President Obama’s approval ratings remain solid — about where they normally are for a new president at this point in his tenure. But cracks are starting to appear in his support. For example, uber-investor Warren Buffett supported Obama. But he says our current economic situation is like a war and the imperative is to focus on the war and nothing else. As Buffett put it, “You can’t expect people to unite behind you if you’re trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat.” Obama should back away from his grandiose plans for a major education initiative, health care reform and cap-and-trade until the economy returns to some semblance of normal. — E. Thomas McClanahan, voices.kansascity.com
New presidents are inevitably charged with either moving too slowly or too rapidly. Most of Barack Obama’s critics are going with “too rapidly,” with a lot of hysterics about the terrible consequences if he persists in trying to do more than one thing: Fix the economy. But American presidents don’t have to do everything themselves. They have a lot of hired help precisely so they can deal simultaneously with different challenges. And in what dream world is fixing the health care system, for example, unrelated to fixing the American economy? — Steve Winn, voices.kansascity.com
It’s quite a trick to vote against a piece of legislation that will nevertheless deliver millions of dollars in projects to your constituents, yet that’s what Kansas Republican Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts and Republican Reps. Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran did in the case of the 2009 omnibus spending bill that became law last week. According to the 