Who Are the 53% of Americans Who View President Obama Favorably?

Let's take a look at weekend events and draw some conclusions, dear readers. (1). On Sunday, Newsmax published the results of a new poll finding that a majority of Americans believe Congress is not overreacting to the growing scandals threatening the Obama administration. The CNN/ORC poll found that 54% of Americans don't believe Congress is overreacting to the IRS harrassment of conservative groups, while 42% said that it is. By a larger margin, 59% to 37%, respondents said that Congress is making the right moves on the administration's actions regarding the Benghazi terror attack. White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer appeared on several Sunday talk shows to defend President Barack Obama. Pfeiffer said Obama learned about the IRS scandal on May 10, the same day as the public, even though Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was aware of the probe earlier. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell sees it differently : The White House might not have commanded Internal Revenue agents to target conservative groups, but a "culture of intimidation throughout the administration" made them think it was acceptable. McConnell told Meet the Press that the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission all have targeted conservative groups. "What we're talking about here is an attitude that the government knows best,...The nanny state is here to tell us all what to do, and if you start criticizing you get targeted." But, Pfeiffer got some news while appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," which reported Obama's job approval at 53%. The numbers were up 2 percent from early April, and up 6 percent from their low of 47% in mid-March."I think the American people have great faith in the president," Pfeiffer said. (2). This weekend the president and CEO of The Associated Press made his first public statement about the Department of Justice seizure of AP journalists' phone records, calling it "unconstitutional" and arguing that the seizure has already had a chilling effect on First Amendment rights to a free press, making sources less likely to talk to AP journalists. Gary Pruitt, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," said the AP was informed of the seizure of two months of phone records in a letter it received May 10. Prior to that date, prosecutors had already said they were conducting a leaks investigation into how the AP learned about an al-Qaida bomb plot in Yemen before it was made public last year. Pruitt said the AP story contradicted the government's claim at the time that there was no terrorist plot. (3). In a Newsmax interview, Senator Bob Corker says he is waiting for an explanation from the White House over reports that the United States has made millions of dollars in secret cash payments to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. Corker told Newsmax TV that a letter he wrote to the Obama administration was first answered by officials who told him it wasn't his business. "I want to know why we're doing it. I understand when we go into conflict areas in the very beginning, there's no doubt we deal with cash,'' Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said. "But with a government that's been in place for this long, has gone through two elections, this is not a proper approach....Maybe the administration feels that it is, but if they do, I want to know why,'' Corker said. Karzai has called the payments "the choice of the American government.'' Corker, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Karzai is apparently "not ashamed'' of the payoffs. "And obviously he's not ashamed that citizens throughout the country are aware.'' In a letter to the president, Corker said, "Our assistance to Afghanistan should have long since evolved to a carefully coordinated, fully transparent effort across federal agencies with appropriate congressional oversight to ensure US aid meets our national interests....These secret payments lack any kind of accountability, encourage the very kind of corruption we're trying to prevent in Afghanistan, and further undermine US taxpayers' confidence in our government.'' ~~~~~ Dear readers, the American people have many serious reasons to be suspicious of the Obama administration's handling of its responsibilities. There are not only actions that verge on illegality, perhaps criminal in nature - Benghazi, IRS targeting of conservative groups. There are also attacks on the Constitution that should make every American citizen consider the constiturional goals of those around the President - gun control, harrassment of AP journalists and their sources. There are, in addition, actions that indicate a lack of understanding of how any political system should be managed - domestic security lapses, foreign affairs bungled at the expense of allies and of America's position of moral authority in the world. And with Senator Corker's statements we have the spectacle of a US President paying millions of dollars in cash to an "ally" in the war against terrorism - presumably to keep him an ally. This is a damning commentary on Obama's failed attempt to forge a foreign policy in the Middle East. He has alienated his only real ally, Israel. He has made America's Arab allies suspicious of America's regional "sticking power." He has left a trail of missed opportinities in Syria. These shortcomings may not be the stuff of congressional investigations, but in the longer term they may have the most negative effect on America and her allies around the world. One is forced to ask - who are the 53% of Americans who still look on President Obama favorably?