my feeling zone

At a time of deepening political disaffection and intensified distress about the economy, President Obama enjoys an edge over Republicans in the battle for public support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

While the president is showing signs of vulnerability on his handling of the economy — a majority say he has yet to offer a clear plan for creating mbt sale jobs — Americans blame former President George W. Bush, Wall Street and Congress much more than they do Mr. Obama for the nation’s economic problems and the budget deficit, the poll found.

They credit Mr. Obama more than Republicans with making an effort at bipartisanship, and they back the White House’s policies on a variety of disputed issues, from allowing gays to serve openly in the military to repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

The poll suggests that both parties face a toxic environment as the prepare to face voters in November. Public disapproval of Congress is at an historically high level, and huge numbers of Americans think Congress is beholden to special interests. Fewer than one in ten Americans say members of Congress deserve reelection.

As the party in power, Democrats face a particular risk from any wave of voter discontent; unfavorable views of the Democratic party are as high as they been since the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, though Republicans continue to register an even worse showing on that measure. The percentage of Americans who approve of Mr. Obama’s job performance, at 46 percent, is as low as it has been since he took office ghd straighteners.

Still, the poll suggests that Mr. Obama and his party have an opportunity to deflect the anger and anxiety if they can frame the election not as a referendum on the president and his party, but as a choice between them and a Republican approach that is far less popular with Americans and yielded results under Mr. Bush that much of the nation still blames for the country’s woes. That is what the White House has been attempting to do since the beginning of the year.

For all the erosion in support for Mr. Obama, Americans say Mr. Obama better understands their needs and problems and has made more of an effort to be bipartisan than Congressional Republicans, the poll found Mbt.

“It feels like an attempt to sabotage the majority and to regain control of power rather than working on a compromise that says, ‘let’s see what we have to do to get things straightened out,”’ John Smith, a Republican from Greenville, S.C., said in an interview after participating in the poll.

Americans say that Mr. Obama is far less likely to favor special interests over the American people than Congress. Mr. Obama and his party continues to have an edge over Republicans on which party would do better in dealing with health care and job creation. But Republicans have gained an edge on handling of the economy.

 

The public has lost much of its enthusiasm for health care reform, and how Mr. Obama has managed it. He gets low marks for his handling of the deficit and the economy and the deficit. And the fact that 56 percent of think that Mr. Obama doesn’t have a plan to create jobs is a distressing bit of news for a White House that in recent weeks had made an intensive effort to present Mr. Obama as concerned with the economy.

But the public backs other elements of Mr. Obama’s agenda. By a margin of two-to-one, Americans support an end to tax cuts for the wealthy put in place under Mr. Bush, and Americans favor allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the military, although support for the policy varies with the wording of the MBT Shoe question.

The boisterous Tea Party movement that has grown out of the strain of discontent so far commands relatively little public support; 18 percent of respondents said they considered themselves supporters of the movement, while 55 percent said they had heard little or nothing about it.

The level of dissatisfaction with both political parties– and the fact that 56 percent of Americans in the poll want a smaller government– suggests that the Tea Party movement has opportunity to draw more support. The poll found that 51 percent of Americans now view the Democratic Party unfavorably, nearly matching the highest in the history of the Times/CBS News poll. At the same time, 57 percent have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.

The nationwide telephone poll of 1,084 adults was taken from Feb. 5 to Feb. 10, and has a margin of sampling error of plus ghd hair straighteners or minus three percentage points for all adults.

There was no big speech or fancy ceremony when President Obama observed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday last month. Instead, for his first King holiday as president, Mr. Obama quietly installed a rare signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Oval Office and invited a small group of African-American elders and young people to come see it.

The private Mbt gathering — “an intimate discussion,” in the words of Dorothy Height, a 97-year-old grande dame of the civil rights movement — was typical of Mr. Obama, who has steered clear of putting race front and center in his administration. But that low-key approach is frustrating some black leaders and scholars, who are starting to challenge Mr. Obama’s language and policies.

On Capitol Hill, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are expressing irritation that Mr. Obama has failed to create programs tailored specifically to African-Americans, who are suffering disproportionately ghd hair straighteners in the recession. In December, some of them threatened to oppose new financial rules for banks until the White House promised to address the needs of minority groups.

“I don’t think we expected anything to change overnight because we had an African-American in the White House, but the fact still remains that we’ve got a constituency that is suffering,” said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland. “I think he could do more, and he will do more.”

Some black scholars fault Mr. Obama as failing to lead on the issue of race. The Kirwan Institute, which studies race and ethnicity, is convening a conference on Thursday to offer policy prescriptions. After analyzing the State of the Union address, the institute’s scholars warned that “continued failure to engage race would be devastating.”

Michael Eric Dyson, a Georgetown University sociologist and longtime supporter of Mr. Obama, is exasperated. “All these teachable moments,” Professor Dyson said, “but the professor refuses to come to the class.”

In an interview in late December with American Urban Radio Networks, a group of black-owned stations, Mr. Obama Mbt conceded that there was “grumbling” among African-Americans, especially about his jobs policies. But he rejected the idea that he should pay special attention to them — an argument that Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a black author and political analyst, called “disingenuous at best, and an insult at worst.”

Mr. Obama framed it this way: “I can’t pass laws that say I’m just helping black folks. I’m the president of the United States. What I can do is make sure that I am passing laws that help all people, particularly those who are most vulnerable and most in need. That in turn is going to help lift up the African-American community.”

Until now, black leaders have tended to tread lightly in criticizing Mr. Obama, and some find it personally painful. discount Mbt shoes Black Americans remain overwhelmingly supportive of Mr. Obama; a recent ABC News poll found that 96 percent approve of his job performance.

But Elinor Tatum, the editor and publisher of the black-owned Amsterdam News, says that if blacks were asked “is he doing a good job for African-Americans,” his numbers would be lower.

“Every time someone brings up an issue that affects blacks, he says that’s an issue that affects all of America,” Ms. Tatum said. “But at the same time, if he were of a different race or ethnicity, he would be playing to the black community. So there’s a double standard there. Should we be the victims in that?”

The conventional wisdom about Mr. Obama is that he tries to duck the issue of race, but close advisers say he is acutely aware of his role as the first African-American president and is trying to advance racial consciousness in constructive ways.

Many black leaders view this as wise. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is working with Mr. Obama to close the achievement gap in education, says the president is smart not to ballyhoo “a black agenda.”Instead, Mr. Obama has been trying to shine a spotlight on the history that laid the foundation for his ghd hair straighteners  presidency. On Wednesday, as part of Black History Month, the White House will host a star-studded concert showcasing music of the civil rights movement, featuring celebrities like Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah. Professor Dyson will be a guest.

The King holiday event offers a peek into Mr. Obama’s style. Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, said it was intended as “an intergenerational conversation” in which guests could share their experiences in a “safe and private moment.” Before the Oval Office tour, they gathered in the Roosevelt Room, and Mr. Obama invited each to speak.

Dr. Height began with the story of her first encounter with the young Martin Luther King Jr., then 15 and trying, she said, to “analyze his own thoughts as he was trying to determine whether he wanted to enter the ministry, education or law.”

A local pastor, John Pinkard, recounted his dinner with the civil rights leader decades ago. Participants said the session seemed as much for the president’s benefit as their own.

“My impression was that it was deliberately something for him and for Michelle, and that it was kind of like medicine, it was healing for them,” said the historian Taylor Branch, who also attended. “It seemed to answer something personal for them.”

Race, of course, can be an incendiary issue in American politics — as a candidate, the biracial Mr. Obama was variously criticized as either too black or not black enough. He addressed the topic memorably during a speech in Philadelphia after the controversy involving his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Mr. Jarrett said, “He has communicated quite clearly his thoughts on the subject.”

As president, Mr. Obama learned the pitfalls of talking bluntly about race. His comment that police officers in Cambridge, Mass., “acted stupidly” when they arrested a prominent black Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates, sparked an uproar, and the ensuing “beer summit” at the White House proved a distraction.

Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who represented Mr. Gates and is close to Mr. Obama, said the president had never hesitated to talk about race but is more scripted now.

“I think there is a carefulness — not a reluctance — but a carefulness about what should be said going forward,” he said.

Professor Ogletree says he “finds puzzling the idea that a president who happens to be black has to focus on black issues,” and Dr. Height agrees. Having counseled every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt on matters of ghd hair straighteners race, Dr. Height made a plea in a recent interview for Mr. Obama to be left alone.

“We have never sat down and said to the 43 other presidents: ‘How does it feel to be a Caucasian, how do you feel as a white president? Tell me what that means to you,’ ” Dr. Height said. “I am not one to think that he should do more for his people than for other people. I want him to be free to be himself.”

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on ghd hair straighteners  Monday proposed a package of measures to help middle class families, emphasizing ordinary Americans as he is expected to do later this week in his State of the Union speech.

“Creating good sustainable jobs is the single most important thing that we can do to rebuild the middle class,” Obama said after his administration unveiled proposals to expand a child-care tax credit and encourage savings.

The moves reflect a decisively more populist stance by Obama, who has stressed his determination to fight for the middle class and take a tough line toward Wall Street after suffering a serious setback last week in an election for a US Senate seat.

The child-care credit and other measures will be discussed in his first State of the Union speech at 9:00 pm on Wednesday (0200 GMT on Thursday), where he will lay out the challenges and set the tone for his administration in 2010.

A White House official said the State of the Union speech’s Mbt  themes would include “creating good jobs, addressing the deficit, changing Washington, and fighting for middle class families.”

A year into his presidency, Obama and his Democratic Party have witnessed an erosion of support among middle-class Americans who swept him into office. Mbt shoes 

Frustration with the 10 percent unemployment rate and wariness toward Obama’s plans to change the healthcare system helped set the stage for a shocking loss by Democrats last week in a Massachusetts Senate race.

Obama is expected to tap into that frustration as he addresses the nation on Wednesday.

“We … need to reverse the overall erosion in middle class security so that when this economy does come back, working Americans are free to pursue their dreams again.

“There are a variety of immediate steps we can Mbt take to do just that – steps we’re poised to begin taking in the budget that I’ll put forward next week,” Obama said. He will unveil his proposed federal budget for fiscal 2011 on Feb. 1.

The initiatives were developed by the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families, led by Vice President Joe Biden. The proposals would:

* Require companies that do not offer retirement plans to enroll their employees in direct-deposit retirement accounts unless the workers opt out.

* Increase the “Savers Credit,” a tax credit for retirement ghd hair straighteners savings, for families making up to $85,000.

* Change some of the rules for 401K employer-sponsored savings accounts to make them more transparent.

* Increase the child tax credit rate to 35 percent of qualifying expenses from the current 20 percent for families making under $85,000 a year. Families making up to $115,000 would be eligible for some increase in the tax credit.

* Increase child care funding by $1.6 billion in 2011 to serve an additional 235,000 children.

* Boost government spending by $102.5 million for MBT Shoe programs aimed at helping families who provide home care for an aging relative.

* Ease the burden for student loans by limiting a borrower’s payments to 10 percent of his or her income above a basic living allowance.

A billboard featuring President Obama that was erected three days ago will be coming down, according to a spokesman for the company that paid for the ghd hair straighteners outdoor ad in Times Square.

Weatherproof Garment Company, which licensed an Associated Press photo of the president wearing one of the company’s jackets, had intended to leave the Times Square ad and another in midtown Manhattan for two months.

Company spokesman Allen Cohen on Friday said the ads will be removed “in an expeditious manner” after what he described as a cordial conversation late Thursday with White House counsel Kendall Burman, who requested their prompt removal.

“It’s my understanding that the counsel’s office spoke with the company and that the company is supposed to take that ad down,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.

The billboard towering over Times Square features a photograph taken during Obama’s November trip to China and depicts the president with a snowy Great Wall of China in the background. It was snapped by AP photographer Charles Dharapak.

The Weatherproof billboards have become part of a larger discussion about celebrity, politics, public figures and advertising that surfaced last month when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched an ad campaign featuring first lady Michelle Obama.

Weatherproof President Freddie Stollmack said the company didn’t expect the amount of controversy over billboards and that Weatherproof was never looking to get into a  Mbt fight with the White House or President Obama over the ads. He called the creation of the ad campaign “serendipitous.”

“We saw a picture of President Obama visiting the Great Wall of China and we said, ‘Boy that looks like our coat,’ ” he said.

The New York Times, the New York Post and Women’s Wear Daily rejected print versions of the ad, Stollmack said.

“There is no First Amendment defense here,” said intellectual property lawyer Barbara Solomon. “This is not an issue of expression. This is a pure commercial appropriation. This is an ghd hair straighteners advertisement and nothing but an ad.”

Stollmack argued that the billboards aren’t “an ad in a traditional sense,” saying they just feature “a great depiction of President Obama wearing the Weatherproof coat on a billboard.”

Solomon disagreed.

“From a legal point of view, it’s not legal,” she said. “It is a violation of Mr. Obama’s right of publicity, his right to control his appearance and his likeness.”

Images of public figures, whether they are presidents, first ladies, movie stars or Ghd singers, can generally be used by news organizations however they wish, provided they own or license the image. But advertising is a different matter.

When Weatherproof licensed the photo, AP spokesman Paul Colford said, the business transaction required the clothing company to seek specific permissions and consent for using the photograph.

“In this case, whatever clearances they may need from the White House,” Colford said “We simply licensed the photo.”

Use of the photo of the president is purely a means to garner “additional buzz” for the company, said Nancy Tag, an advertising professor at The City College of New York. What’s “so fascinating about this billboard is that it looks so traditional … but it’s really a form of guerilla marketing because they are in such clear violation of industry standards,” she said.

The White House hasn’t had much success stopping PETA from running posters that feature the first lady alongside talk show host Oprah Winfrey, country singer Carrie Underwood Mbt and supermodel Tyra Banks in the animal rights group’s “Fur-Free and Fabulous” campaign at Washington Metro stations.

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk acknowledged knowing the group was close to crossing the legal line with the posters, but said the posters will stay up for four weeks as planned.

“But the fact is that Michelle Obama has issued a statement indicating that she doesn’t wear fur, and the world should know that in PETA’s eyes, that makes her pretty fabulous,” the group said.

The first lady’s deputy press secretary, Semonti Mustaphi, told the Washington Times in June that “Mrs. Obama does not wear fur.”

Newkirk said the ghd straighteners  organization has insisted on keeping the promotion going because the ad is not selling anything and the group paid for the rights to the image.

“It’s complimentary,” Newkirk said, calling the first lady a “gorgeous person.”

PETA said the group had prior relationships with the other three women in the poster but said it “knew we could not get an endorsement from … the first lady because of her position.”

Paul Rosengard, former president of Perry Ellis who now teaches fashion industry marketing at the New School’s Parsons School for Design, said he understands the appeal of using images of the first couple.

“The end goal in advertising is to create a buzz about your brand,” he said.

Weatherproof spokesman Cohen acknowledged as much.

Rosengard said he believes Weatherproof deserves some kudos for trying something different — “It is brilliant and it is working,” he said — but added that he isn’t sure whether the billboard is legally or morally acceptable.

It “flirts a little too closely with that ethics line,” he said.

Weatherproof  MBT Shoe spokesman Cohen said the Times Square billboard will be in place for about a week longer because the company isn’t allowed to leave the space blank.