Josh Kraushaar:
A hallmark of the Obama administration is its imperviousness to conventional Washington wisdom, a brash confidence that their way is the best way — critics be damned. As a resident contrarian, that type of independent thinking can often be refreshing and liberating. But there’s a thin line between confidence and cockiness – and the White House is treading awfully closer to the latter.
By picking two loyal allies as national security adviser (Susan Rice) and ambassador to the UN (Samantha Power), Obama is taunting Republican critics who slammed Rice for her role in the Benghazi spin, derailing her prospects to become Secretary of State. While second terms often feature new faces and perspectives from the outside, the president has kept his inner circle tight. Combine that with his former top adviser trash-talking Republicans and media critics on Twitter, and the White House’s push to pressure Republicans to fill vacancies on the DC Circuit Court, you’d think the president has weathered the worst of the scandal storm.
But there are fresh signs from two new, well-respected polls, that while Obama has faced down the scrutiny for now, the White House would be wise to anticipate headwinds — and prepare accordingly. President Obama’s 48 percent approval rating in the NBC/WSJ survey is stable, but his approval among independents dropped nine points since April to just 28 percent. A separate Bloomberg survey showed his overall approval rating down six points to 49 percent since February.
Contrary to the administration spin, the polling shows that a majority of Americans want congressional Republicans to investigate the trifecta of controversies. Even larger majorities said the administration’s handling of Benghazi, the IRS scandal and subpoena of journalist phone records “raises doubts about the overall honesty and integrity” of the administration. By a 14-point margin, more Americans believe the IRS targeting is part of a “more widespread effort” rather than the wrongdoing of misguided individuals. Bloomberg found that a 47 percent plurality of voters believe Obama isn’t telling the truth when he said he was unaware that the IRS was scrutinizing conservative groups. If there aren’t any more revelations to uncover, the president could be home free. But Tuesday’s congressional testimony from those individuals directly impacted suggests the story isn’t going away.
In a way the backfire is already beginning.
In Atherton, CA Obama breezed into town for a fundraiser at two homes.
In a couple of hours he made $3 million.
BUT he refuses to pay for the security costs incurred to close streets, control traffic, enhance security and perform clean-up.
So, instead of EATING that loss, the City of Atherton is suing those two homeowners!
Their logic is that, had this been a wedding instead of a president visiting to make money, the wedding address would be responsible for the costs incurred to close streets, control traffic, enhance security and perform clean-up, not the City.
This will put a chill on people opening their homes to Obama (or other shine-on-the-costs-politicians).
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/06/06/atherton-revolts-over-cost-of-obama-visit-targets-donors/