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Referenda in Kenya and
Missouri, Obama's Approval Ratings Drop Again By Dave Andrusko Editor's note. Be sure to send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. Thank you! There are referenda being held today and tomorrow, separated by thousands of miles, whose potential importance it might be hard to exaggerate.
Parts Two and Three talk about the referenda today in Kenya on a new constitution. Read them carefully. They explain thoroughly why the language of the new constitution opens the floodgates to abortion on demand (Part Two) and how the Obama Administration is "spending to influence the vote on the referendum through the U.S. Agency for International Development " (Part Three). In Missouri, "Proposition C" is a non-binding referendum on ObamaCare. According to the New York Times, "voters will be asked whether state law -- not the State Constitution -- should be amended to 'deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private insurance or infringe upon the right to offer or accept direct payment for lawful health care services,'" a key component of ObamaCare (Part Four). According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, "Comparable measures have already been enacted by legislatures in five states -- Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana and Virginia," the Times reports. As the fall elections approach, the greater the momentum for revisiting ObamaCare, the more likely it will ensure a full-throated debate. As always context is everything. Obama's approval numbers are approaching free-fall. "Only 41% of those surveyed Tuesday through Sunday approved of the way Obama is handling his job, his lowest rating in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll since he took office in January 2009," USA Today reported this morning. "In Gallup's separate daily tracking poll, his approval was at 45% Monday." Yesterday we talked about the growing enthusiasm gap between Republican and Democrats. What I neglected to mention was that the level among Democrats was at its lowest ebb for the year. Gallup reports that for the July 19-25 period, among registered voters, the Democrats' "latest 22% 'very enthusiastic' figure is the lowest seen thus far in 2010, whereas the Republicans' 44% matches their average for the year." Gallup's Lydia Saad concludes, "If sustained through Election Day, this competitive positioning for the Republicans among registered voters would point to major seat gains for that party in November given the usual Republican advantage in turnout." One other component of the equation. Politico today ran a story headlined, "The Lame Duck Looms: Republicans Warn of post-election hijinks." The author pooh-poohed the possibility that after the election but before the new Congress is sworn in next January, Democrats would use their existing majorities to enact legislation they are too afraid to bring up now. Some of the points made were certainly arguably valid (for example, incumbent Democratic senators up for election in 2012 could well be worried about such undemocratic behavior), but miss the larger point. For one thing, up until near the end before ObamaCare was enacted, Democrats "insisted the extraordinary maneuvers used to pass health care wouldn't be used," as the Wall Street Journal's John Fund wrote in an influential July 9 column. For another, the specific promises/threats/hints quoted by Fund from prominent Democrats about the uses of a lame duck session managed not to get addressed in the Politico story. And it is only to state the obvious that the operating style of the Obama Administration and the congressional Democratic leadership is to freeze out Republicans from any meaningful role in crafting legislation. A President under siege and potentially significant losses in the House and Senate could feed an almost irresistible desire to jam legislation through in December. |
