Does The President Look At The Polls?

"The problem is not that the American people disagree with us on the issues. The challenge is... is that our politics in Washington have become so toxic that people just lose faith and finally they just say 'you know what, I’m not interested, I’m not going to bother, I’m not going to vote.'"

So President Obama told  group of donors yesterday in a private home in Miami, Florida. He went on:

"And that’s especially true during the midterms. During presidential elections, young people vote, women are more likely to vote, blacks, Hispanics more likely to vote. And suddenly a more representative cross-section of America gets out there and we do pretty well in presidential elections. But in midterms we get clobbered -- either because we don’t think it’s important or we’ve become so discouraged about what’s happening in Washington that we think it’s not worth our while."

I'm not sure who "we" is that the President is talking about but I'm thinking it's many of his followers who are becoming disillusioned by his lies and failed policies. I don't believe that he actually believes what he said about the people disagreeing with him on the issues. He sees the polls. He knows he's falling continuously. 

He continued:

"We need Nancy Pelosi as speaker because folks like Nana over there, cleaning houses, may need her help and she’s going to look out for her. We need Harry Reid staying as Democratic Leader in the Senate because there are kids just like Elijah but who aren’t as lucky to have parents with the resources that Alonzo and Tracy have."

I don't know who Nana and Elijah are but for him to say that Pelosi and Reid actually care about the people is just one more of his whoppers. The only thing Nancy Pelosi would value about Nana is that she might be able to clean her house for her. And Reid caring about kids? Let's look at a recent interview he did with Dana Bash:

BASH: If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?

REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is... To have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means --

BASH: I'm just asking a question.

REID: -- you’re irresponsible and reckless.

Yup - sounds like Elijah can always count on Harry.

In other news, Michelle Obama is in China this week with her two daughters and her mother, (and probably about 100 assistants) on yet another vacation. She made this remark while visiting a school with China's First Lady:

"It’s very rare that I have the opportunity to travel outside of the United States, and it’s even more rare to have the opportunity to travel with three generations — with my daughters, and with my mother."

I find the first part remarkable. Michelle Obama has been on at least 16 overseas trips in the last five years. Maybe it's not an exorbitant number (Laura Bush took 17 overseas trips during her husband's first term) but it's certainly not a rare occasion. She makes that statement as though she's been deprived or something. I'm guessing she goes out of the country more as First Lady than she did as a regular civilian. I could be wrong. Either way - to say it's a rare occasion isn't exactly true.

I don't begrudge her her trips. She's the First Lady of the United States and these trips are mostly expected. Every First Lady in my lifetime has taken trips overseas. In fact, I don't begrudge the President his vacations either, except when he tells the American people they'll have to "tighten their belts and take less vacations" just before he and his family take off for Hawaii. To me that's simply privilege talking and ignoring the plight of the people. And that's king-like.

The President deserves a vacation now and then. But he doesn't have to flaunt it in the faces of those Americans who cannot afford to do the same. That's just arrogant and rude and un-befitting of the office he holds.