if you live in California and watch TV, is happy about releasing a policy book in support of her bid for the Republican nomination for governor of California.
Maybe she should read it. And then maybe she should read what she already said in this campaign.
Yesterday she told a Santa Barbara outlet that she is against offshore oil drilling.
But in a policy statement on her website, megwhitman.com, she says she is for offshore oil drilling.
“With advances in drilling technology that reduce environmental risks, we need to re-look at offshore drilling. We have to utilize our resources here at home to reduce dependence,” says Whitman.
Yet in her new policy book issued this week, she is suddenly against offshore oil drilling.
Meg opposes any new drilling off California’s coast until new technologies can be completely proven to minimize the environmental impact of extracting oil and gas reserves. While Meg is open to a careful and thoughtful process that explores and evaluates the potential future use of new and safer drilling technologies, she opposes new drilling until such technology is proven.
Time to scrub megwhitman.com.
Actually, Whitman has been for offshore oil drilling right along. When I followed her in 2008 in her role as national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, she always said she was for offshore oil drilling. You may remember the mantra of their campaign: “Drill, baby, drill.”
Last year, Whitman told the Los Angeles Times she was very open to offshore oil drilling, with a special enthusiasm for new technologies such as slant drilling (an old technique which goes back at least 50 years).
Why the switch? Well, with her call for an end to all new regulation — and amazing claims that regulation cost “four million jobs” in California — as well as her insistence on the end of the landmark AB 32 climate change program, she is looking far too conservative for a general election. And a brand new stance of opposition to offshore oil drilling is a symbolic effort to address that problem.
Even though the record shows that Whitman is really for it.
** FIELD POLL: OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA JOB APPROVAL DIPS … TO 52%, WHILE APPROVAL ON HEALTH CARE RISES. The new Field Poll, parsed out as usual over a series of days, shows that President Barack Obama’s job approval amongst likely voters in the Golden State has dipped to 52%. With 37% disapproving.
That’s down from 56% in January.
Notably, Obama is approved by more independents, 55%, than he is by the sample of voters as a whole. That is due to his extraordinary unpopularity amongst California Republicans.
There is a huge partisan gap in voter perceptions of the job performance of the President. While nearly three in four Democrats (74%) and a majority of non-partisans (55%) approve of Obama, among Republicans just 17% approve. …
Californians are now evenly divided – 45% approving and 45% disapproving – in their appraisal of the job the President is doing in handling the issue of health care. This is an improvement over what it was two months ago. At that time just 39% approved of his performance on this issue, while 53% disapproved.
Obama’s improvement on health care is all due to Democrats.
Congress, in contrast, has a record low 12% approval rating. I believe that is now below the state Legislature, if that is possible.
Congress is also very low rated on the health care issue.
Before Republicans get too excited, however, Congressional Republicans are even more unpopular than Congressional Democrats.
By a 58% to 31% margin voters have taken a negative view of the job congressional Democrats are doing in addressing health care. However, voter appraisals of congressional Republicans’ performance is even worse – 66% disapproving and 22% approving.
The takeaway? Obama remains a big plus amongst the independent voters that Democrats need to win in California and his action on health care is beginning to spin up what has been a relatively dispirited Democratic base.
With the long awaited national health care vote scheduled for this weekend, President Barack Obama made a final pitch to pass the bill, and his latest pitch to sell its benefits, this morning at George Mason University in Virginia.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Virginia today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the daily intelligence briefing and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Obama then traveled to Fairfax, Virginia, where he delivered remarks on health insurance reform at George Mason University’s Patriot Center.
He then returned to the White House.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden have lunch in the Private Dining Room.
The national health care reform bill is getting down to the short strokes, and Obama has cleared much of his schedule to deal with details and lobby wavering members of Congress.
The House vote is slated for Sunday afternoon.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Moscow to work on closing the new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, deal with NATO and AfPak matters, and to meet with other members of the Quartet powers on the Middle East (U.S., Russia, European Union, and United Nations).
Clinton and U.S. special envoy to Middle East George Mitchell met today on the stalled Israeli/Palestinian peace process with the Middle East Quartet powers. They included Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, EU foreign secretary Catherine Ashton, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Quartet special envoy.
The Quartet (U.S., U.N., European Union, and Russia) called on Israel to halt its settlement activities in the disputed West Bank.
The Quarter calls came as new polls in Israel belied Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s claim that the settlements pushed by his right-wing coalition represent a consensus point of view. They show that nearly half of all Israelis think the settlements should be frozen.
In the wake of last week’s snub of visiting Vice President Joe Biden in the form of the announcement of 1600 new housing units for the hotly disputed West Bank, Obama rescinded the scheduled trip to the region this week of Middle East envoy George Mitchell. Meanwhile, Palestinians are protesting the proposed increased Israeli settlement presence in East Jerusalem. Israel captured the area from Jordan in the Six Day War of 1967.
Obama is also monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
“Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!” Boomer icon Fess Parker, pictured here with Walt Disney, was Disney’s choice to play Davy Crockett in the 1950s TV series endlessly replayed in the ’60s, and the title character in Daniel Boone, which aired from 1964 to 1970. He died yesterday in Santa Barbara. Parker, a 6 foot 6 inch ex-Marine from Texas, was allergic to his buckskin costumes.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley today.
At 10:45 AM, Schwarzenegger holds a press conference at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto to announce the introduction and his sponsorship of SB 1395 by state Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) to make it easier for Californians to affirm their preferred organ donor status.
The bill would also create the nation’s first live donor registry for kidney transplants, the California Living Donor Registry.
The event will be webcast live on www.gov.ca.gov.
** THE MITT & MEG SHOW: “TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS” Billionaire Meg Whitman, the seeming political cipher who would be governor of California, is purchasing endless amounts of unanswered advertising. It’s propelled her into a slight lead over Democrat Jerry Brown in the new Field Poll, something which Brown (who’s held, lost, and held again leads in many campaigns) told me weeks ago that he expected.
Yet she has serious problems. At this past weekend’s state Republican convention, she tried to deal with two of them: Her avoidance of the press and her mysterious motivation as a newfound politician.
As a character, Meg Whitman lacks evident psychological credibility. Why is someone with no engagement in public affairs before her sudden leadership role in the 2008 Republican presidential campaigns — someone who couldn’t even be bothered to vote, and can’t say how long she’s lived in California — suddenly running for governor of the state?
Conservative Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Whitman’s business mentor, provides the answer. It was his idea that Whitman run for governor, and he convinced her to do it. … From my March 17th column.
** MEG WHITMAN’S NEW! IMPROVED! POST-JOURNALISM! POLITICS. Something new and more than a little bizarre is busy being born in California. Call it post-journalism politics. … From my March 12th column.
** IS MEG WHITMAN LIKE ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER? YES (IN THE WRONG WAYS) Is billionaire Meg Whitman, the former McCain/Palin campaign co-chair who seeks to replace action movie superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor of California, like Schwarzenegger?
It’s a question that her ultra-megabucks campaign clearly doesn’t like. The heavily programmed career corporate marketing executive goes out of her way to distinguish herself from the multiple times Mr. Universe. She was a CEO, of a company you may have heard of, eBay. And in case you hadn’t heard that and you live in California, she’s spent many millions of dollars for months on ads telling you about it. After all, it is her sole claim to fame. Whereas, in her view, Schwarzeneggger was merely a jock turned entertainer. (Not that she mentions her not so excellent eBay era adventures with, say, Skype, Craigslist, and Goldman Sachs. So I won’t, either.)
Whitman hates the comparison with Schwarzenegger, a comparison which is nonetheless obvious as both she and Schwarzenegger are Republicans, both are super-rich, and neither had any experience in elected office before deciding to run for governor of California. Why does she hate it? Well, Schwarzenegger, while still personally popular, has seen his once record job approval rating plummet with the global recession and the state’s gridlocked budget process. And he’s turned out to be too liberal for the increasingly right-leaning party whose nomination she is trying to win.
As someone who knew Schwarzenegger and talked with him extensively before he ran for governor in the 2003 California recall election — and who began scouting Whitman, putting together several hours of film of her, when she suddenly emerged as national co-chair of the Republican presidential campaign in early 2008 — it occurs to me that Whitman is like Schwarzenegger.
But in the wrong ways. (Keep in mind that I’m referring to the Schwarzenegger who suddenly jumped from promoting Terminator 3 into running for governor in 2003.) … From my March 9th column.
** IS OBAMA’S AFPAK STRATEGY ACTUALLY WORKING? … From my March 5th column.
** THE CALIFORNIA AS FIRST “FAILED STATE” DEBATE: SCHWARZENEGGER, DAVIS, WHITMAN, AND JERRY BROWN. With Democrat Jerry Brown finally declaring his candidacy for California governor today and billionaire Meg Whitman’s super-rich Republican rival Steve Poizner starting his own TV ad campaign against her, this seems a good time to talk about a big new negative theme about the rather tarnished Golden State. Is California America’s first “failed state?” That’s what a lot of people are saying. So I talked about that with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; the governor he replaced, Gray Davis; and a famous former governor favored to be the next governor, Jerry Brown. … From my March 2nd column.
** SO WHO IS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER ANYWAY? PALIN, ROMNEY, PAUL (!) … … From my February 23rd column.
** MAD MEN: THE STREAK CONTINUES. … From my February 22nd column.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.) … From my February 19th column.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). … From my February 16th column.
** HOW JERRY BROWN CLEARED THE DEMOCRATIC FIELD FOR GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA. … From my December 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** HELP FOR HAITI.
You can donate to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, www.clintonbushhaitifund.org, by clicking here.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $80 per barrel.
This is up about $46 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
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| Comments (41) |
Good speech by the President on health care.
I remember the coonskin caps.
That was before my time. I love the shot of the little kids in class wearing their Davy Crockett coonskin caps.
Barack has got it going now.
Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:17 am
Good speech by the President on health care.
If Republicans were normal, Barack would have a 60% approval rating. They are so extremist now that it’s unbelieveable.
>** FIELD POLL: OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA JOB APPROVAL DIPS … TO 52%, WHILE APPROVAL ON HEALTH CARE RISES. The new Field Poll, parsed out as usual over a series of days, shows that President Barack Obama’s job approval amongst likely voters in the Golden State has dipped to 52%. With 37% disapproving.
That’s down from 56% in January.
Notably, Obama is approved by more independents, 55%, than he is by the sample of voters as a whole. That is due to his extraordinary unpopularity amongst California Republicans.
Well, Obama is down amongst all groups. But the Republican number is unprecedented.
Sadly, I never had one of those …
>#
Capitol Boy says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:30 am (Edit)
That was before my time. I love the shot of the little kids in class wearing their Davy Crockett coonskin caps.
#
Did you wear one?
> Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:18 am (Edit)
I remember the coonskin caps.
It’s a very good speech. Momentum is shifting back to Obama.
It will be so good to have this bill finally decided. I’m really quite sick of it all.
> Capitol Boy says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:32 am (Edit)
Barack has got it going now.
Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:17 am
Good speech by the President on health care.
It’s weird your site didn’t work.
Historian Michael Barrier interviewed Fess Parker for his bio The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney:
http://www.michaelbarrier.com/books.htm#disney
Parker shared memories of the growing frustration he had with Disney as the 50s passed and he felt an opportunity to be a leading man slipped away due to the lackluster projects Disney foisted on him.
Parker went on to be a successful wine maker and developer in Santa Barbara.
Last two days I’ve heard ads on KNX from the proponents of Prop 16 on the June ballot
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_16_(June_2010)
Especially enjoy the rushed disclosure by the announcer it is being mostly funded by PG&E despite all the usual attempts to wrap it in vague mom and apple pie-like grassroots origins (“Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote”) Ugh, I am sick to death of these corporate shell-games. I will vote NO just on principle.
Thank you for the excellent article on Mitt Romney and the governor’s race in California. It is very illuminating.
When are you writing about “The Ghost” again?
Additional video today?
He’s got it. This bill is going to pass…
Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:17 am
Good speech by the President on health care.
I’m glad I was way too young to ever wear any such thing. I’ve never worn anything embarrassing in my whole life…
Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:18 am
I remember the coonskin caps.
There’s no politician in California that would not kill for a 52/37 approval split…
** FIELD POLL: OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA JOB APPROVAL DIPS … TO 52%, WHILE APPROVAL ON HEALTH CARE RISES. The new Field Poll, parsed out as usual over a series of days, shows that President Barack Obama’s job approval amongst likely voters in the Golden State has dipped to 52%. With 37% disapproving.
I love Israel but they have got to get real over there. Get a new government. It’s one thing to be tough and it is another thing to be fanatical…
BB: Clinton and U.S. special envoy to Middle East George Mitchell met today on the stalled Israeli/Palestinian peace process with the Middle East Quartet powers. They included Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, EU foreign secretary Catherine Ashton, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Quartet special envoy.
The Quartet (U.S., U.N., European Union, and Russia) called on Israel to halt its settlement activities in the disputed West Bank.
The Quarter calls came as new polls in Israel belied Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s claim that the settlements pushed by his right-wing coalition represent a consensus point of view. They show that nearly half of all Israelis think the settlements should be frozen.
Pelosi sounds confident, Boehner sounds mean.
Where is my comment?
“slant drilling (an old technique which goes back at least 50 years).”
No kidding — Carl Barks has the Beagle Boys use it to try and steal Scrooge McDuck’s money in “the Money Well” (Uncle Scrooge #21), published in 1958.
Whitman the Weasel!!
** CALIFORNIA 2010: MEG WHITMAN TRIES TO SWITCH SIDES ON OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING. Billionaire Meg Whitman, that unavoidable presence on television if you live in California and watch TV, is happy about releasing a policy book in support of her bid for the Republican nomination for governor of California.
Maybe she should read it. And then maybe she should read what she already said in this campaign.
Yesterday she told a Santa Barbara outlet that she is against offshore oil drilling.
But in a policy statement on her website, megwhitman.com, she says she is for offshore oil drilling.
It’s much easier to just repeat jobs, education, and unspecified budget cuts …
It’s also the turning point of the plot to the Chinatown sequel, The Two Jakes, set in the early 1950s.
> Dana says:
March 19, 2010 at 2:00 pm (Edit)
“slant drilling (an old technique which goes back at least 50 years).”
No kidding — Carl Barks has the Beagle Boys use it to try and steal Scrooge McDuck’s money in “the Money Well” (Uncle Scrooge #21), published in 1958.
Sorry for the glitchiness.
> Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 1:01 pm (Edit)
Where is my comment?
In this environment, those are very good numbers. And I believe they will go back up.
> Jack Aubrey says:
March 19, 2010 at 12:11 pm (Edit)
There’s no politician in California that would not kill for a 52/37 approval split…
** FIELD POLL: OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA JOB APPROVAL DIPS … TO 52%, WHILE APPROVAL ON HEALTH CARE RISES. The new Field Poll, parsed out as usual over a series of days, shows that President Barack Obama’s job approval amongst likely voters in the Golden State has dipped to 52%. With 37% disapproving.
Uh, me too …
> Jack Aubrey says:
March 19, 2010 at 12:10 pm (Edit)
I’m glad I was way too young to ever wear any such thing. I’ve never worn anything embarrassing in my whole life…
Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:18 am
I remember the coonskin caps.
He wouldn’t be doing all this if he thought it would not pass.
> Jack Aubrey says:
March 19, 2010 at 12:09 pm (Edit)
He’s got it. This bill is going to pass…
Jonas Blane says:
March 19, 2010 at 10:17 am
Good speech by the President on health care.
You’re very welcome.
Ghost is coming up. Actually, the huge site problem was a big delay, because the draft is inside NWN so I can work on it from any computer.
> lorena says:
March 19, 2010 at 11:12 am (Edit)
Thank you for the excellent article on Mitt Romney and the governor’s race in California. It is very illuminating.
When are you writing about “The Ghost” again?
Actually, that committee should be called Californians To Protect Our Monopoly …
> Dana says:
March 19, 2010 at 11:08 am (Edit)
Last two days I’ve heard ads on KNX from the proponents of Prop 16 on the June ballot
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_16_(June_2010)
Especially enjoy the rushed disclosure by the announcer it is being mostly funded by PG&E despite all the usual attempts to wrap it in vague mom and apple pie-like grassroots origins (”Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote”) Ugh, I am sick to death of these corporate shell-games. I will vote NO just on principle.
lol
Capitol Boy says:
March 19, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Whitman the Weasel!!
** CALIFORNIA 2010: MEG WHITMAN TRIES TO SWITCH SIDES ON OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING. Billionaire Meg Whitman, that unavoidable presence on television if you live in California and watch TV, is happy about releasing a policy book in support of her bid for the Republican nomination for governor of California.
Maybe she should read it. And then maybe she should read what she already said in this campaign.
Yesterday she told a Santa Barbara outlet that she is against offshore oil drilling.
But in a policy statement on her website, megwhitman.com, she says she is for offshore oil drilling.
Re Meg Whitman: the more I learn the more she looks like a fake bigger than Gruesome Newsom.
I like what I am hearing about Whitman. There is going to be plenty of ammo to shoot down her campaign.
I like how Obama is sounding on health care reform very much. He looks and sounds as if he has his campaign mojo back.
I will keep my fingers crossed this weekend.
What new video today?
Obama’s weekend address on financial reform, Obama’s message for Iranian new year, and Arnold with Steve Jobs on organ donations.
It looks like it’s happening.
> marcos leon says:
March 19, 2010 at 6:21 pm (Edit)
I like how Obama is sounding on health care reform very much. He looks and sounds as if he has his campaign mojo back.
I will keep my fingers crossed this weekend.
When the Democratic IEs actually come on line, perhaps …
> marcos leon says:
March 19, 2010 at 6:13 pm (Edit)
I like what I am hearing about Whitman. There is going to be plenty of ammo to shoot down her campaign.
She’s got a lot of problems.
> Truth Teller says:
March 19, 2010 at 5:12 pm (Edit)
Re Meg Whitman: the more I learn the more she looks like a fake bigger than Gruesome Newsom.
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