This week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers asked “What is the most likely outcome of President Obama’s health care reform initiative?” Ninety-three percent of the Left and 82 percent of the Right expected either “major” or “scaled back” legislation to be enacted in 2009. The Left was roughly split between major and scaled back. I was part of the only 12% on the Right who expect some major. I wrote: “‘Scaled back’ in the sense of no public option. The legislation will still impose huge, and mostly harmful, changes on American health care.”
The second question asked for a grade on President Obama’s foreign policy so far. The Left gave him a B, while the Right awarded a D-. I voted for D, and explained: “From Poland to Israel to Iran to Honduras, the President has made it clear that it is safer to be America’s enemy than its friend. His crackdown on the pro-democracy government in Honduras for obeying the Honduran Constitution, and his active support for Zelaya, who is trying to become another Castro/Chavez, is despicable. Obama is much more popular than Bush among Belgians and many other Western Europeans, but Obama has been unable to translate that popularity into any results for American diplomacy.”
[Note to commenters: It appears to me that comments have to be specifically approved before they become visible. There are several comments which I have “approved”, but which are not displaying. I don’t know what the problem is. Presumably we eventually figure out how to use WordPress. ]