Today is the official 100th day of President Obama's first term as President. His approval rating, overall, stands at 69%. In other words, even people who didn't vote for him are supporting his Presidency.
Yet, should one be an avid reader of right-wing blogs and news sites, or a consumer of FOXNews, one could miss the fact that Obama is spectacularly popular. From the Tea Bag Revolt, which made most people laugh, to the uptick in racist hate-group recruitment, to the emerging paranoia over the swine flu outbreak, the right is a festering sewer of fiction, resentment, fear-mongering, and fantasies of armed rebellion.
Of course, these are the people who are driving a conservative guy like Arlen Specter out of the Republican Party. While not really caring all that much - with new party members like that, we could use a little ideological backbone - it is nice that the True Believers are at least fulfilling their role of gate-keepers at the insane asylum.
Since the Republican Party has ceased to function as a viable alternative, and the spectrum of moderate to moderately-liberal policy alternatives is almost wholly a Democratic operation, I am not surprised at all that, for example, not a single Republican voted in favor of the President's budget in the House. With the biggest media stars for Republicans being Sarah Palin, whose life more closely resembles a daytime drama; Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-MN, who is so dumb she managed to give a floor speech in the House in which she blamed the Depression of Roosevelt and something called "the Hoot-Smalley Tariff" (honest to God, she should be recalled for being so ignorant); Sen. James Inhofe, who seems to think that ignorance, even more than bliss, is actually wisdom; and, of course, Newt Gingrich, whose ubiquitous presence on the Sunday chat shows is always a boon to Democrats. Even the normally staid CNN can't take it anymore; yesterday, Jim DeMint appeared on CNN, trotting out a new talking point for Republicans in the face of Specter's defection, and Rick Sanchez finally managed to laugh out loud at the stupid.
The fever swamps of the right are chock-a-block with low-info, outright falsehoods parading as serious inquiry, and just batshit insanity offered as calm analysis. Steering clear of both our local, small versions of the cookiness of the right, and their larger media brethren and cistern is the best antidote to believing that Pres. Obama actually faces serious opposition.
