RUSH: The Gallup poll will announce — they effectively have announced it — the Gallup poll will announce that for the first time in their poll Barack Obama’s approval rating has fallen below 50%.
In fact, a little story about this. This from Ben Smith at The Politico: ‘His approval numbers have bounced down to the 50% mark several times, driven by weaker support from independents and Republicans, but hadn’t crossed it. The slide is worrying for the White House, but it’s probably not yet panic time. Ronald Reagan’s approval numbers dropped well below 40% during the depths of his first term recession. If Obama’s bad stretch puts him in the high forties or low fifties, that’s not a crippling political problem. If he languishes there or drops further, it may become one.’ Ha! If there were a Republican president falling below 50% for the first time in a poll, that’s all we’d be hearing about it, and we wouldn’t hear the press giving him cover. Also, Reagan fell down to 40%, but Obama’s numbers are all about his personality and his charisma and all about his promise and all about his hope and change; and what’s happening here is Obama has had a head-on collision with the reality that his personality is not enough to carry the day and inspire and motivate people to go out and do good things.
I’ve got two stories in the stack today. Both are reviews of Obama’s trip, and they are devastating. One is in the New York Times, I think. The other one I forget where it’s from, but they are just devastating. He didn’t accomplish anything. He bowed to the Japanese emperor. That’s the last photo-op. He was not able to accomplish anything. The ChiComs are able to shepherd him around on their terms, not his. He appeared weak, small, and he didn’t even leave with anything prearranged to be announced as a positive on the trip, which is hard to believe. Presidents usually don’t fly off and ad-lib. But with Obama and his narcissism and his being so self-impressed with his own personality, I guess he thought that would carry the day but apparently it did not. (interruption) Yeah, what do you have to arrange when you surrender? A good question.
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RUSH: You know, I was thinking Obama — poor old Obama — and his trip that was such a washout. There was nothing remarkable about it. That bow-down to the Japanese emperor? I mean, folks, it was a wet blanket. It was just nothing and he didn’t even get to come back with one of those ObaMao T-shirts. You know they had those T-shirts with Obama on there dressed up as Mao Tse-tung in the famous Mao Tse-tung army pose or whatever? There was a CNN reporter that got in trouble for showing one of those things. Security guards came in and took ’em all off the shelves. Obama didn’t even get to come back with one of those. They banned the sale of those shirts over there so as not to offend Mao, probably, and his memory. I’m sure Obama would have been flattered by the comparison had he been able to see one of these T-shirts.