run christie, run!

USA Today: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s approval ratings have dropped to a new low, driven by negative views from women.

A new poll by Quinnipiac University shows 47% of New Jersey voters do not approve of the job being done by Christie, whose handling of the state’s budget problems and dealings with public unions have caused Republicans to urge him to run for president. That’s one percentage point higher than April, the governor’s previous low.

On the flip side, 44% say they approve of the way Christie has done his job. A former federal prosecutor, Christie was elected in 2009.

Christie has ruled out running for president next year, saying he’s “100% certain” he won’t seek the White House. But what about the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket? A strong majority of New Jersey voters don’t see that happening for their outspoken governor: 61% say he would not make a good vice president.

As for the way he’s doing his job, the Quinnipiac Poll finds a big gender gap: Only 36% of women give high marks to the governor, compared with 53% of men. Maurice Carroll, director of the polling institute at Quinnipiac, believes Christie’s problem lies in his policies on education. The governor cut $820 million in state aid for education last year and has squabbled with the teachers’ unions over tenure.

sweet!

Gallup

*** The last time the President’s disapproval rating was as low as 39% with Gallup was …..  November 15, 2009 ***

Even GOP Rasmussen have the President at 49 😉

Meanwhile, here’s the latest from Pew:

 

Also from the Pew poll – “Independents’ assessments of Obama’s performance spiked from 42% to 52% approval on news of Osama’s death, and remain at 49% in the current survey. The current survey also finds that just 37% of independents disapprove of Obama’s job performance, the lowest since the fall of 2009.”

an inconvenient truth…

Really?

Politicususa: Beneath all of the Republican and Tea Party grumbling about taxes, one key fact continues to be ignored:

According to the Tax Policy Center, Federal taxes are lower than at any time since 1955. Obama has now reduced taxes by more than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.

According to the Orange County Register, “For the past two years, a family of four earning the median income has paid less in federal income taxes than at any time since at least 1955, according to the Tax Policy Center. All federal, state and local taxes combined are a lower percentage of per-capita income than at any time since the 1960s, according to the Tax Foundation. The highest income-tax bracket is its lowest since 1992. At 35 percent, it’s well below the 50 percent mark of much of the 1980s and the 70 percent bracket of the 1970s.”

The problem is that the tax cuts have not promoted economic growth and have caused the federal deficit to explode … The answer to America’s revenue shortfall is to raise taxes. The US revenue gap could be closed immediately with a tax increase, but Republicans and tea partiers go insane as soon as the prospect is mentioned…The Tea Party set believes to their core that they are being overtaxed, but reality doesn’t match their perception.

In fact, most Americans have no idea that Barack Obama has lowered taxes. According to a 2010 CBS News/New York Times Poll, only 12% of Americans knew that Obama has lowered taxes. 53% thought that he kept taxes the same, and 24% believed that Obama has raised taxes. Not surprisingly, only 2% of Tea Party supporters knew that Obama had lowered taxes. 44% of them thought that the President has raised their taxes.

The right believes this because they got the idea from Fox News and talk radio…..While the Tea Party takes to the streets to keep tax rates low for billionaires, Barack Obama has lowered their taxes to historically low levels.

The bottom line is that beneath all the GOP spin the fact remains. Barack Obama, not Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, is the greatest tax cutter in American history.

Full article here

‘the lowest level in nearly three years’

Graphic from Time

Marketwatch: New applications for U.S. jobless benefits fell by 20,000 to 368,000 in the week of Feb. 26, the lowest level in nearly three years, the Labor Department reported Thursday.The last time claims were that low was in May 2008.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected first-time jobless claims to rise to a seasonally adjusted 398,000 from last week’s revised level of 388,000.

….The four-week average is considered a more accurate gauge of employment trends because it lessens week-to-week volatility in the data. The decline in claims, which have fallen 27% since last August, appears to be consistent with a modest pace or hiring and fewer layoffs.

Continuing claims, meanwhile, declined by 59,000 to 3.77 million in the week of Feb. 19. About 9.24 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week of Feb. 12, up 74,000 from the week before.

Chart from here

Washington Post: Stocks jumped Thursday after a government report showed that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits dropped unexpectedly last week. Retailers also reported solid February sales.

The Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 368,000. That’s the lowest level for claims since May 2008. Economists had expected them to rise.