Obama's drop in popularity and Michelle's handbag controversy

While I was cleaning my house and listening to Mark Steyn I missed handbag-gate entirely. It seems that the mystery clutch isn't a $6K alligator item but rather a sweet under-$900 patent leather version. Either way it's extravagant by my standards, but not wrong if she's spending her own money. It is curious behavior, though, in this time of 9.5% unemployment, "belt-tightening, and hard choices." (But, hey -- you try picking out a purse for under $2000 and see how easy it is.)

And speaking of extravagance, this time with taxpayer dollars, how do you spend $18 million on redesigning a website? Does that strike anyone else as a tad high?

Back to Mark. I was hoping he'd touch on the manufactured sperm story and he did. He speculated that celebrities like George Clooney might offer their own designer sperm lines, and said something about "Amazons bestriding the Earth."


(Love this poster. I wonder if Netflix has the movie.)

Anyway, I can't remember exactly what he said; I was hoping the Steyn-hating guys at Media Matters would be more thorough with this segment but no such luck.

Mark talked quite a lot about Obama's falling poll numbers. The president appears to be losing independent voters:

“This is a huge sea change that is playing itself out in American politics,” said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen. “Independents who had become effectively operational Democrats in 2006 and 2008 are now up for grabs and are trending Republican.

“They’re saying, ‘Costing too much, no results, see the downside, not sure of the upside,’” he said.

The White House denies there’s been any real shift.

His approval index is firmly in negative territory according to Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 30% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –8. The President’s Approval Index rating has fallen six points since release of a disappointing jobs report last week

That's a bit of a tumble. Losing one's job really gets a person's attention.

Update 7/14/09: 75% of Americans see stimulus as useless or harmless

Comments welcome.

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