An interesting quote on bipartisanship from Barack Obama which appears on page 131 of his campaign best seller, The Audacity of Hope:

"Genuine bipartisanship, though, assumes an honest process of give-and-take, and that the quality of the compromise is measured by how well it serves some agreed-upon goal, whether better schools or lower deficits. This in turn assumes that the majority will be constrained - by an exacting press corps and ultimately an informed electorate - to negotiate in good faith. If these conditions do not hold - if nobody outside Washington is really paying attention to the substance of the bill, if the true costs of the tax cut are buried in phony accounting and understated by a trillion dollars or so - the majority party can begin every negotiation by asking for 100 percent of what it wants, go on to concede 10 percent, and then accuse any member of the minority party who fails to support this "compromise" of being "obstructionist."

Ahem. Yesterday President Obama rallied a group of hard core left wing bloggers to put pressure on Congress while tellling them he is open to ramming health care through the Senate using the nuclear option of reconciliation to avoid a filibuster.

Meanwhile, the President's Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff have both gone on record recently to redefine the term bipartisanship.  As John Dickerson wrote last week, the administration's argument is that "the traditional measure of bipartisanship—counting the number of Republicans voting on a bill sponsored by a Democrat or vice versa—is too limiting."

By his own definition, then, it seems President Obama is fallling well short of achieving the kind of "genuine bipartisanship" outlined by then Senator Obama.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) doesn't enjoy great numbers in the latest PPP poll, but they could be worse.

Thirty-eight percent think the first-term senator deserves to be re-elected, while 47% say it's time to give someone else a chance. Piling on, 44% approve of the job he's doing and 44% have a favorable opinion.

That looks less than encouraging, until you see his numbers against the competition: Vitter leads a generic Democrat 44%-38%, and potential opponent Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) 44%-32%.

"David Vitter's polling in the mid-40s is a very similar position to where Mary Landrieu was a couple years ago at this time," said PPP president Dean Debnam. "Republicans were never able to translate that into a serious challenge, so it will be interesting to see if Democrats are better able to capitalize on Vitter's vulnerability."

If you want a measure of just how quickly the political winds can shift, take a look at the new Quinnipiac University poll in Pennsylvania.

At the end of May, Democratic Governor Ed Rendell's job approval was at 54%, with 37% disapproving. As of today, his job ratings have essentially flipped, with 39% approving and 53% disapproving. That's a 31-point swing in eight weeks.

It's all the more notable because Rendell is a fixture in Pennsylvania; a Democrat who has been generally well liked and well regarded during his terms as Governor in a state that clearly favors his party.  To see such a dramatic shift in public opinion is yet another sign that public discontent with elected officials is growing.

Both Rasmussen and Public Policy Polling have put out surveys today testing President Obama's re-election numbers against potential Republican candidates.

Rasmussen (1,000 LVs, July 16-17, MoE +/- 3 percent) gives us three matchups: Obama vs. Mitt Romney and Obama vs. Sarah Palin, and a third, with Palin as an independent: Obama vs. Romney vs. Palin.

2012 General Election Matchups
Obama 45
Romney 45
Not Sure 3

Obama 48
Palin 42
Not Sure 3

Obama 44
Romney 33
Palin 16
Not Sure 4

Only 21 percent of voters said they think Palin should pursue an independent bid if she lost the Republican nomination, while 63 percent said no.

PPP (577 voters, July 15-16, MoE +/- 4.1 percent) tested Obama against Romney, Palin, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich.

2012 General Election Matchups
Obama 50 (-2 from April)
Gingrich 42 (+3)
Not Sure 9

Obama 48 (+1)
Huckabee 42 (unch)
Not Sure 10

Obama 51 (-2)
Palin 43 (+2)
Not Sure 6

Obama 49 (-1)
Romney 40 (+1)
Not Sure 11

PPP puts Obama's approval rating at 50 percent, its lowest number yet; 43 percent now disapprove.

The Republican National Committee is airing a TV ad in three states in opposition of President Obama's plan for public option health care. The ad, which begins airing today in Arkansas, Nevada and North Dakota, focuses on the cost of a health care bill still being formulated in Congress.

"They've loaned Barack Obama their future, without even knowing it," the announcer states, as a series of children are shown on screen. "His new experiment risks their future and our health."

RNC Chairman Michael Steele introduced the ad during a speech at the National Press Club this morning. "Once again President Obama and Congressional Democrats are rushing through a grand experiment that will have serious consequences for future generations of Americans," he said, per a press release. "It started with their failed stimulus bill and has now moved on to a trillion-dollar government-run health care plan that is simply wrong for America."

Bill Maxwell of the St. Petersburg Times tells the inspiringl story of Lalita Booth, a single mom who went from living on food stamps to winning a $50,000 a year Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship to pursue a doctorate at Harvard University. Maxwell recounts the moment Booth vowed to turn her life around:

"My son, Kieren, who was 2 years old, wandered into the living room in a little blue T-shirt and a diaper," she said. "I remember that I was nervous about the diaper being wet. We were almost out of diapers, and I didn't have money to buy any more. Kieren said, 'Mommy, I'm hungry. What do we have to eat?' Nothing was in the fridge. We didn't have anything to eat. I couldn't figure out how to explain it to him. I put him to bed hungry that night."

Booth went on to get her GED, studied and passed an exam to win a job at the Treasury Department, enrolled and excelled at a community college and at the University of Central Florida on a scholarship.

Booth boiled the moral of the story down this way:

Getting a college education, she said, was the only way to overcome the many obstacles she had faced. She wanted to succeed and make her son proud of her. She wanted to be his role model.

The desire and discipline to learn. Pride of accomplishment. Love of a child. All vital ingredients in this remarkable success story.

Speaking of gloomy assesments, this report in today's Las Vegas Sun must give Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid pause:

Numbers show Nevada is most ‘distressed' state
Service providers caught between growing need, shrinking revenue

By David McGrath Schwartz
Monday, July 20, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Carson City — Nevada's misery could be conveyed in thousands of individual stories — of layoffs, lost homes and vanishing customers.

In the aggregate, the toll of the region's economic turmoil can be measured in a series of staggering numbers.

Consider that 42 percent more state residents are on food stamps than a year ago and 30 percent more reached out to the county for housing vouchers and other social services over the past 12 months than a year earlier. Forty percent more Nevada children are on Medicaid than last year.

By summer 2011, an estimated 300,000 Nevadans — about 11 percent of the state's population — will be on food stamps and another 300,000 will qualify but never apply, according to the state Health and Human Services Department.

Of course, these stats should give all elected officials in Nevada - regardless of party - some serious heartburn. But as one of the highest profile leaders in the Democratic party and the man responsible for shepherding President Obama's agenda through the Senate, Reid could be especially vulnerable to a backlash at the polls if the economy remains in the doldrums through the middle of next year.

New ABC News/Washington Post poll (July 15-18, 1,001 Adults, MoE+/-3.0%) shows President Obama's approval rating dipping 6 points in the last month to 59%. While still a healthy number, the Post's Dan Balz and Jon Cohen provide a rather gloomy assessment of the poll's internals:

Heading into a critical period in the debate over health-care reform, public approval of President Obama's stewardship on the issue has dropped below the 50 percent threshold for the first time, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Obama's approval ratings on other front-burner issues, such as the economy and the federal budget deficit, have also slipped over the summer, as rising concern about spending and continuing worries about the economy combine to challenge his administration. Barely more than half approve of the way he is handling unemployment, which now tops 10 percent in 15 states and the District.

Overall, President Obama's approval rating in the RCP Average stands at 56.7%.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign's (R) approval ratings have declined dramatically since last month, when he revealed an extramarital affair he had with a former campaign staffer.

A new Mason-Dixon survey conducted for the Las Vegas Review-Journal finds 31% now approve of the job Ensign is doing in the Senate (July 14-15, 400 RV, MoE +/- 5%). That's an 8-point drop since the previous survey in mid-June, just days after Ensign made the announcement, and a 22-point drop since before the affair was made public.

Further information about the affair emerged this month, including that Ensign's parents gave $96,000 to the family of his former mistress.

"Ensign took about a 10-point hit with this latest round of revelations," Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker told the Review-Journal. "I think if another shoe drops, and he takes another 10 points' damage, that's probably the end of the line."

Still, 54% continue to say Ensign should not resign, while one-third (34%) now think he should -- including a quarter of Republicans. On the second-term senator's side is the fact that he does not come up for re-election until 2012 -- 45% think he should seek re-election, while 43% think he should not.

The unsurprising thing is that Rudy Giuliani continues to lead incumbent Governor David Patterson by over twenty points, 55%-33%, according to Rasmussen Reports.  Somewhat more surprising is that Giuliani trails Attorney General Andrew Cuomo by only 48%-41%.  It is widely suspected that Giuliani will get in the race if Patterson runs, but will not get in if Cuomo runs.  Of course, if his numbers continue to improve against Cuomo, that calculus could change.