22

Number of points by which Pres. Obama would lead Sarah Palin were the 2012 election held today, according to a new NBC/Wall St. Journal poll. Despite the reality star’s recent boast that she could beat Obama, 55 percent of those surveyed said they would support the president, while only 33 percent would vote for Palin. The number refudiates Palin’s claim, and represents a surge toward Obama, since a poll earlier this month gave him only 8 points over the former partial-term governor.

I was thinking: It’d probably be cooler to be the guy who busted the president’s lip than the guy the vice president shot in the face.

Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel columnist, in a post on Facebook

They drove our economy into a ditch. And we got in there, and we put on our boots, and we pushed, and we shoved, we were sweating and these guys were standing, watching us, and sipping on a Slurpee, and they were pointing at us, saying “How come you’re not pushing harder? How come you’re not pushing faster?” And then when we finally got the car up – and it’s got a few dings and a few dents, it’s got some mud on it, we’re going to have to do some work on it – they point to everybody and say, “Look what these guys did to your car!” After we got it out of the ditch. And then they got the nerve to ask for the keys back. I don’t want to give ‘em the keys back. They don’t know how to drive.

Pres. Barack Obama, purportedly going “off script” in a Labor Day speech, and sparking a hashtag frenzy on Twitter to place “Slurpees” in the trending topics list.

Disgraced HCA Columbia Healthcare CEO Rick Scott (who was forced to resign rather than face criminal charges in the nation’s largest Medicaid fraud case, resulting in a $1.7 billion fine) sums up all the Republican lies about the Islamic Center in New York in one TV spot, going FOX News one better by tying construction of the facility to health care reform. Why Scott, who is running for governor of Florida — a state which will have little if any say in the issue — would chose this as a campaign platform is unclear.

6 in 10

– Number of Americans who mistakenly believe Pres. Obama is a Muslim who also report they were told this by the media, with 16 percent (the largest segment) attributing it to television. Another 11 percent say they figured it out themselves from the president’s “behavior and words.”

1 in 5

–The number of Americans (18 percent) who mistakenly think Pres. Obama is a Muslim, according to a Pew Research poll conducted before his comments on the Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan. A Time Magazine poll taken after his comments showed 25 percent of Americans now think Obama is a Muslim.

I have to hand it to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA), whose wardrobe choice for a recent roundtable with the president in Panama City helped him stand out. Charlie and the First Lady went with aqua, while the business owners, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, and others stuck to neutrals. If you’re going to go, go [...]

The lefties came to the defense of the centrist Clinton during impeachment. Now that Obama is under attack, however, they are not coming to his defense, even though he has given more to the liberal cause than the scandal-stunted Clinton ultimately achieved.

Maureen Dowd, New York Times columnist

Isn’t the drum beat from the right louder than the support from the left?

–Diane Rehm, possibly explaining recent polls that show the Republican party’s popularity at its lowest, while Republican party candidates remain popular.

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It’s just a shame that he had to spend so much time establishing the duty to protect religious freedom. That should be a given.