There’s a fascinating story over at The Hill that was published yesterday, ” How John Boehner escaped disaster. ” I don’t think we should get ahead of ourselves here, but certainly there’s a storyline emerging here that when it comes to the art of the deal, Boehner is one of the more capable politicians of the era.
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Democrats, Republicans Asked Obama to Leave Room During Debt Negotiations
[Posted by Karl] This morning’s Quinnipiac University poll is no birthday present for the president: The national debt ceiling deal does not rescue President Barack Obama’s crashing job approval rating in Florida as he gets a negative 44 – 51 percent score among voters surveyed August 1 – 2, after the deal was announced, compared to a negative 44 – 50 percent score among voters surveyed July 27 – 31, before the deal ***. This compares to a positive 51 – 43 percent approval rating for President Obama in a May 26 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll. Florida voters surveyed after the deal say 50 – 42 percent that Obama does not deserve to be reelected, compared to a 47 – 46 percent split before the deal and 50 – 44 percent support for his reelection May 26. Indeed, the Q-Poll shows Mitt Romney and Rick Perry both gained on Obama in the post-deal polling. Other internals are similarly bad. NRO’s Jim Geraghty notes Florida women shifted from 53%/40% approval/disapproval of Obama in May to a 46/49 split today. The Hotline’s Josh Kraushaar thinks the most scary number for Obama in the poll is the 61% job disapproval among independents, with just 33% approving, noting: “That’s Bush post-Katrina territory.” Kraushaar also gives the broader context : “All told, we now have Obama behind/in deep trouble in FL, IA, PA, MI, OH, NH, and NC in the last month.” He adds that those are “Dukakis ’88 numbers.” Maybe Obama’s seventh pivot to jobs will turn things around. Our Orator-in-Chief is taking a thinly-veiled, taxpayer-funded campaign tour through Midwestern swing states later this month. As the odds of a double-dip recession rise , it may take more than words to slow the ocean of bad news for the unemployed and the Lightworker who desperately does not want to join their ranks next year. –Karl
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Florida swings against Obama
[Posted by Karl] The vote was 74-26 . 45 Democrats vote yes, 28 Republicans vote yes, 1 Indy votes yes (Lieberman). 19 Republicans vote no, 6 Dems vote no, 1 Indy votes no (Sanders, of course). Weigel has all the no votes . The measure heads off to The Adult in the Room for signature. Update : Today’s CNN poll finds 52% of Americans — and an overwhelming majority of independents — disapproves of the deal. Then again, reading the .pdf , 51% disapprove of raising the debt ceiling… and 52% think failing to raise it will cause major problems or a crisis. A large majority — 65% approve of the pending “cuts” in the deal, while another 15% dispprove because the “cuts” don’t go far enough. The establishment media will tout that 60% wanted tax hikes on the rich and corporations, while ignoring the fact that the poll didn’t ask about tax hikes or vanishing tax deductions for everyone else. –Karl
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Senate passes Debt Ceiling measure
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) came up with a signature phrase to describe the bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling. “This is a Satan sandwich, no doubt about it,” the Congressional Black Caucus chairman said. “With Satan fries on the side,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi added. Pelosi was a yes vote, perhaps confirming conservative suspicions about her dietary preferences. Not everyone on the left was willing to have their Satan sandwich and eat it too. The New York Times editorialized that the debt deal was a “nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists.” “We have given much and received nothing in return,” lamented Rep. Raul Grijalva. “The lesson today is that Republicans can hold their breath long enough to get what they want.” Arianna Huffington worried on MSNBC that the bill showed political compromise was dead. “”I think this is a real breakdown of our political system,” she said. In the Daily Beast , Michael Tomasky said simply, “Obama Gives It All Away.” Paul Krugman concluded Obama had “thrown all that away,” like the old Genesis song. Grijalva argued the agreement “trades people’s livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals.” Except the supposed “unappeasable right-wing radicals” were mostly unappeased. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Marco Rubio (R-FL), some of the legislators most associated with the Tea Party, announced their opposition. Center-hugging Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty joined Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann in denouncing the deal. In the House, Paul and Bachmann joined such Tea Party lawmakers as Reps. Joe Walsh (R-IL), Paul Broun (R-GA), and Tim Scott (R-SC) in voting against it. The Club for Growth and Heritage Action joined MoveOn.org and the Congressional Progressive Caucus in coming out swinging against the plan. Even Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina slammed its spending cuts as mostly illusory, except insofar as they targeted the Pentagon.
In the end, the House vote on the debt ceiling deal wasn’t that close. With both leadership teams whipping their members in favor, it passed 269 to 161. Contrary to much of the noise heard throughout the day, it passed with more Republican than Democratic votes. While liberal opposition to the deal was as impotent as I predicted earlier, fully 95 Democrats did vote no compared to just 66 Republicans. An equal number of Democrats (95) voted yes, joining 174 Republicans. Throughout the day, even many of the deal GOP’s opponents expressed their support for House Speaker John Boehner, making defeat seem unlikely. The outliers in the House Republican Conference included two presidential candidates, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann (Thaddeus McCotter voted yes), a number of Tea Party freshmen like Tim Huelskamp, Justin Amash, and Joe Walsh, and embattled RSC chairman Jim Jordan. On the Democratic side, large segments of the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses voted no. Here’s the full roll call .
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Not Such A Close Call
