Squat now at 45% approval, down 4 points in the past month despite the Ignoble.

From Harris;
In September, U.S. adults were split almost evenly on the job the President has been doing – 49% gave him positive ratings and 51% gave him negative ratings. This month, the number giving him positive ratings drops to 45% while over half of Americans (55%) give him negative ratings. ….

Sunday Breakfast Menu

Oct. 18, 2009
By Ashley Southall

They’re ba-aaack! President Obama’s advisers are back on the Sunday talk shows this week to discuss the myriad issues facing the administration. About a dozen senators and public figures also take seats on the Sunday sofas to discuss their thoughts on Afghanistan, health care, and the economy.

Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, does a double-take on the airwaves, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” and CBS’s “Face the Nation” to discuss the administration’s agenda.

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is beamed to CNN from Afghanistan to discuss the situation on the ground there. On that same show, Senator Judd Gregg, a Republican from New Hampshire, sits down to discuss Afghanistan and health care.

On ABC’s “This Week” George Stephanopoulos talks to David Axelrod, a senior advisor to the president, about the economic recovery, the progress of health care reform, and the possible effect of the election audit in Afghanistan on the president’s counterinsurgency strategy there. The two also discuss the governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia and the 2010 mid-term elections.

Valerie Jarrett, the White House’s liaison to the public, will discuss how the administration is trying to build support for a health care overhaul and the controversy surrounding Wall Street bonuses on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She’ll also join Maria Shriver, the wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and John Podesta, an Obama adviser and the president of the Center for American Progress, in a discussion about how women’s progress in the workforce has affected the nation.

Later, David Gregory, the host of “Meet the Press,” talks about health care reform with Senators Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat on the Health Committee, and Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican on the Finance Committee.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Chris Wallace assesses some of the concerns over health care reform, and how those might affect Democrats’ chance to secure enough votes to pass an overhaul. He get help from Senators Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, Arlen Specter, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and John Thune, Republican of South Dakota. Mr. Wallace also veers into that unfriendly dialogue between the White House and Fox with Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, and Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Finally, on C-Span’s “Newsmakers,” Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the ranking Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, talks about climate change legislation pending in the Senate.

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/sunday-breakfast-menu-oct-18/

October 15, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) — There was candid frustration Thursday coming from rank-and-file congressional Democrats about the influence of Maine’s Republican senator in the health care reform debate.

The way Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe sees it, she’s just using the power any senator has: the power of one. “The brilliance of our Founding Fathers was this: that they gave power equally to every member of the United States Senate, whether you represented a large state or a small state, and exercising that authority in a positive way,” she said.

But the challenge now for Democrats is that Snowe opposes what most of them support: a government-sponsored health care option. Since Snowe is the only Republican so far to back a Democratic plan, that carries a lot of weight with the White House and Senate Democratic leaders.

President Obama has singled out Snowe “for both the political courage and the seriousness of purpose that she’s demonstrated throughout this process.”

But Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, said he understands how important it is to President Obama to be able to call his health care bill bipartisan. “It looks as though the way the White House is maneuvering right now, that it is incredibly important to them to get at least one Republican, that being Olympia Snowe.”

When asked whether Snowe has more influence than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on how the final bill will shape up, Pelosi responded: “I respect Sen. Snowe and the role she has constructed, the role she has played in the deliberations for the Senate Finance Committee.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that his hope is for more Republicans to work with Democrats and not just “one senator from Maine.”

Senate Democrats gathered behind closed doors Thursday for what Democratic sources say was a spirited and at times tense meeting on how to proceed on health care. Progressive Democrats, sources say, used Thursday’s meeting to make a passionate plea for a Senate bill with a public option. But the struggle for Democratic leaders is that the public option will unlikely fly with some conservative Democrats and Snowe.

House Democrats, meanwhile, wasted no time in blasting Snowe’s recent influence in the controversial debate. “This is the United States of America. This is not the United States of Maine,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-California. “I mean that one senator cannot hold the entire nation’s health care plan hostage.”

Snowe believes that a public option should be “triggered” down the road only if market reforms fail to bring health care costs down.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, blasted the idea of a trigger option. “The idea that we are going to succumb to the insurance industry’s fears and then do a trigger, which means that our constituency — the American people — will delay in getting a public option, that’s like the house of cards just collapsing on top of us,” she said.

Republican colleagues, however, have remained mostly silent on Snowe’s vote. “Sen. Snowe called me this morning to let me know that while she continues to have serious, substantive policy reservations with this proposal, she wanted to keep the process moving,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a news release Tuesday. “I share her concerns about the direction of this bill once it leaves the committee, and her call for transparency before we vote to proceed to any bill on the floor.”

House Republican Leader John Boehner, who did not criticize Snowe in a statement after the vote, blasted Democratic plans, such as the one coming from the Senate Finance Committee.
“Republicans have offered common-sense solutions to lower health care costs and increase access to affordable insurance — all without destroying jobs, exploding the deficit, or putting bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions that should be made by doctors and patients,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s time for Democrats to scrap all of these big government-run plans and work with Republicans to make health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans.”

Snowe says that at the end of the day, it’s about “doing the best thing for the American people, what’s in the best interests of this country.” Her stance on health care is hardly the first time the moderate senator has broken ranks with her party. This year, she was one of just three Republicans to support the president’s $787 billion economic stimulus package. She also broke ranks with Republicans on social issues like stem cell research and abortion.

Although her liberal leanings have the possibility of putting her at odds with her party, Snowe’s constituents don’t seem to mind. Voters re-elected her to the Senate with 74 percent of the vote in 2006, compared with her Democratic opponent’s 21 percent. In 2000, she won with 69 percent of the vote.

edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/15/snowe.backlash/

Fri. October 16, 2009

TD Ameritrade Institutional, a division of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. has announced that former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will appear together for a special keynote presentation at the 14th annual National Conference.

In a release, the Company noted that the two world leaders will offer their perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing the financial services industry, our nation and our world. TD Ameritrade Institutional President Tom Bradley will moderate the hour-long discussion with Presidents Bush and Clinton on Thursday, February 4, 2010.

Scheduled to take place in Orlando, Fla., from February 3-6, 2010, the conference brings together industry thought-leaders and top registered investment advisors (RIAs) from across the country. In addition to professional expertise on industry trends and outstanding networking opportunities, attending advisors can benefit from practice management workshops, all designed to specifically meet the needs of independent RIAs.

“This will be a rare and exceptional opportunity to hear a candid dialog between two former presidents of the United States,” said Tom Bradley, president of TD Ameritrade Institutional. “We are thrilled to be able to bring such distinguished leaders to our national conference and offer advisors a balanced discussion on global issues impacting their business and their clients.”

Expected to be the largest ever, the Company said that the event will showcase the strength of both the RIA industry and TD Ameritrade Institutional, while providing advisors access to these two great world leaders. Last year’s conference welcomed over 1,000 advisor attendees.

tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2585462/

What was your take on that article? I admit to rolling my eyes through most of the conjecture and thinking neither dim or republican spin is honest in nature.

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So what does he do now? Spend until he drops? Bribe with the taxpayer’s last cent? Start “rigging” the elections forever more?

In other words, he will never ever deserve a “peace prize” what he will deserve is an orange jumpsuit and solitary confinement…him and his wife and his thugs.

h / no w’s

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/democracy-corps-republican-base-voters-living-in-another-world.php?ref=dcblt