Rainbow Bridge-Last Thoughts of the Day

There are now 44 votes in the Senate for the public option.

Now it's estimated there will be 750,000 jobs created by May.

Edmund Morris has surfaced again with an article of how Obama is reading his biography of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a fine biography. I used to pity Edmund because he would always drop into Olsson's to check out how his books were selling. He would ask whether the store wanted him to autograph those they had for sale. The problem for a bookseller is that once autographed, you can't return for credit. He has the historian's golden task. Ronald Reagan asked him to sit in the White House and watch a real President work. He could write anything he wanted on the condition it was after the presidency ended. He did this. He suffered from writer's block, then had a nervous breakdown because he couldn't after all those years figure Reagan out. Finally, he completed his biography but it did not meet with approval from critics. Luckily, he wrote the long-awaited second volume of his biography of Theodore Roosevelt and once again found his voice.

The blogosphere is like a Ouji board. With my spontaneous eruptions over my growing doubts about Rasmussen polls, Kos pens "Rasmussen Flooding the Zone". He points out that Rasmussen has conducted some 45 polls this year compared to 13 in the same span of time last year. An other blogger decided to investigate Rasmussen's client list and dragged up the usual K Street clients and other public associations. Let him at it.

But Kos' observations about three gubernatorial races bears repeating. Rasmussen's results dramatically differ from respectable polls done at the same time. Here are the comparisons:

Colorado Governor Hickenlooper (D) McInnis (R)
Rasmussen poll 42% 48%
PPP 50% 39%

Ohio Governor Strickland (D) Kasich (R)
Rasmussen 38% 49%
Quinnipiac 44% 39%

Illinois Governor Quinn (D) Brady (R)
Rasmussen 37% 47%
Rs2000 47% 32%

I am sure Nate Silver will weigh on this now that several websites are beginning to actively ask questions about the Rasmussen polls. Unfortunately, Nate has built up a relationship with Rasmussen and has been a little defensive when he addressed a similar concern about Obama's approval ratings several months ago.

One of the things that started ringing bills for me were the strange approval ratings Republican candidates started having several months ago. Many of these people were unknowns even in their own states but would show large approval ratings that made no sense. If this were also true of Democrats, you would think it were just an aberration of the polls in general. But throughout the nation, even in the most Democratic states, Republican candidates would show these very strong approval ratings. And with Obama, we have other reputable polling outfits to compare with. In the presidential approval ratings, usually Gallup will serve as a benchmark to measure the reliability of others. And Rasmussen has failed this simple test for over a year.

The backlash finally got too much with Governor McDonnell here in Virginia. He had to over-ride his Attorney-General and issue executive orders protecting gays from discrimination. The lesson in this is "Fight Back."

Speaking of strange polls, Quinnipiac has been polling the issue of whether Governor Patterson of New York should resign or complete his full term. Last week, over 60% of New Yorkers said he should resign. They polled again this week and 50% say he should serve the compete term and only 38% believe he should resign. Go figure.

Meg Whitman has really been an ace campaigner for Governor of California. The former Ebay lady called a press conference at a location where she was to be seen with other business executives showing her businesslike characteristics, which will bring full employment to all the people of that state. But she refused to answer questions from the press or make a statement or even be filmed meeting with the executives. The TV anchorwoman quipped,"It's always great to see a candidate in charge of her own campaign". She must have taken lessons from Sarah Palin but she doesn't tweet.

Those social gospel fanatics are at it again. "Heaven has no boundaries" is the slogan of the Catholic Church's push for immigration reform. Hispanics are antsy the Obama Administration has deported the same amount of people that the Bush Administration did in its last year. Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham have a draft bill for the Senate but there is no second Republican sponsor. The House already has its bill ready.

Politico is making mischief again by saying Obama's intentions are unclear over immigration reform. They might want to review the contents of the Kennedy-McCain bill which had been sabotaged by the right. Obama was one of the key drafters of the bill. There is no ambiguity here. After the health care reform bill, I think this will be the last major domestic reform Obama will get through this year.

The Senate did finally get around to cleaning up the mess that Bunning caused by passing a bill to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA for another year and to patch up the holes in Medicare funding. Even six Republicans joined the parade.

Tom DeLay of Dancing with the Stars fame said that unemployment compensation made people lazy and not get a job. This is a throwback to the days of welfare queens, except now the people are white. How one can say this during a severe recession is too much. But what really takes the cake is the Washington Post actually printing an article taking this premise seriously,"Some Worry that Unemployment Insurance Make People lazy" or a headline similar. Naturally, they have to quote Jim Bunning and other Republicans as if this is a legitimate position. They did the samething by giving Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol an opportunity to respond to the critics of the Al Qaeda 7 ad.

The unions are now playing hardball on the healthcare bill. They are saying they will oppose anyone who votes against it. Now, of course, this gets played in Drudge as Illinois mob tactics. Well, good for them. Howard Dean again said he would work for the public option until it was done. Hopefully, he knoww something. The Left is getting annoyed with Dennis "the Menace" Kuchinich because of his outspoken criticisms of the health care proposals. President Obama is travelling to Cleveland again next week to hold another one of his health care townhall meetings. He's hoping to persuade at least two more Ohio congresspeople to vote in favor.

And Hapless Harry Reid is promising filibuster reform. That was earlier today and then about an hour ago he said,"Next year". And you wonder why people have problems with Congress.