If you saw the Sunday morning shows yesterday, you heard words like "radical" uncritically used to describe President Obama's budget and you saw supposedly "neutral" CNBC contributor Erin Burnett confidently state on Meet The Press that people are just confused by President Obama's many plans. Silly confused Americans.

I think people are very confused, though, that he is choosing this moment to go forth with so many things.  You know, earlier when you had Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer, they said--or Chuck Schumer said, "Well, this housing plan was actually pretty decent, but nobody read it." He's actually right, nobody read it.  One could disagree over how useful it will be.  But the point is, there's simply too much for people to digest.  And the health care, I'm sure we could have great debates over exactly how you'd want to pay for that fix, but doing it right now is actually creating more confusion rather than less.

The war on President Obama's agenda is on and at least one poll gives us a sense of why the Democrats seem to be on the defensive and why Republicans are confidently going on offense: Rasmussen Reports found 41% approval for President Obama's budget and 46% disapproval in its poll released on Friday. In addition, another Rasmussen poll shows Obama's Presidential Approval Index at "an all time low."

In the wake of this onslaught and at least some evidence that it might be resonating, it's nice to see the Obama administration gird for the battle, not shirk from it. President Obama's national address on Saturday made the case for his budget and had as its central theme "great opportunity in the midst of great crisis." In addition, today, OFA Director Mitch Stewart sent out an e-mail blast to supporters with the subject header: "Ready For The Fight."

Just over a week ago, President Obama submitted his first budget and made it clear he was ready for the fight to come.

The President isn't alone. We're ready for that fight too -- it's what you built this movement for.

Americans are ready for the bold new direction this plan offers. It's what they voted for in November, and it's needed now more than ever as we continue to face an unprecedented economic crisis.

But the special interests and old ways of Washington won't go away easily. In fact, they'll only fight back harder.

It's up to you to organize support for President Obama's plan throughout the country. It's the only way we'll get the change this country needs.

The e-mail links to a page with a video from Mitch (he's no David Plouffe -- a little more energy, there, Mitch), a space to pledge to fight for Obama's agenda and a concise outline of the President's plan:

* Energy — Transforming America's economy to run on clean and renewable energy in order to create new American jobs and industries
* Health care — Comprehensively reforming health care so that families, businesses, and government are relieved from the crushing costs that impede economic growth and prosperity
* Education — Reforming and investing in America's education system so that citizens are prepared to compete in a global economy

Go HERE to sign the pledge to fight for President Obama's agenda. This is the battle we've been waiting to have a president to wage, it's time to step up.

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More numbers from today's Washington Post/ABC News poll show Barack Obama at Reaganesque levels of popularity one month into his first term:

...68 percent of Americans approve of Obama's job performance to date, not atypical for an incoming president (it precisely matches Ronald Reagan's first-month rating, and trails George H.W. Bush's) but a striking counterpoint to George W. Bush's departing 33 percent approval last month. Bush hadn't seen a 68 in five and a half years.

This statistic on the relative levels of confidence respondents have in the President's ability to handle the economy vs. that of congressional Republicans is remarkable:

...Obama clearly holds the upper hand, both in overall approval and on the dominant issue of the day. He leads the Republicans in Congress by 61-26 percent in trust to handle the economy, the biggest such lead for a president in ABC News/Washington Post polls since late 1991. (Bill Clinton came close at the start of his first term.)

But I think it's this result that I find most satisfying and how I know he's doing something right:

Partisanship, though, seems inescapable: Obama's approval rating, 90 percent among Democrats, dives to 37 percent among Republicans - a rating equally as partisan (in the other direction) as Bush's initial approval after the disputed election of 2000.

ABC News predictably couches this in terms of "Obama's failed attempts at a post-partisan presidency." This laserbeam focus on a non-story, however, misses the substantive reasons that Democrats would support Obama's initiatives and Republicans would oppose them: they're progressive. Has Obama's fetishization of bipartisanship been the shiny object meant to distract the media from covering what in reality is a truly progressive agenda?

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     It is amazing to me how the Republicans and all of their right-wing friends are trying to minimize the total repudiation they and their policies received at the hands of the electorate. According to these "objective" viewers there was no political realignment. The fact that Obama carried states that hadn't been carried by a Democrat in years and put into play states that had been lost to Democrats for a generation does not mean that there was a redrawing of the electoral map according to these illustrious men. Their goal is simple to try and keep President Obama and the Democrats from enacting any sweeping legislation, instead hoping that they stay small and do little if anything. My guess is that they hope by trying these scare tactics and keeping the Dems thinking small that in four years if they accomplish little or nothing the Republicans can highlight how a majority Party did nothing to help the voters that elected them.

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One of the things I've been struggling with as a democrat is the unanswered question -- is Obama going to push a progressive, centrist or conservative agenda. I honestly don't know. He's taken some of Hillary Clinton's plans and said he'd advocate for those, some of John Edward's as well. But then, apparently he's taken some of Ron Paul's and Rudi Guiliani's ideas as well. Good ideas are everywhere, but I want my president to be able to discern good ideas from bad ones. I've suffered for 7 years 2 months under a president whose ideas were not his own, and as such he didn't have the ability to adjust and steer new courses when things went terribly awry. I don't want that again.

In today's Washington Post there was an editorial called Obama Enigma. Part of it talked about his reputation as the most liberal senator in the Senate, and then there was this:

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     Although it won't be New Year's for a while now, in about five, six weeks, I've decided to jot down what I want the Democrats in the House and Senate to do, and what to watch for as being trouble.

     1) Raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation. It's clear that Pelosi will pass a minimum wage hike in the House with the Dems in almost unanimous support. A few Repugs will join as well. As for the senate, we need nine Repugs there to pass it. It will be interesting to watch. Whether the indexing to inflation goes through is another issue.

    2) Have Medicare and Medicaid negotiate for lower drug prices. This one too will be a no-brainer for the Dems in the House, and I suspect more than a few repugs will decide it unwise to vote against Seniors. As for the senate, this one also relies on nine repugs votes, although it will most liekly go down because of the addiction of GOP law makers to big Pharma funds.

    3) Ethics reform. I just don't see this one going anywhere. Although the CPC is general for it, as is Ms. Pelosi herself, the Blue Dogs are in general dead against it, as are many DLCers. I expect the Dems to pass only shallow legislation, otherwise it will get shelved. The Murtha-Hoyer episode did not go down well for Pelosi; she doesn't need the party to be labled as AWAL on ethics.

   4) Iraq. This one is a biggie, for obvious reasons. While I wish the Dems would just set an exit date and begin withdrawing troops and then leave things up to the Iraqi gov., I can't help but think that the Repugs would then declare it a defeat from the jaws of victory moment (even though it isn't), and that the outcome would be the American people seeing it like the evacuation from Saigon, a major defeat, laid at the feet of the Democratic Party. Instead, they are going to do troop "redeployment" -- a less bold and dangerous strategy, although troops will still be getting shot at in large numbers come 2008.

   5) Trade. On this one, the Dems are split, between those for it, and those against. I am for free trade agreements, albeit with strings attached (they shouldn't be feudal handouts, like Medicare D and the Bankruptcy Bill). I think Pelosi will table it. If free trade bills are brought to the floor, a coalition of Dems and Repugs could pass it through the House. In the Senate, the Repugs would vote for, as would some Dems, and of course Bush is for them, so you don't need sixty votes.

  6) Immigration. I'm for it. I really wish we would setup a new Ellis Island, you know? On this one the party has some spliters, but so does the GOP. I think this one will be done with most Dems and some Repugs supporting some sort of amnesty or guest worker program or something along those lines. If Congress doesn't address the issue, the two parties get hit from both sides; the die-hard nativists on the right, and the demonstrators and mainstream Hispanics on the left.

   7) Taxes. Nothing doing here. Rangel ain't touching it, leaving the tax cuts to expire in 2010. As long as the Repugs aren't able to frame it as "biggest" tax hike in US history, should be a net neutral. Besides, get to cut the deficit (instead of cooking the numbers to achieve that goal, as under Bush).

   8) Impeachment. I wish this one was on the calender, but it ain't. Pelosi has ruled it out fearing that the Repugs will call it partisan (and Dems remember the five seat loss Repugs took in 1998). However, I think if Dems don't do something about the Bush crew, from War Crimes in Iraq to dismantling the Constitution at home, the Dem base could be demoralized.

  9) Investigations. On this one, too, I fear inaction. For reasons listed above, with the same consequences on the base.

  10) Environment. I think its going nowhere. I was just reading that the sugar producers lobby is preventing the US from getting cheap ethonal derived from world sugar. With the farm lobby lined up against energy independece, Repugs against Kyoto, fuel standards leading to union vs. enviro activist, I just don't see where the policies get by right now. I see alot of grid lock.

    That's it for my New Year's Wish List of things for the coming year. Hopefully some of these will get covered, but I'm not going to count on it.

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