President Obama’s latest approval numbers in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll compare unfavorably with the 60 percent-plus numbers in the wake of Inauguration Day. But MSNBC’s First Read blog notes that they align with the returns of the poll that counted — on Election Day 2008. “His job-approval rating has dropped to 53 percent, which just happens to be the percentage of the popular vote he won in November. His approval among independents and Republicans is, respectively, 49 and 16 percent, which is fairly close to his exit-poll scores with these groups,” First Read noted. Co-pollster Bill McInturff said: “The question I asked back in February was: ‘When does political gravity take hold?’ The answer is in this survey. It is happening now.”
Meanwhile, closer to home, the latest SurveyUSA poll, co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, finds that just 41 percent of Kansans approve of the job Obama is doing, down 8 points since June and 12 points since May.
NPR and Fox News contributor Juan Williams wrote a Washington Post obituary for affirmative action, which he declared dead at age 45. He pointed to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the New Haven, Conn., firefighters case, saying it “cut the last legal underpinnings for affirmative action. Without protection from reverse-discrimination lawsuits, virtually every instance of affirmative action can now be forever tied in a legal tangle that chokes the life out of it.” Williams concluded: “The bold national experiment that came to life 45 years ago with the equal employment section of the Civil Rights Act is now over — even if discrimination is not. It is time to think about how to deal with racial inequity without affirmative action.”
State Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, wasn’t high on the list of likely candidates to succeed Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, in the 4th Congressional District seat next year. But such a candidacy, which she is exploring, would add interesting ideological breadth to the GOP field. Like former congressman Dan Glickman, Schodorf started her political career on the Wichita school board, including as its president. Her eight-year tenure in the Kansas Senate is four times longer than Tiahrt’s was when he unseated Glickman in 1994. Schodorf has connections to Montgomery and Chautauqua counties, making her district base much larger than Wichita. And don’t count out the potential impact if her radio and TV ads featured the sonorous voice of her brother, TV producer and broadcaster Bill Kurtis. Those already in the GOP primary are state Sen. Dick Kelsey, R-Goddard, and Republican National Committee member Mike Pompeo.
It was heartening that so many people came forward this week with new bicycles and donations for Heartspring, after news that half a dozen bikes used by special-needs children had been stolen. Now the organization will be able to provide bikes to even more of the kids it serves. Once again, people in this community saw a wrong and acted to make it right.
Why do Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and other members of the state’s congressional delegation think it’s a great idea to bring the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility and its deadly toxins to Manhattan but a terrible idea to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to Fort Leavenworth? “The terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay, they don’t fit in the mission of Leavenworth,” Brownback said this week. “The research on these pathogens in Manhattan, Kan., clearly fits in the research in the region.”
“President Obama, of course, everyone knows, has invited Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and the police officer who arrested him to the White House for a beer. Of course, this could be trouble, because the last time Obama got a few beers in him, he bought General Motors.” — Conan O’Brien
“If it goes well, then President Obama is going to invite Gov. and Mrs. Sanford to come up and have a beer.” — David Letterman
“It’s all part of Obama’s new approach to diplomacy: ‘How would they handle this on ‘Cheers’?” — Jimmy Fallon
“He’s going to try it with Jon and Kate, and he is going to try it with the Israelis and Hamas.” — Letterman
