Open Thread

Our most recent DL inaugural front page poll has the President's approval rating at 57%, while 36% of you are either conservative haters or progressive purists, and 7% don't know or don't care. We now have our poll up for Governor Markell, and it will be up for a couple of days. Like we have done before, we are going to run through our entire statewide leadership, including Lt. Governor Denn, Auditor Wagner, Treasurer Flowers, Insurance Commissioner Stewart, Congressman Carney, Senators Carper and Coons, Attorney General Biden and Vice President Biden.

The New York Times has a good graphic identifying the notable public officials sitting on the Inaugural Platform with President Obama yesterday. You know you are a political freak when you don't need the NY Times' help to identify anyone.

Today, at this very moment actually, 12 pm on January 20, 2013, the first term of President Obama and Vice President Biden expires. Now, the public Inauguration ceremonies will take place tomorrow as is tradition when January 20 falls on a Sunday. The last time it happened was in 1985 for President Reagan's second inaugural. The political geek in my almost wishes that both the President and the Vice President did not take their private oaths of office today (as Biden and Obama have already done), and instead we get a day of weeping with a President Boehner (who as Speaker is next in line after Biden to the Presidency). A President Boehner for one day would have been a very real possibility if, heavens forbid, Mitt Romney had been elected. Given his devout Mormonism, it is an open question whether Romney would have taken even a private oath of office today. But my love of country outweighs the political geekdom in not wanting to see Romney elected just so we get a President Boehner for a day. Here is Vice President Biden's private swearing in earlier this morning, and I will have the President's private swearing in video once it is posted:

Here are the weekly addresses from our President and Governor, plus the West Wing Week.

A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds 51% of Americans approve of the way President Obama is doing is job with 41% disapproving.

"Mr. Obama's job approval rating is similar to that of George W. Bush at the start of his second term, but much lower than the ratings of the previous two presidents who served eight years. (President Bill Clinton's approval rate was 60 percent in January 1997 and Ronald Reagan's was 62 percent in January 1985.) More than 8 in 10 Democrats approve of his job performance, 8 in 10 Republicans disapprove and independents are evenly divided."

Meanwhile, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 49% of Americans hold a negative view of the Republican Party while 26% have a positive view.

President Obama and Democrats have won the debt ceiling messaging war, according to the new Washington Post ABC News poll.

President Obama heads into his second term with political momentum on his side, and leads congressional Republicans when it comes to dealing with the country’s debt limit according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. More Americans now approve of the way Obama is doing his job than at any point in the past three years, except for a fleeting spike upward after the killing of Osama bin Laden. The number seeing him as a “strong leader” is sharply higher, and a clear majority again sees him as empathetic with the problems they face.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds 58% of Americans say the debt ceiling should be handled separately from the debate on spending cuts, while 36% favor linking the two. That almost feels like a partisan breakdown (Democrats and Independents making up the 58%, and the Economic Terrorist Party making up the remaining 36%). It looks like the Hastert Rule is dead and buried. For the second time in as many weeks, the House Majority party has allowed a vote on a measure that did not enjoy majority support within the majority party. I think we are seeing the future, and it is a future our very own El Som predicted.

Congratulations to Governor Markell and Lt. Governor Denn on their inauguarations to their second terms. Check out Marc Ambinder on why President Obama took the Trillion Dollar Coin option off the table. And he's right, because if you've lost Jon Stewart... .

"Around 11:45 on Monday morning, Justice Clarence Thomas broke almost seven years of silence during Supreme Court arguments. But it was not entirely clear what he said."

It is criminal that he gets paid to be a judge. He is nothing but an automoton.

"Every President elected between 1976 and 2004 was, by birth or by choice, a Southerner, except Ronald Reagan, who enjoyed a sort of honorary status. (When he began the 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, scene of the murder, in 1964, of three civil-rights workers, many Southerners heard it as a dog whistle.) A Southern accent, once thought quaint or even backward, became an emblem of American authenticity, a political trump card. It was a truism that no Democrat could win the White House unless he spoke with a drawl. Now the South is becoming isolated again."

As it should be. This is a spectacularly good thing.

The weekend! And it seems like the political news has slowed down some, or is that just me? Anyway, I do hope that you have plans to enjoy this warm weekend.

Friday! Yay! Just a few hours until Happy Hour. You've probably heard of the contretemps between Piers Morgan and Alex Jones based on their interview discussing gun rights and the obligation to gun safety. Apparently Morgan pissed off Jones, who started a White House petition demanding that Morgan get deported. This petition was answered by WH Press Secretary Jay Carney, who used it as an opportunity to explain that the First Amendment means something:

Let’s not let arguments over the Constitution’s Second Amendment violate the spirit of its First. President Obama believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. However, the Constitution not only guarantees an individual right to bear arms, but also enshrines the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press -- fundamental principles that are essential to our democracy. Americans may disagree on matters of public policy and express those disagreements vigorously, but no one should be punished by the government simply because he or she expressed a view on the Second Amendment -- or any other matter of public concern.

Awesome -- read your constitution, people!

President Obama nominates his Chief of Staff, Jack Lew, to head the Treasury Department and the Republicans are having a fit. Why? Jon Chait has the answer:

Lew’s disqualification, according to numerous Republicans quoted in the story, is that he doesn’t agree with Republicans on public policy issues. The quotes are sort of amazing:

Johanns said it’s also about policy, saying a Lew choice would be “controversial.”

When can you say an idea is gaining momentum? The WSJ had an essay on Saturday calling the War on Drugs a Failure. To be sure, this essay did not appear on the famously wingnutty WSJ Opinion page, but still. I'm intrigued by these articles that point out the high cost of some of our worst social decisions -- it is looking like we are trying to give ourselves permission to get smarter and stop throwing so much money down the drain: