from yesterdays show...enjoy...I know I did...

RUSH: I'm going to go through the finals week for Obama here, I don't know when the first 100 days is. It's 90, a hundred days after January 20th. But, regardless, this is an incredible list of things that I've been thinking about, and I've been taking notes, and I've been putting them all down. And when I go through all this, at the end of it, all of this is being spun as productive and historic, and it's nothing but buffoonery. It's embarrassing incompetence and inexperience.


BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Finals week, Barack Obama approaching a hundred days. Now, they say this has been a historically productive 100 days. I have just put a list here together in no particular order, just off the top of my head, of the things in this administration that have stood out to me since it began. Admiral Blair -- this is all over the New York Times today -- Admiral Blair admitting the CIA received high value, lifesaving information from terrorists, while President Obama is condemning the same interrogations as immoral and counterproductive. President Obama is throwing and has thrown grand White House parties with Kobe beef, a hundred bucks a pound, while telling the nation to cut back in order to survive the greatest economic downturn supposedly since the Great Depression, bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia, listening patiently and respectfully while a two-bit dictator lectures Obama -- it was Daniel Ortega -- with false charges for 50 minutes about the criminal country he leads, and Obama doesn't say one word to object, one word in disagreement, does not stand up for his country at one point during the Summit of the Americas.

He has run around the world and apologized for the greatest, the most compassionate, the most innovative and freedom-loving country in world history. Now we've got Fidel Castro setting Obama straight about how Cuba handles political prisoners and its economy. Fidel Castro, one of Obama's idols, calling him superficial. We had the nomination of tax cheats to his cabinet, including the man who oversees the IRS, five tax cheats in the Obama administration. We have Obama's joke of a press spokesman, who makes a complete idiot of himself on a daily basis. He sends back a symbol of freedom, that bust of Sir Winston Churchill to Great Britain just after moving into the White House. He wants nothing to do with it. He did of his own volition. They said you can keep it. He said no, we don't want it here. They said put it in a different room in the White House. We don't want it here, and sent it back to the British embassy. It was given to us, President Bush, after 9/11, by the Brits. He insulted the prime minister of England, the queen of England, with embarrassing, thoughtless gifts.

We have the French president Sarkozy ridiculing Obama's messianic complex, inviting him to walk on water at Normandy beach. We have Iran taking a hostage, an American journalist, as Obama promises better relations. We have North Korea humiliating Obama with their missile launch. We have Obama putting the country in debt for generations to come while promising fiscal responsibility, offering up laughable budget cuts, banning lobbyists from his administration, while appointing them left and right. Openly lying that Caterpillar would hire up with the passage of his stimulus bill, then watching while that company lays off thousands after the stimulus bill passes. He pledges to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay where I have a thriving merchandise business. But then he keeps it open with no plan for its future. Proclaiming total transparency, while keeping secret who got the TARP funds, when, where, why. Being incapable of communicating without a teleprompter, while the press declares him a Reaganesque, Great Communicator.

He attacks a private citizen broadcaster from the White House as part of an orchestrated plan to distract the country from legislation and policies we don't want, which thus touched off a political firestorm, all of this while claiming to be a unifier. He makes a ham-handed attempt to nationalize the banks preventing financial institutions from paying back TARP money they don't need or want. We got a column today in the Wall Street Journal by Holman Jenkins that General Motors is a debacle; it is an absolute debacle and mess, and soon Wall Street is going to be the same thing. He has made bad situations worse with car manufacturers, and the worst is yet to come. He has sparked hundreds of protests involving hundreds of thousands of Americans at tea parties regarding irresponsible government spending while his Homeland Security chief labels peacefully demonstrating Americans and veterans as security risks. Now, that's just the things I could think up the top of my head. Oh, yeah, moving the census over to the Commerce department to politicize that. I mean, this administration has been one part joke, one part unbelievable, and many parts scary. Because while all this has gone on, this man is reported upon and reported to be the best president we've ever had, a shining light, a beacon, historical figure.

We have a sycophantic mainstream media in this country. How about the New York Times. The New York Times, $34 million in cash. The New York Times is in debt $1.3 billion. By the way, this is cool, folks. The New York Times' corporate president and CEO, Janet Robinson, received a compensation package valued at $5.58 million last year while the publisher of the New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. received a total of $2.4 million while this company is losing its shirt. Does that not sound a little bit like Wall Street? Does this not sound like excessive bonuses? Does this sound like CEOs paying them when the performance of their company is in the sewer? And haven't we demonized private sector CEOs for this very thing? Oh, and that is another one: making enemies out of people in the private sector and ginning up protests by his ACORN buddies at the homes of AIG executives, fomenting class hatred and rivalry.

The list goes on of the egregious things this administration's done. His House organ, the New York Times, $1.3 billion in debt, $34 million in cash on hand. They borrowed some money from some guy named Slim down in Mexico, and he's charged them 18% interest. And now Hillary Clinton's out there saying US is laying groundwork for tough, crippling sanctions on Iran if Iran rejects engagement. Iran says, "We'll talk, but we're not doing anything about our nuclear program." I mean the world is making a joke, the world is making a joke of our country, and the president is being praised for it!


BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here are details on the reprimands. You might say the teachers are trying to educate the student, Fidel Castro commenting on Barack Obama. Castro rejects President Obama's suggestions that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on remittances from the United States. Fidel Castro on a blog, no less, said that Obama "misinterpreted remarks by his brother and successor Raul and bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on remittances from abroad as a goodwill gesture to the United States." All of this enraged Castro, who wrote in an essay posted on a government website that Obama, without a doubt, misinterpreted Raul's declarations. "Castro appeared to be throwing a dose of cold water on growing expectations for improved bilateral relations -- suggesting Obama had no right to dare suggest that Cuba make even small concessions. He also seemed to suggest too much was being made of Raul's comments about discussing 'everything' with US authorities."

Castro: "Affirming that the president of Cuba is ready to discuss any topic with the president of the United States expresses that he's not afraid ... It's a sign of bravery and confidence in the principles of the revolution." Now, there's a hidden little secret here that everybody with a half a brain knows about the Castros. The last thing they want is an open relationship with the United States. The last thing they want is the blockade to come down. That's what Fidel's always called the embargo. He tells Cuban citizens that there are Navy ships out there preventing goods, he calls it a blockade. So here comes our naive young boy president down there, (paraphrasing) "We're going to open up, we're going to have this new dialogue, we're going to send you some money, we're going to send some more people down there, you ought to free some political prisoners," and Castro bristles at the naivete of his student, Barack Obama. It's the last thing they want. You understand that the US embargo is what gives the Castro brothers and the Cuban government the ammo to tell their citizens what a rotten economy they have and what a rotten life they all have, even though it's the best damn health care in the freaking world, according to the stupid idiots in the American left.

The last thing they want is the embargo lifted. "The ex-president had previously expressed his admiration for Obama, but this time Castro blasted the new US president for showing signs of 'superficiality.'" Whoa-ho! Well, I mean, here's Castro the teacher, Castro the professor, he can see the weaknesses in the student far more than American leftists can see the weakness, superficiality. I mean Castro's got it. And let's go to another teacher, another professor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today criticized Obama's boycott of a United Nations racism conference, dubbing it unhelpful. "On Monday, The International Racism Conference in Geneva, which the US boycotted --" now, by the way, I think we did the right thing not to go to this thing, don't misunderstand, we did the right thing, but Ahmadinejad is somebody that Obama wants to talk to and Hillary Clinton says today we're going to put really tough sanctions on them. Hardy-har-har.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So Ahmadinejad's all upset we didn't go to the racism conference, lecturing his student, Barack Obama. Obama, the US, right not to go to this thing. The whole thing was a fiasco, but Ahmadinejad is considered one of our grave threats and enemies with his nuke program, and Obama says that he's going to forge a new relationship out there with them, and all we have to do is talk to them, and all we have to do is show 'em we mean 'em no harm. Such naivete, the ugliness, the hypocrisy of President Obama's morality plays. This guy is very cold, folks. He is a 100% pure leftist extremist political animal. I have a difficult time putting up with him lecturing us, the United States of America, on matters he identifies as requiring the pushing of a morality reset button with him as the chief protocol director of morality.

According to Obama, our response, after being attacked on 9/11, was immoral. Of all the people, of all things, Barack Obama should be the last person to lecture anybody standing atop a rock of morality. His foundation is leftist. He identifies with anti-American politics. He laughs, he yucks it up with these people who hate our country. He's been masterful at deceiving a large number of Americans with the help of his friends in the Drive-By Media. Look at who Obama has accused of being morally deficient: Wall Street, all CEOs, George W. Bush and **** Cheney, the CIA, and essentially America itself. He has declared those five things morally deficient. And only now will Wall Street and CEOs, Bush and Cheney, CIA, and even America be straightened out with a new moral rudder headed by himself, The One, The Messiah, Barack Obama, the Most Merciful. Yet he supports infanticide. He attended a racist, bigoted church for 20 years. He had active support of the criminal political bullying enterprise known as ACORN. He has dealings with Tony Rezko, his working relationship with Bill Ayers, embracing and smiling Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and not defending his country after it was slandered, this guy tells us he's in charge of our new morality. Sorry, folks, it's just tough to stomach. Tough to deal with on a daily basis.

Ataboy, Rush, get it all out! You'll feel better...

Though it spins so hard right it can't even walk straight, there is some truth to some of it if you can look past the bias.

Rush is helping steer the GOP right into oblivion.

I'm sorry. He has lost all credibility.

As a journalist, yes. He's no more a journalist that Olberman, Hannity, or any of the other hacks. Statistics show that if you swing a hammer at a nail enough, eventually, you may hit it a few times.

Obama's approval rating is over 60%.

The president's approval is nearly identical to the job rating George W. Bush received at the same point in his first term, as 63 percent of Americans approved and 22 percent disapproved (April 18-19, 2001). One noticeable difference is that approval of Obama is much more divided along partisan lines today than Bush's ratings were eight years ago.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/24/fox-news-poll-obamas-days/

64%!!!

Obama's found plenty to keep him busy. He passed a $787 billion stimulus bill; he approved a troop increase in Afghanistan and set a withdrawal timeline for Iraq; he signed orders to close Guantanamo Bay detention center, ban the most harsh interrogation methods and reverse the ban of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

I didn't get polled

Me either.

WASHINGTON – It didn't take long for Barack Obama — for all his youth and inexperience — to get acclimated to his new role as the calming leader of a country in crisis.

"I feel surprisingly comfortable in the job," the nation's 44th president said a mere two weeks after taking the helm.

"The challenges are big," a sober Obama added, underscoring the foreign and domestic problems he inherited Jan. 20. "But one thing that I'm absolutely convinced about is that you want to be president when you've got big problems. If things are going too smoothly, then this is just another nice home office."

Over nearly 100 days as president, Obama has applied the same "no drama" leadership and calculated approach to governing that he did to campaigning.

As an audacious candidate, Obama meticulously built a powerhouse organization and fundraising juggernaut to engineer his victory. As a fledgling president, he similarly has mapped out a big-risk agenda that he's methodically begun to execute, keeping to the discipline that has been a hallmark of his life.

Rookie jitters? Far from it.

Confident almost to a fault, he could seem aloof, even arrogant at times in the campaign. He's kept that focused attitude in the White House, while exhibiting few flashes of any off-putting, self-important tone.

Perhaps that's because he's reached the pinnacle of his political ambition. Perhaps it's because anxious times of war and economic crisis demand a calm demeanor. Perhaps it's the sheer weight of the office and the urgent tasks.

Whatever the reason, Obama has seemed extraordinarily at ease as president from the day he took office — after a campaign in which he made a once skeptical electorate comfortable with the notion that a black, 47-year-old, first-term senator with limited experience could take over as the leader of the free world.

"He became presidential almost immediately. Physically as well as rhetorically he transformed himself," said American University professor James Thurber, an expert on the presidency. He said Obama had little choice but to dive in and start governing, given the full plate of issues. But, Thurber added, "He also did it with real skill and confidence that you wouldn't necessarily expect from someone who just walked in the door."

For the past three months, Obama has spoken in firm, yet soothing tones.

Sometimes he has used a just-folks approach to identify with economically struggling citizens. He has displayed wonkish tendencies, too, appearing much like the college instructor he once was while discussing the intricacies of the economic collapse. He has engaged in witty banter, teasing lawmakers, staffers, journalists and citizens alike. He has struck a statesmanlike stance, calling for a renewed partnership between the United States and its allies.

He also has steamed with anger, berating American International Group Inc. executives who granted enormous bonuses even while accepting federal bailout money. He has gone after lawmakers who refused to support the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

He has shown contriteness, saying "I screwed up" in the failed nomination of former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., as health secretary. He has shown irritation at criticism, snapping to a reporter, "I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."

He also has let it be known he hasn't forgotten how politics works. "If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition," Obama said a few weeks into his presidency, linking the economic recovery with his political fate.

Stylistically, this is a careful president who uses a teleprompter even during news conferences and presides over a White House that scripts his public appearances. For all his caution, Obama has made a few errors, including saying he thinks he bowls like a competitor in the Special Olympics.

So far, the public has liked what it's seen.

An Associated Press-GfK poll shows that most people in the U.S. consider their new president to be a strong, ethical leader who is working for change as he promised in his campaign. Obama's job approval rating stands at a healthy 64 percent. For the first time in years, more people than not say the country is headed in the right direction, the poll says.

Mindful of Obama's high popularity and, thus, the media's hunger for any details about him and his family, the White House has gone to great lengths to make sure he's visible. He's granted numerous television interviews and was the first president to jaw with Jay Leno on NBC's "Tonight" show. He tends to hold at least one public event a day to ensure news coverage.

He plans to mark his 100th day on Wednesday by traveling to St. Louis for a speech, then returning to Washington for his third prime-time news conference since taking office.

People don't seem to mind all that exposure. The AP-GfK poll found most people say he's on TV just the right amount, while just over one-quarter say he's on too much.

Overall, Obama seems unflappable.

"Humbled but not daunted," is how adviser David Axelrod puts it.

The senior White House adviser downplays any notion of cockiness. "I just don't think when you have two wars and an economy in turmoil you want a conflicted president. I think you want a thoughtful president, you want a president who is willing to consider all the options," Axelrod said. "You also want a confident president, someone who is willing to make decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions, and that is the kind of president he is."

During the campaign, advisers privately acknowledged that overconfidence might leave Obama vulnerable. He made a string of comments that were, to some extent, joking and self deprecating, almost as if he didn't take the hubbub around his candidacy too seriously. Still, others saw arrogance.

At one point, Obama the candidate said, "To know me is to love me." At another, he joked that when he finished speaking "a light will shine down from somewhere. ... You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, 'I have to vote for Barack.'"

These days, remarks like those are rare for Obama the president, though not entirely gone.

Asked during a February interview with US Weekly whether he wore boxers or briefs, the new president said: "I don't answer those humiliating questions. But whichever one it is, I look good in 'em!"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama100_days_style

April 23, 2009

By Jon Kraushar
Communications Consultant

Audacity—boldness—defines Barack Obama. As the president approaches his 100th day in office on April 29, expect his audacity to be on full display in several key ways:

The Audacity of Hope

The hope invested in Obama to remedy the economic crisis at home has granted him audacious latitude to push through budgets or proposals to spend, tax, regulate and indebt the country like never before. His agenda has been to enlarge Big Government’s control of health care, energy, education and the private sector while skimping on national security.

Because of people’s fixation on fixing the economy, Obama is backed, for now, by a diminishing but still significant majority of the electorate (mostly those on the extreme left to folks in the center). His cheering squad also comprises many in the mainstream media, they have already announced big plans to mark Obama’s 100th day in office with saturation coverage — a great deal of which will no doubt be laudatory.

But like so much about Obama, the audacity of hope has been subject to shape-shifting since he assumed the presidency. The hope he preaches to different audiences at different times at home in the U.S. turned into expressions of remorse and blame for America when he traveled to Europe and Latin America. In France, Obama told an audience of mostly students that, “…there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

The president’s toughest critics accuse him of naïveté and (borrowing a phrase used by Hillary Clinton when she slandered the brilliant General David Petraeus when he was Commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq) a “willing suspension of disbelief” when it comes to America’s true enemies and inconstant friends.

Thus we have Obama (literally) bowing to the Saudi king, smiling and handshaking with Venezuelan socialist dictator Hugo Chavez and (figuratively) scraping to the Russians, the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Palestinians, the Cubans and the Europeans. For all his apologizing, appeasing and sermonizing, Obama has not won any major cooperation or compliance from either adversaries or supposed allies. As Obama talks about disarming, sharing financial burdens, and dreams about a “green” world, other countries laugh up their sleeves.

The Audacity of Change

When it comes to change, Obama is a paradox. He has honored many of his campaign promises but they remain infected with explicit or implicit bashing of his predecessor: George W. Bush. It’s as if Obama’s presidential campaign never ended.

First, Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press secretary, said the president wanted to look forward and not support war crimes trials for Bush administration officials who allegedly approved harsh interrogation techniques that now are being characterized as torture. But then, pressured by far-left groups like MoveOn.org, Obama reversed that course and has opened the door to possible future prosecutions by the Justice Department.

Obama alternately praises and then constrains the Central Intelligence Agency in the fight against terrorism, leading The Wall Street Journal to say in an editorial that, “A President can’t placate the left and keep America safe.” At a certain point, blaming Bush for everything won’t cut it for Obama.

The Audacity of Responsibility

President Obama’s inaugural address contained a call for “a new era of responsibility,” a phrase repeated as the title of his $3.55-trillion budget for fiscal year 2010.

Obama’s budget would raise taxes by $1.4-trillion over ten years and would double the national debt to over $15-trillion. His budget also provides for a $250-billion “placeholder” for additional bailouts, based on the rosy assumption that the government would be able to recover $500-billion from toxic assets it buys.

When it comes to his taxing and spending plans, President Obama attempts to paper over what is really irresponsibility with his own version of Orwellian (or Clintonian) “newspeak.”

According to Obama taxpayer funds aren’t “spent” they are “invested.” A $650 billion health care “reserve fund” is a “down payment.” We’re not living through a “recession,” it’s a “recovery.” An “earmark” isn’t a pet pork project favored by a member of Congress if it’s already been “reviewed” (i.e.: it’s in the bill). And a government Web site that lacks real detail about how all the bailout money is being spent is a model of “transparency.”

Audacity Has Its Limits

Obama’s audacity is on probation with the American people — who are, at bottom, both smart and pragmatic. The majority of Americans say they want to give Obama a chance to make good on his boundless self-confidence. His first 100 days remain a honeymoon.

But eventually, should his bailouts (Obama calls them “rescue plans”) continue to be flameouts; should his tax hikes (Obama calls them “tax fairness”) turn into job killers; should his mandates (Obama calls them “reforms”) become bureaucratic nightmares; and should a terrorist attack at home (in Obamaspeak it’s a “man-caused disaster”) be a “government-caused disaster,” we will see a different kind of audacity in 2010.

Voters will send a message to Obama in the elections that will make previous protests look like, well, tea parties.

Communications consultant Jon Kraushar is at www.jonkraushar.net.

http://www.luxlibertas.com/the-audacity-of-obama%E2%80%99s-first-100-days/

Its been a comedy of errors, and if he goes ahead with this torture stuff hes going to lose the congress.

so who exactly was asked about his approval or disapproval rating????

Politicians love to say they don't watch polls when their own numbers are down, but few say the same thing when their numbers are up. As Politico puts it: "Presidents have long pooh-poohed polls while privately conducting them."

In case Obama's watching (and he is), he's got plenty to smile about ... and a few things to worry about too.

An Associated Press-GfK poll taken in October 2008, just before Barack Obama won the election, found that just 17% of Americans thought the country was headed in the right direction. Today, as Obama's 100th day in office approaches, that number has jumped to 48%. That's the first time since January '04 that "right direction" outnumbered "wrong direction" in an AP poll. AP explains what President Obama has done to make Americans more optimistic:


read more at
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl311

I get polled sometimes!

Approval ratings at this point mean crap. Approval ratings at all mean crap. All that means is people are ok with what he is doing at this very moment. That is far from him doing a good job in respect to the long run. Only time will tell how these actions will play out in the long run.

Dubya had high approval ratings at this point, almost some of the best in history in another 6 months and look where that ended up. Again, approval ratings are as useless as the stock market as a full indicator of the economy. They give a little insight but nowhere near the full picture.

Oh heaven help the GOP with this one in some semblence of a power?? position.

They have gone so far down they cannot even see those holding them down.