OPTIMISM FOR AMERICA

Emanuel treats Obama as his Younger Brother

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:58:00 +0000

(iht).Earlier this month, Barack Obama was meeting with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other lawmakers when Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff, began nervously cracking a knuckle.

Obama then turned to complain to Emanuel about his noisy habit.

At which point, Emanuel held the offending knuckle up to Obama's left ear and, like an annoying little brother, snapped off a few special cracks.

The episode, relayed by someone familiar with the incident, underscores some essential truths about Emanuel: He is brash, has a deep comfort level with his new boss and has been ever-present at Obama's side of late, in meetings, on podia and in numerous photographs.

There he was, standing at Obama's desk in one of the first Oval Office pictures; there he was again, playfully thumbing his nose at his former House colleagues during the inauguration; there he was, accompanying the president to a meeting with congressional leaders on Friday.

Rasmussen poll:President Obama earns strong approval rating less then half of the nation

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:40:00 +0000

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index for Sunday shows that 42% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Obama is performing as President. While that’s down a few points from a spike surrounding his inauguration, it is consistent with the level of strong support the President has enjoyed almost every single day since his electoral victory in November.

At the same time, the President’s negatives have risen a bit since he assumed office and 20% now Strongly Disapprove of his performance. The higher negatives give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +22, his lowest rating as President or President-elect since Thanksgiving.

Not surprisingly, partisan and ideological divides remain clear when it comes to evaluating the President. The number of political conservatives who Strongly Disapprove of Obama’s performance has increased from 29% on the morning of Inauguration Day to 38% today. Only 17% of conservatives Strongly Approve.

At the other extreme, 79% of liberal voters Strongly Approve of Obama’s performance to date while just 5% Strongly Disapprove.

Overall, 60% of all voters somewhat or strongly approve of Obama’s performance so far while 36% disapprove.

New N.Y. Senator Puts President Obama On Hold

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Gov. Paterson's Choice Opts To Finish Remarks Before Leaving Podium To Talk To New Commander-In-Chief

After months of public and private dithering and a very public dis of Caroline Kennedy, New York Gov. David Paterson named Hudson County Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.

Gillibrand, a relatively unknown, is 42 and the mother of two. She was surrounded by political poobahs from around the state, including Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, he himself a contender for the job, and Congressmen Gary Ackerman and Nita Lowey. She vowed to work hard to let New Yorkers get to know her.

"For many New Yorkers, this is the first time you've heard my name, and you don't know much about me," Gillibrand said. "Over the next two years you will get to know me, but much more importantly I will get to know you."

There were some high points -- President Barack Obama called in the middle of Gillibrand's speech.

Gillibrand finished her remarks before she went to the side of the stage to take the call.

"He said, 'I look forward to working with you,'" Gillibrand said.

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:59:00 +0000

go to my new blog: www.freshleadership.blogspot.com

updated daily

Mitt the Frontrunner

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:38:00 +0000

NBC-WSJ GOP pollster Neil Newhouse did a post-election survey last night, and here's what he found: Just 12% of those surveyed believed Palin should be the GOP's new leader; instead 29% of voters said Romney, followed by 20% who say Huckabee. Among GOPers, it was Romney 33%, Huckabee 20% and Palin 18%.

Bush: Time to move Forward

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:31:00 +0000

You Did Not Lose

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:13:00 +0000

www.spectator.org:
Conservatives who sought to prevent McCain's nomination cannot be blamed for his defeat. And it is his defeat, not yours.
Ideologues tend to see election results in ideological terms. Right now, "progressives" are congratulating themselves on the triumph of progressivism. But Obama will be the next president because millions of non-ideological "swing" voters -- those I call the Ordinary Americans -- saw him as the superior candidate. A vote for him was not, in the eyes of those key voters, an endorsement of any ideology.

Good candidates win elections, and bad candidates lose. John McCain was a bad candidate and he lost. Those who try to put an ideological spin on this election will miss that basic point.
Don't blame yourself, and don't listen to the pundits who are trying to spin Tuesday's result as demonstrating the failure of conservatism. The only failure of conservatism in this election cycle was the failure to produce a consensus alternative to McCain.
Last night, at an Election Night party at the National Taxpayers Union in Alexandria, Va., none of the conservative activists were in tears over McCain's defeat -- although some of them were among the same Romney supporters who'd cried when their candidate quit in February.
What I saw last night was a clear-eyed determination to move forward with the conservative agenda in the Obama era. As Paul Jacobs of Citizens in Charge told me, "We've got 'em right where we want 'em.… There is no way that Obama and the Democrats can live up to expectations." Dry it up and move forward. We're at rock bottom, with nowhere to go but up.

What Sank McCain

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:09:00 +0000

anything have prevented this defeat? By Byron York:
In January, a few days before the South Carolina Democratic primary, I went to a Barack Obama rally in Columbia with a Republican friend who had never before seen Obama in action. This friend’s reaction: "Oh, s**t." The super-enthusiastic crowd was about 3,000 strong — no big deal compared to the audiences Obama would later draw in the general election, but several times what John McCain was attracting in South Carolina at the time. My friend said the scene reminded him of the old clip from Jaws, in which the small-town sheriff, seeing how big the shark really is, says, "We’re gonna need a bigger boat." The question, of course, was whether Republicans actually had a bigger boat.Now we can say for sure that they didn’t.In his concession speech, John McCain referred to his effort as "the most challenged campaign in modern times." He was right. What sank McCain’s presidential bid was a set of the worst conditions to face any candidate in decades, in combination with an opponent who was not only a better campaigner but also the favorite of the nation’s media establishment. And there was some luck involved, too.

Could any candidate have been elected to succeed a president of his own party whose job approval rating was 25 percent? Probably not. Could any candidate have been elected to continue his party’s stay in the White House when roughly 90 percent of Americans believed the country was on the wrong track? Probably not. Could any candidate from the governing party have been elected after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 4,000 points before one could even turn around? Probably not.McCain faced all those obstacles — and not just those, but a political climate in which his advantage over his opponent was perversely diminished by McCain’s own courage and good judgment. In the primaries, McCain bet his entire candidacy on the surge in Iraq. He was right, and Democrats were wrong. By any measure, he should have benefited, and Democrats should have suffered, when the surge worked. Instead, as Americans achieved greater success in Iraq — and as U.S. deaths fell to 13 last month, equaling the lowest total in a very long time — the war in Iraq simply fell off many voters’ radar screens. McCain’s resoluteness and good sense went largely unrewarded.And yet in spite of it all, McCain still managed to outperform conditions. The vote totals, as of 2 a.m. Eastern Time, show McCain with about 47 percent of the national popular vote. Perhaps that figure will go down a bit, but there’s no doubt that McCain far outshone George H.W. Bush’s 1992 re-election effort — a campaign undertaken in poor conditions for a Republican, but not nearly as bad as what McCain encountered this time — in which Bush won just 38 percent of the vote. Likewise, McCain outperformed Bob Dole, who won a little less than 41 percent in 1996. And McCain’s percentage of the popular vote might be not too far from George W. Bush’s in 2000, when Bush lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College.In other words, McCain faced tougher challenges than his predecessors, yet somehow managed to win more votes. Just not enough.You hear a lot of talk to the effect that, despite all the obstacles facing his campaign, McCain was actually even, and a little ahead, of Obama until the financial crisis blew everything up. There’s some truth to that; on September 8, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, McCain led Obama 48.3 percent to 45.4 percent. As late as September 17, the two candidates were tied at 45.7 percent each.But that relatively brief moment at the top of the polls didn’t mean that all McCain’s other problems had gone away, or been conquered. Instead, it meant that any new problem, whether it be one as cataclysmic as the financial breakdown or one far less serious, would be placed on top of all of other McCain’s other handicaps, making the wall facing McCain a little higher.A few weeks before the election, a top McCain aide gave me the campaign’s inside view of the situation. "You could think of this as trying to summit a mountain," he said. "Both campaigns have to summit the mountain. In most elections, one campaign has some kind of advantage over the other — maybe they get a ten-minute or a half-hour head start — but both sides have to climb the same face of the mountain. In this election, we’re not climbing the same face of the mountain. They’re climbing the side of the mountain with boardwalks and latte stands and playgrounds for the kids, and we’re climbing the side of the mountain with axes and ice picks and one slip and you’re dead."It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t fair, but that’s the way things go. And in the end, McCain slipped.

Gird your loins, conservatives

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:00:00 +0000

By Michelle Malkin
There is no time to lick wounds, point fingers, and wallow in post-election mud.
I’m getting a lot of moan-y, sad-face “What do we do now, Michelle?” e-mails.
What do we do now? We do what we’ve always done.
We stand up for our principles, as we always have — through Democrat administrations and Republican administrations, in bear markets or bull markets, in peacetime and wartime.
We stay positive and focused.
We keep the faith.
We do not apologize for our beliefs. We do not re-brand them, re-form them, or relinquish them. We defend them.
We pay respect to the office of the presidency. We count our blessings and recommit ourselves to our constitutional republic.
We gird our loins, to borrow a phrase from our Vice President-elect.
We lock and load our ideological ammunition.
We fight.

A NEW DAY, A FRESH START

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:31:00 +0000

www.boblonsberry.com
It is a sea change, but not a mandate. And that's not a hit on Barack Obama, it is a challenge.
A challenge to make his rhetoric about no more blue states and red states, but simply United States, actually mean something. Unity is earned, not declared, and the simple fact is that one more 51-percent president doesn't bind a country together.
Rather, like George W. Bush, he has tremendous potential to leave it decidedly divided. Democrats are exultantly talking about a wave sweeping the country, about a new hope and an era of change, but the fact is that almost as many people opposed Barack Obama as supported him. Those people aren't cheering today, they are licking their wounds. And while the best of them will give Barack Obama a fair shake, many made up their minds months ago about him.
So President-elect Obama must avoid the temptation to do an end zone dance with his friends. He must rather immediately and convincingly reach out to people who feel like he has looked down his nose at them and their values and culture. The people he once mocked as clinging to their guns and their religion are just as American as the people who voted for him, and almost as numerous, and the country will only become united if he respects them.

AMERICA HAS SPOKEN!

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:26:00 +0000

As a American i fully admire and congratulate President elect Barack Obama for his achievement and his Victory, only in America , Hope is a gift that anything is in reach, if you Fight for it, I disagreed with Obama on his Policies and his belief's , and i will continue to stand up for my beliefs , Fight for it and defend my country, Now isn't the time for looking back, To the past and to the mistakes, Now is the time to look ahead , to the future, And as a honest citizen i will set aside my differences, believe in the promise He gave tonight the American People, To change this Country for a better Future, To defend our Country, live the Dream, serve the Country we so love, and believe that a promise to the American people is a promise kept.

God bless the USA.

AMERICA GOES FOR HIM.......WE LOST IN THE BATTLE ,BUT WE DIDNT'T LOOSE OUR SPIRIT AND LOVE FOR THIS COUNTRY!

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:40:00 +0000

OHIO IS FOR OBAMA

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:55:00 +0000

Florida (40 % in) Obama leads 51-48

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:43:00 +0000

Msnbc calls SC for Mccain

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:46:00 +0000

FOX CALLS : WV FOR MCCAIN

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:38:00 +0000

NORTH CAROLINA : TOO CLOSE TO CALL

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:30:00 +0000

INDIANA: MCCAIN IS LEADING, BUT TOO CLOSE TO CALL

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:05:00 +0000

More.........

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:47:00 +0000

VIRGINIA- POLL CLOSE: 7:00 PM

*22% of the vote is African American and Obama is winning 91% of it.
*Among white voters, 58% are backing McCain, while 41% are supporting Obama. In 2004, Kerry won 32% of the vote here while Bush won 68% of it.
*72% disapprove of the job Bush is doing; only 27% approve.
*More than half of voters think McCain will continue Bush's policies; fewer think he will take the country in a different direction.
*Obama is winning the support of both men and women, but white men and white women are backing McCain.
*Among whites, one in five said race was a factor in their vote today and they backed McCain.
*More blacks (4 in 10) said race was a factor and they voted overwhelmingly for Obama.
*Obama looks to be improving on Kerry's margins in Northern Virginia.
*Most voters say McCain as the candidate on the attack: nearly 7 in 10 say he attacked Obama unfairly; fewer than half say Obama attacked McCain unfairly.

INDIANA - POLL CLOSE: 7:00 PM

*The economy is the top issue here (as it is nationally) and Obama appears to be benefitting from that. Among economy voters, Obama 56% to 43%.
*White working class (those without a college degree and earn less than $50K) are backing Obama slightly over McCain by 51% to 48%.
*Men are divided in their support, while Obama has the advantage with women.
*42% of voters are white evangelicals, up from 35% in 2004. McCain is getting 68% of their support. Bush captured 77% of the vote in 2004.
*35% of voters in IN were looking for a candidate who could bring about change, while almost as many (33%) were looking for someone who shares their values. The change voters are supporting Obama, while the values voters are supporting McCain.

GEORGIA - - POLL CLOSE: 7:00 PM

*30% of voters are African American (up from 25% in 2004) and 97% are backing Obama.
*Whites are backing McCain by about the same margin they supported Bush in 2004.
*The top candidate quality was values, closely followed by change. Those who selected values as the most important quality backed McCain, while the change voters supported Obama.

NORTH CAROLINA - POLL CLOSE: 7:30 PM

*22% of voters were African American (26% in 2004) and Obama is getting 97% of their vote. As expected, an improvement on Kerry's performance four years ago.
*White voters are backing McCain by 62% to 37%.
*11% of voters in NC are new voters, voting for the first time this year, they too have the economy on their minds and 3 in 4 of them are backing Obama.
*Change and values are nearly tied for the #1 quality. Obama wins the change people, while McCain takes the values people.

OHIO - POLL CLOSE: 7:30 PM

*86% are worried about the direction of the economy, including more than half who are very worried. (Obama is getting the support of those worried voters.)
*Hillary Clinton won the primary here, and Obama is getting the support of 82% of Democrats who backed her in that contest. 16% are backing McCain.
*12% of voters in Ohio are black, up from 10% in 2004. 98% of them are backing Obama.
*Both white women and white women are going for McCain.
*More voters see view Obama has a candidate who is in touch with people like them, while more voters see McCain has having the experience to serve effectively as president.
*Still, 4 in 10 Ohio voters think Obama's positions on the issues are too liberal.

PENNSYLVANIA - POLL CLOSE: 8:00 PM

*A quarter of voters in PA are white Catholics and they are splitting their votes. Kerry lost these voters to Bush by 48% to 52%.
*Seniors are one-fifth of the electorate and just over half are backing Obama. These voters narrowly backed Kerry by 51% to 48% in 2004.
*Obama is getting about two-thirds of the support of voters age 18-29. Kerry won 60% of them in 2004.
*Most voters in the Keystone state made up their minds long ago, but among those who decided in the last week (just over 1 in 10 voters), they are narrowly backing McCain by 51% to 47%.

FLORIDA- POLL CLOSE: 8:00 PM

*13% of voters here were Hispanics (15% in 2004) and they are breaking for Obama by 55% to 45%. This is a reversal from 2004 when Hispanics backed Bush by 56% to 44%.
*Seniors (24% of voters) are backing McCain over Obama by 53% 46%. In 2004 Bush edged out Kerry by 51% to 48%.
*13% of voters are African American in Florida and they and 95% are backing Obama.
*White men and white women are backing McCain.
*McCain wins on experience here, while more voters see Obama as being more in touch with people like them.

8:00 MISSOURI

* Young voters (19% of voters) are backing Obama; while seniors (17% of voters) give McCain the edge.
* White evangelical are 38% of the vote in Missouri and they are backing McCain by 67% to 32%. Not as strong a showing as Bush in 2004.

Florida:

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Seniors for McCain 53-46%
Hispanics for Obama 55-45%
White men AND women favoring McCain

drudge is developing .......... OH, FL, IN TOO CLOSE TO CALL

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:13:00 +0000

HOPE!!!!

McCain is winning 16% of Hillary supporters in Ohio. (FOX News)

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:05:00 +0000

Florida Exit Polls:

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:54:00 +0000

Obama +1 only!

Virginia Exit Polls:

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:50:00 +0000

–McCain leads among white men 51-47 in early exit polls (5:15 batch)
–Obama leads among “new voters” 69-31.
–Late deciders breaking for McCain 55-45.
–Asian turnout favors McCain.

Ohio Exit Polls:

noreply@blogger.com (jacob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:49:00 +0000

–McCain leads among white men 58-39 in early exit polls (5:15 batch)
–Obama leads among “new voters” 63-36.
–Late deciders for Obama 54-39.
–Heavy turnout in GOP areas.
[ed. things looking surprisingly good for McCain in Ohio]