GOP wants to be committed. Agreed. They should be.

By GottaLaff

Contracts are out, commitments are in. Who knew the GOP was so trendy schmendy?

And I do have to agree-- The Rushpublics should be committed:

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave peeks Sunday at the "Commitment to America" that would replace the GOP's "Contract With America" in the run-up to midterm elections. [...]

He said the "Commitment" would place a greater emphasis on Internet tools to get the message out and "help restore trust... using our principles to find what's best for America."

Those wacky Rushpublics and their crazy pledges. They take so many of them, and yet...

See, they know how to take the pledges, they just don't know how to keep the pledges...

"If we do not do the job, throw us out," he said.

Now that's a pledge I hope they keep.

Obama Retains More Trust Than Congress on Healthcare

Get him on the road NOW. h/t Greg.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans remain more confident in the healthcare reform recommendations of President Obama (49%) than in the recommendations of the Democratic (37%) or Republican (32%) leaders in Congress. But these confidence levels are lower than those measured in June, suggesting that the ongoing healthcare reform debate has taken a toll on the credibility of the politicians involved.

GOP: Trust us, even though we can't verify

By GottaLaff

Remember Ronald Reagan's signature phrase "trust but verify"? Apparently Rushpublics don't think it applies to them when it comes to health care reform:

Senate Republicans cannot say what exactly the budgetary impact of their health alternatives would be, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said this weekend.

Way to instill confidence, guys. I'm sure the CBO can help clarify, though, right?

Gregg, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, emphasized that Republicans believe their healthcare alternatives would bring down costs, though the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would be unable to score them.

Oh. So we're supposed to just "go with it", huh? The way we did when Boy Georgie got us into an illegal war? That kind of blind trust? And, gosh, why wouldn't we? Your credibility is already so high.

The New Hampshire Republican said that GOP alternatives, which they'll offer as amendments to Democrats' health legislation, "don't cost money."

He's right, you know. Amendments that are worthless don't cost anything.

The CBO score of the House bill suggested that the Republican bill, which in many ways mirrors the Senate GOP's amendments, would bring down the deficit and lower health costs, but still leave potentially tens of millions of Americans without health insurance.

Yep. Nothing says "believe in us" like pulling the rug out from under millions of Americans.

New GOP motto: Trust... but whatever you do, don't verify.

Jon Stewart: America's most trusted news anchor

By GottaLaff

From our pal Wolfe Tone, one of my faves:

Time Magazine has conducted an on-line poll to determine who, since the death of Walter Cronkite, now holds the title of America's Most Trusted News Anchor™.

Bizarrely, it's Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show. [...]

Stewart uses the news, and his interviews with news makers, as a foil for some pretty brilliant comedy.

As part of that comedy, he often presents his audience with what the "news" actually means. [...]

Perhaps Time Magazine included him in the poll as a tongue-in-cheek measure.

But maybe, just maybe, Jon Stewart was included because he keeps doing the job that many actual journalists should be doing.

Over and over again.

Allow me to add, he cuts through the usual b.s. in a highly engaging way. He has a knack for getting people to drop their guard while confronting them with unvarnished truth. And he zeroes in on what really matters to his viewers.

All that in only has 22 minutes. That is a feat in and of itself.

Finally, as an aside, what amazes me as a comedy writer and former TV performer is that he rarely has a bad writing or on-camera moment. That's pretty remarkable.

UPDATE, the link to the poll.

Poll: Obama earns nation's trust

There seems to be a theme in all these polls that the Republicans would be wise to acknowledge.

Three months into his presidency, Barack Obama stands out as perhaps the most trusted figure in American politics.

In a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO national survey of 1,000 registered voters, Obama outdistances figures on both the left and the right in earning the public’s trust, with two-thirds of respondents saying they trust the president “to identify the right solutions to the problems we face as a nation.”

Of those who said they trust the president, 31 percent said they trust him “a great deal.” An additional 35 percent said they have “some” trust that Obama will find the correct solution. Thirty-one percent said they trust Obama either “not very much” or “not at all.”

Voters were asked the same question of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Republican Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and the two major political parties. Among those choices, only the Democratic Party was trusted to find the right solutions by a majority of voters, 52 percent to 40 percent. Forty percent of those surveyed said they trusted the Republican Party, compared with 54 percent who did not trust the GOP.

Only 26 percent said they trust Pelosi, the lowest total in the group. Palin attracted the highest percentage of those who did not trust her at all to identify the right solutions, topping Pelosi 33 percent to 32 percent. Romney got a mixed reaction, with 38 percent of voters saying they trust him and 39 percent saying they don’t.

Poll: Big Majority Trusts Obama To Get It Right With Muslim World

I put this in the link post, but it deserves more attention. Via Greg-

Lots of folks this morning are writing about these astonishing new poll numbers released by The Washington Post that show a huge majority says it’s important to improve relations with the Muslim world.

No question — those are interesting numbers. But there’s also this, from the internals:

In trying to improve U.S. relations with Muslim nations, do you think Obama will (go too far), (not go far enough) or handle it about right?

Too far 22%

Not far enough 9%

About right 65%

No opinion 4%

So a big majority simply has faith that Obama will get the balance right as he repairs relations with the Muslim world.

One of the lesser-remarked-upon aspects of Obama’s Presidency is the surprising levels of innate trust people seem to have in Obama’s competence and judgment — they simply expect that he’s going to get it right.

I think this attests to the surprising durability of the Obama brand under the stresses of actual governing, which has done little to erode people’s basic trust in Obama’s competence and in the idea that he’s doing what he thinks is right for the country.

Makes this seem just about right.

Another Poll Shows: GOP Attacks On Obama Not Working

By GottaLaff

Via Oliver Willis:

The people in this country have been thirsty for real leadership. We have it now in Barack Obama.

By a two-to-one margin, Americans trust Mr. Obama more than congressional Republicans to get the nation out of its financial fix, and that’s even though they oppose his bailouts of banks and auto companies.

And that’s why the new GOP attempt to portray the Obama administration’s $1 trillion effort to buy bad bank loans and keep auto companies afloat for now as a “major power grab,” as Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee put it, isn’t likely to stick anytime soon.

Give it up, Rushpublics. As I tell my over-zealous comedy students, know when to quit.