HU ARE YOU?

Spending the day in the Senate office buildings gives you a different perspective on Washington. The reason no one thinks there are problems with Congress is that people come to work, they get paid and the service crews maintain the buildings and the restaurants. So what's the problem?

Every office now has large flat screen televisions. When I visited Democratic offices, there was CNN covering Hu's visit to the United States. You watched the welcoming ceremonies at Andrews, then at the White House and the press conference. There was even some but little discussion of the heavy agenda of economic issues. When I visited the Republican offices, there was FOX providing wall-to-wall coverage of the House repealing the Healthcare Bill. Then you have Ricky Cantor challenging Harry Reid to hold a straight up and down vote on the healthcare bill. Whatever happened to the GOP filibusters? Never mind.

Since the Senate samurai warlords had not come in town yet,there were murmurs that Kent Conrad, Joe Lieberman and Kay Baily Hutchinson were not going to run again. In fact, I got the sense that the GOP was gearing in 2012 to take-over the Senate and are writing off the White House.

But the two different media realities present all day suggests that we can actually have a political world basically divided in half. Even though the GOP only controls the House,through Fox News they can convey to the public what they do is actually reality. Obamacare is repealed. Even though it's not true, does it matter? Americans will believe it has been and then as the good stuff in Healthcare Bill takes hold,the GOP can claim that it would have been worse if they hadn't repealed it. And don't think that's not going to happen. Basically,the American public have been very slow in picking up the positive effect of the bill on their daily lives.

Gentleman John Boehner refused to attend the White House dinner for Hu. I guess this is to establish the dual reality. While the Obama Administration worked through a lengthy agenda with the Chinese, a bipartisan Congress attacked the Chinese for everything from human rights violations to its over-priced currency. I got the impression they were protesting too much. Even though President Obama pointed out that our economy is still three times bigger than China with fewer people,there is an anxiety about America's decline and that's showing up in the political rhetoric on both sides. John Bolton blasted HU as logical successor to Mao. That's worth a college seminar right there.

It's clear Hu knows to cosy up to President Obama and try to ignore the rest of Americans.

President Obama's presidency continues to go down in flames. His approval rate is now 53%, only 18 points higher than Ronald Reagan's at this point in his presidency. Obama has also overtaken congressional Republicans in terms of trust by 46-39. The majority of Americans now believe we are in an economic recovery. The majority now believe we will be better off in five years, a dramatic turnaround. But a plurality still believe we are in decline as a country. By 46-28% the American people believe that Obama's policies are helping the economy. A majority now believe that Obama has the right balance in reaching out to Republicans; while a majority feel that Republicans do not have the right attitute toward working with President Obama. 80% of Americans believe President Obama struck the right tone after Tucson. In short, President Obama has the wind at his back right now.

He's going to need it because the House will basically be trying his Administration for every policy. The health insurance industry and Big Pharma sat out the repeal of the healthcare. Maybe it's because they desparately need the individual mandate in order to remain in business. A Washington Post poll shows that only 18% of Americans supported a full repeal of healthreform. The Republican strategy of "Repeal and Replace" has been sidelined for now since the House GOP is fighting over the elements to be included in any replacement. Their problem is that they want to privatize everything--including Medicare--but do not want to pay any political price for this. I wager they will simply try to defund Obama's healthcare plan to show it failed and then propose something else in 2012.

Meanwhile "Grand Theft" Issa has begun his investigations into the Administration by focusing on the TARP program. Not only was this passed under George W, but the public never understood it but it sparked the teabagger revolt. Unfortunately, we aren't going to be able to understand anything from the investigation. By the time it concludes the program will have made money. So we have a reverse health bill, watch the sausage being unmade but then realizing the millions spent for the investigation was spent showing that Obama made a profit.

Since the GOP are depending on the House-Fox complex to determine political reality running up to the 2012 election,they should be warned that Fox News's credibility with independents has collapsed. So you can win a mid-term with your base but you can't win a general President election that way. The House-Fox complex emboldens the absolute crazies, who will now dominate the discussion in this alternate reality.

I'll give you an example. Who's a "race-baiter", an advocate of affirmative action,a person who doesn't have the least understanding of the principles underlying our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? Sounds like an attack on President Obama from the Right. Wrong. It is Jeb Bush. Mark Levin attacked Jeb Bush for his speech--a normal, vanilla talk on why Republicans should engage in outreach to the Hispanic community. Former Canadian Mark Levin, reknown expert on American constitutional principles,decides to launch an offense against immigrants, who, I guess, are unlike himself. Then we have Rush Limbaugh launch a Yellow Peril attack on Hu and make fun of Chinese accents. Meanwhile Yo-Yo Ma is entering the White House for dinner. Watch for a full-scale purge of Republicans not towing the Radical Right line.

So pick your reality. Because we are the empire, we make up our own reality. It's not an accident that the World Health Organization found that the United States had the highest percentage of people with mental disorders in the world. We're Number 1. U.S.A! U.S.A! Nearly 26% of us suffer from some mental disorder. That's roughly the number who have a high opinion of Sarah Palin and who believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. Slightly more people believe that children played with dinosaurs, which is a primary requirement for a GOP presidential contender these days.

The Washington Post/ABC has a new poll on the leading GOP contenders for President. Mike Huckabee leads with 21%, Sarah Palin has 19%, Mitt Romney 17%, Newt Gingrich is at 9% and Christie 8%. PPP has a poll out showing Obama tops all of them. Obama is even ahead in all the swing states that went Republican in the last election.

After the State of the Union, President Obama is heading out to Wisconsin to unofficially start his own re-election campaign. Basically the calculus remains the same for Obama as 2008. The decisive line is from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania.

Most observers think unemployment has to be down to 8% in 2012 to ensure Obama re-election. That may be a tough road to hoe. However, almost everything he is doing now is geared at generating jobs. As I wrote the other day, he is on target to surpass the job creation records of George W. Bush and G.H.W Bush--4 years out performing 12 years. Even still, that doesn't assure his re-election.

I don't get any sense that the big Republican operatives believe they can take Obama in 2012. Instead, they sense they can take the senate because so many Democrats are up for re-election. However, they claim among themselves that the teabaggers cost them the Senate this time. They blame Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Sharron Angle in Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado for their loss. But remember it was Karl Rove's job to win back the Senate. But he will never be blamed.