Free Republic

American freedom lovers studying the reign of Obama have been in a constant state of anxiety over the administration's assault on capitalism and America's very solvency, its thuggish political style, its PR war against America's history, its radical social policies and its Carteresque foreign policy. But for the first time, there are signs that America is starting to wake up. The latest daily Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll has Obama slipping into negative net approval territory, with more Americans strongly disapproving of his performance (34 percent) than strongly approving (33 percent). Just 54 percent of voters say they at least...

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have two articles in today’s papers that tell essentially the same story. The headline from the Times is “Poll Finds Unease With Obama on Key Issues.” It’s followed by this: A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry and close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, falls well below his job approval ratings.

Heard on a DC talk radio show...in answer to the question: Why does this president remain so popular?

Question: Why are liberals so upset with Glenn Beck? Answer: Because he’s popular and it is a popularity based on ideas and humor. In the garbage time slot of 5 p.m. Eastern, he outdraws Keith Olbermann in prime time. Wrote Greg Pollowitz at NRO: “What really scares the pants off of liberals when you mention Glenn Beck is how fast his show on Fox has become a hit.” So they have their knives out for him just as they do Republican Gov. Sarah Palin. Perhaps liberals realize that as their ideas become realities, the people are going to turn on...

Where Ronald Reagan tore down a wall, Barack Obama has hit one – and it’s made of bricks. European support for the American president is suffering. As Gregor Peter Schmitz asserts in Der Spiegel, “it has become clear that the most contentious issues [between the U.S. and Europe] have been shelved.” This means Obama is no longer asking Europe to replicate his idea of a stimulus plan and he’s not pushing for military help in Afghanistan. On both issues European leaders have declared, “No we can’t.” And people say Bush squandered the world’s sympathy? Anyone remember nuggets like this from...

The difference how the troops received President Bush and Obama.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates. He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests.

While the number of Americans who approve of Barack Obama’s job performance remains steady and high, the number who Strongly Approve has slipped. Following Congressional passage of the stimulus bill, consumer confidence has fallen to another all-time low. ... Twenty-six percent (26%) of all voters now Strongly Disapprove to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +10. That Approval Index rating is also the lowest yet for the President (see trends).

Barack Obama's foreign tour loses him ground back home Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama denied yesterday that he was ignoring the concerns of ordinary Americans while he tours the world, amid signs that the adulation he is receiving abroad has alienated some US voters. After the Democratic presidential candidate holds meetings with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron in London today, the last leg of his nine-day international tour, he returns home to a general election campaign with new polls showing him in a tightening race against John McCain, the Republican candidate. Mr McCain and his surrogates have...

Economics -- to most people as useful a course of study as ancient Bulgarian literature -- is really the study of human behavior. This kind of behavior is labeled “emergent” -- meaning it is a large-scale pattern that emerges spontaneously out of the interactions of numerous individuals each independently following a more local program. (In the case of the economy, this more-local program is the perceived self-interest of each of the millions of people within the economy.) Because of the huge number of factors involved, and the constant feedback of one factor on another, predicting emergent effects is as difficult...

I am really curious on this one. I became a fan in 1975, with 'Born To Run', and was dazzled by the force, power, Spector-like grandeur. It was the epitome of 'Americana' for me. I saw him live three times, last in 1987. However, my fandom abated around 1990 or so, but I kept following what he did. Uneven albums, band changes, divorce, a new and happy marriage. Like any other artist, he has his shortcomings, one of these being a tendency towards bombast, pathos, a bit too much of 'grandeur'. But I think he does have his heart in...

A new study reveals that for teens, it's not whether you're really popular. It's whether you think you are. Perhaps no period of life is more fraught with obsessive worries about popularity, social hierarchies and reputations than that treacherous, three-year period known as middle school. The social anxieties of adolescence have driven plotlines from "The Wonder Years" to "Hannah Montana" where teens and pre-teens spend entire hours and episodes agonizing over what their peers think. Figuring out whether you'll end up being a cool prom king or queen bee--or the kid who eats alone in the cafeteria--is an integral part...

IN LOS FELIZ, across from a 7-Eleven on North Vermont Avenue, a few dozen men in their early 20s to late 80s share a dinner behind closed doors. Some wear full tuxedos with bow ties and jeweled cuff links, some have shoulder-length hair, and others wear open-collared shirts that reveal the slightest filigree of tattoo arching across their chests. Over Italian food, retired lawyers and judges sit elbow-to-elbow with owners of scrap metal yards and vintage clothing boutiques. They hold forth on philosophy, the weather; they rib each other and joke about saving room for cannoli. As they reach for...

-- snip -- The real lesson in the years since 9/11 is different from what the Democratic candidates imagine: It is easy to be loved when you are a victim. It is harder to be popular when you act decisively to protect yourself and others. A successful president should strive for America to be liked -- and expect, on occasion, for America to be resented in a good cause.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Republican Fred Thompson, Hollywood celebrity and former Tennessee senator, went from hot to not in short order. Now, he's trying to create another popularity burst in the presidential race, this one perfectly timed. His voice and expression serious, Thompson told Iowa voters this past week: "I would ask people to think of one thing _ when our worst enemy's thinking about what he can do to the United States of America, who do you want sitting on our side of the table representing you? That's probably the guy you ought to elect president." It was Thompson...

The job of Democratic Senate majority leader can be a dangerous one, as a major spokesman for the party. Former Sen. Tom Daschle lost a reelection bid after his tour as majority leader as the folks in South Dakota apparently came to think he wasn't paying enough attention to his home state. Reid has never been the most popular politician in Nevada. The last time he had a serious Republican opponent -- John Ensign in 1998 -- the results were very close in Reid's favor. Two recent newspaper polls found that 49% and 51% of voters disapprove of Reid's job...

According to the Kremlin's opponents, the president's standing -- his approval ratings now exceed 80 percent -- is an artifice. They say it is built on an increasingly autocratic political system and fueled by a tidal wave of petrodollars that may not last. With a slavish press, a docile parliament, a restricted menu of political parties and a willingness to smother dissent, Putin is glassed off from real democratic competition, his critics argue. "Everything is based on the oil pillow," said Yuli Nisnevich, a political scientist at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. "But the system itself is not...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's appeal among Nevadans has plunged dramatically in a new Review-Journal poll, which finds him viewed unfavorably by most likely voters in his home state. Reid is still slightly more well-liked than Gov. Jim Gibbons. Both the Democratic senator and the Republican governor are less favorably viewed than President Bush. "Fortunately for Reid, he doesn't have to run for re-election for a while," said Brad Coker, managing partner of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., the Washington, D.C.-based firm that conducted the poll. If they decide to run again, Reid's name won't be on the ballot until...

The Sky Isn't Falling in China The day after the Shanghai stock market fell, we saw again all the same warnings about the Chinese system and the odds of its collapse. By Fareed Zakaria, of NewsweekFor some years economists and analysts have been wondering what it would take to scare financial markets. Wars, coups, soaring commodity prices, increased energy costs, unwinding housing markets—nothing seemed to do it. Last week we got one answer: China. The sharp plunge in the Shanghai stock market caused jitters around the world. But while the reaction pointed to the increased importance of China in global...

This survey comes after an earlier poll in January A majority of people believe that Israel and Iran have a mainly negative influence in the world, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests. It shows that the two countries are closely followed by the United States and North Korea. The poll asked 28,000 in 27 countries to rate a dozen countries plus the European Union in terms of whether they have a positive or negative influence. Canada, Japan and the EU are viewed most positively in the survey. 'Traditional divides' In January, the BBC World Service revealed polling...