Monday Night's News 2-23-09

MONDAY  


Everybody led with the stock market down another 3½ %, the lowest in umpteen years, yada yada. Wall Street is spooked by the prospect of nationalizing failing banks. It's so un-free-market. Betsy Stark pointed out to Charlie that the Wall Street people are not entirely rational. President Obama invited allies and some of his fiercest critics to the old Executive Office Building to engage in a 45-minute question and answer session.  He’s still trying to get Republicans on board, triggering much muttering here in the heartland: "They ain't gonna play, Mr. President."

 

An example: John McCain took Obama to task for spending millions on new helicopters to replace the 20-year-old Marine One fleet. McCain didn’t mention that the plan was initiated by the Bush administration. The President said it was under review. “The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me. Of course, I never had a helicopter before. You know? Maybe I’ve been deprived and I didn’t know it.” NBC cut the banter short.  

 

When his guests urged him to keep talking to both parties, he said he would try because “I’m a glutton for punishment. I’m going to keep talking to Eric Cantor. Someday, sooner or later, he’s going to say ‘Boy Obama had a good idea. It's going to happen. You watch. You watch.’”  Cantor is the Republican Whip and was credited with unifying Republicans against the stimulus plan.

 

Eric Cantor is also a Representative from the Virginia's 7th District which includes the town of Bumpass. If he continues to come across as an obstructionist ideologue, we will have to do something about him in the next election.

 

There were two polls on the news Monday, on the occasion of Obama’s first month in office. I’ve included links to because they say something surprising . ABC’s poll says 68 per cent of Americans approve of the job the President is doing against 25% who disapprove. A report is here. Twice as many people trust him to cope with the economy vs. those who trust Republicans.

 

The CBS News poll finds that 63% approve of the job the President is doing and 77% are optimistic about the next four years. CBS didn’t post a report on the poll but it’s in the first five minutes of the show available here. 

 

Those numbers may come as a shock if you’ve watched the depressing reports the news shows lead with each night. Conflict is king and we're on a downhill slide. Nobody wants “feel good” news, but a little less doom and gloom wouldn’t hurt and might help the National Mood.

Flu news: an Achilles heel in the flu virus can be attacked by antibodies. (You probably didn't know viruses have feet)  We may be three years away from a lifetime flu shot. 

NBC is trying to overview the whole economic mess in reports slugged Making Sense of the Meltdown. First one was pretty good.

The kicker stories were the real Slumdogs of Mumbai (ABC), filthy airlines trying to clean up their planes (NBC), and Molly, a three-legged horse offering hope to amputee kids (CBS).  Molly won.

 

Posted by Jon Ward at 2/24/2009 3:07 PM
Categories: uncategorized
 

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