New poll from AP/GfK shows (Sept 3-8) a pretty serious decline in President Obama's job approval rating versus their last survey from July 16-20. In the current survey 50% approve of the job Obama is doing as President and 49% disapprove.  Six weeks ago those numbers were 55% and 42%, respectively.

Overall, Obama's job approval rating in the RCP Average is now at 52.4%.

Obama's approval rating on handling specific issues breaks down as follows:

Economy: 44% approve (-6), 52% disapprove (+6)
Iraq: 47% approve (-9), 41% disapprove (+9)
Health Care: 42% approve (-8), 52% disapprove (+9)
Terrorism: 44% approve (-8), 42% disapprove (+5)
Environment: 51% approve (-5), 35% disapprove (+4)
Federal Budget Deficit: 33% approve (-6), 56% disapprove (+5)
Energy: 50% approve (-5), 37% disapprove (+3)
Taxes: 38% approve (-8), 50% disapprove (+6)
Immigration: 34% approve (-5), 46% disapprove (+5)
Afghanistan: 46% approve (-9), 40% disapprove (+8)

Congress's job rating is also down noticeably with approval dropping from 32% to 28% from July to today while its disapproval rating has risen from 63% to 69% over the same period.

But the biggest number of all from the survey, given the President's impending speech tonight and the Democrasts efforts to get something passed in both houses of Congress, is this:

In general, do you support, oppose or neither support nor oppose the health care reform plans being discussed in Congress?

Support 34%
Oppose 49%

In fact, more people said they "strongly oppose" the plans in Congress (36%) than the total number that support what they're doing on health care at the moment.

It's hard to figure how many Republicans in the House and Senate the president will be able to reach tonight as he delivers the second address to Congress of his still young presidential term. Many, including the minority leaders of the House and Senate, are simply against a comprehensive health care reform bill -- with or without a public option.

"What I hope I won't hear tonight is that we have to do a massive, comprehensive bill or nothing," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking at a joint press conference this afternoon with House Minority Leader John Boehner. "That strikes us as not the way to move forward."

Boehner is hoping the president says he wants to start over on a reform bill, something few expect the president to say. The American people, Boehner said, simply "want the current system to work better; they don't want to replace it with a big, government-run plan."

Neither side of the aisle feels there's been much bipartisan cooperation on the issue of health care reform, though McConnell outlined certain fundamentals of reform Republicans would be open to working with Democrats on: strengthen the care and insurance people have, making insurance more accessible to the uninsured and lower costs for all. "Those are the kinds of principles around which we could rally, I think, a broad bipartisan agreement," McConnell said.

McConnell wants Congress to "skinny" the bill down and target issues such as "junk lawsuits" and insurance reform -- passing smaller, more focused bills.

"We're all interested in what he has to say," said Boehner. "But I hope he's been listening to the American people, because I think over the course of August they've made their voices loud and clear that they don't want this massive government takeover of our health care system. But it appears the president is going to double down tonight, and try to put lipstick on this pig and call it something else."

Sheryle Gay Stolberg leads her NY Times' analysis today:

The conventional wisdom, here and around the country, is that the centerpiece of President Obama's domestic agenda — remaking the health care system to cut costs and cover the uninsured — is on life support and that only a political miracle could revive it.

Stolberg proceeds to explain why the conventional wisdom is wrong.

I'm wondering if she has the conventional wisdom correct. From my reporting, my read of the status of health care reform in Congress, my take on the political stakes of the influential political players, I believe the conventional wisdom is still that Obama will pass some measure of health care reform. And as much as I despise echoing conventional wisdom, I agree. One reason, top Democratic strategists believe the cost of inaction is too much. History says they're right. Most recently, think George W. Bush on social security reform and Bill Clinton on health care.

Despite the turning tide, Obama remains unlikely to suffer Clinton's fate (on this issue). But in months, not years, we'll see.

In a memo to Republican House Members and candidates, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions says "the month of August could not have gone any worse for Democrats." The message exudes a feeling of confidence heading into the final three months of the year -- opposite of where the GOP was in November 2008.

"Democrats are off message, out of touch, and out of control," Sesions writes in the memo, titled "Endless Summer."

Here is an excerpt from the opening of the memo:

Democrats lost the month of August and, with it, public opinion. What began as a month in which Speaker Pelosi was giving marching orders to her caucus to go “on offense” resulted in attacks on concerned Americans, party infighting, a growing casualty list of vulnerable members in her own caucus, and a precipitous drop in the approval ratings of Democrats and their government-run healthcare plan that appears to be on political life-support.

After witnessing the growing opposition to their proposals, Speaker Pelosi and Congressional Democrats now think that they can retreat to the comforts of Washington and ignore the complaints of concerned citizens who let their voices be heard over the past month.

It is our responsibility, and the responsibility of Republican candidates throughout the country, to make sure those voices are not drowned out by the desperate actions of a Democrat Party that is clearly on the ropes.

It's clear that voters are decidedly against a government takeover of the health insurance industry. They are interested in a step-by-step approach and common sense reforms. If Democrats are incapable of real reform, voters would be better served if Congress moved away from its grandiose plans of a massive government power grab by shifting gears and focusing on repairing the nation's still ailing economy.

The memo was first reported on by The Hill.

Barack Obama's health care address tonight may lift his numbers, temporarily.

Bill Clinton's health care speech to Congress on Sept. 22, 1993, boosted his public approval rating from 46 to 56 percent, by the Gallup Poll's measure. But soon after, Clinton's rating was again on the decline.

A Washington Post-ABC News Poll taken immediately after Clinton's speech found that 56 percent of Americans approved of Clinton's health care plan, a 13-point rise since the previous poll. But in a trend also tracked in CBS News polling, the uptick soon turned downward--56 fell to 51 in October; 51 fell to 46 by November. The issue languished into oblivion thereafter.

Obama's challenge tonight will be to resurrect not only Clinton's promise but also his surge in support. And this time, sustain it long enough to see a bill to law.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is back with another Facebook note, where she claims victory in her previous talk of so-called "death panels" as part of President Obama's health care bill.

"Despite repeated attempts by many in the media to dismiss this phrase as a 'myth', its accuracy has been vindicated," Palin writes in a letter to a New York state senator, which she posted on the social networking site.

More from Palin:

In the face of a nationwide public outcry, the Senate Finance Committee agreed to 'drop end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly.' Jim Towey, the former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, then called attention to what's already occurring at the Department of Veteran's Affairs, where “government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care.” Even Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, a strong supporter of President Obama, agreed that “if the government says it has to control health care costs and then offers to pay doctors to give advice about hospice care, citizens are not delusional to conclude that the goal is to reduce end-of-life spending.” And of course President Obama has not backed away from his support for the creation of an unelected, largely unaccountable Independent Medicare Advisory Council to help control Medicare costs; he had previously suggested that such a group should guide decisions regarding “that huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives….”

You can read the full note here.

Right after President Obama's election, some folks on the left went out of their way to debunk the idea that America was entering some new post-racial phase.  Now we know why. It seems almost everything that happens nowadays is, according to some, directly attributable to racism.

Opposition to the stimulus, to TARP, to the GM take over, and to cap and trade was apparently all based on racist opposition to Obama. Reverend Jeremiah Wright reappeared this week to helpfully remind us that opposition to health care is the product of the "racist right wing" upset that "poor people will be helped."

Tea Parties? Racism. Angry town halls? Racism.

According to a certain portion of the left, there is no loyal opposition these days, just racism lurking behind each and every criticism of our new president.

And now we've come to Van Jones.  This is a man whose public record, background and professed ideology makes Nancy Pelosi look like Barry Goldwater. He's also a man who escaped any public scrutiny whatsoever in becoming an adviser to the President of the United States.

Yet bringing to light some of the more remarkable and unsavory parts of his record is....., well, take it away Mary Mitchell:

The Beck attack is the same strategy that right-wing conservative radio and TV hosts used during the Obama campaign.

After finding video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright using harsh language to describe race relations in this country, the hosts at Fox News had a field day.

Jones is being sacrificed in the same way the Rev. Wright was sacrificed.

Ironically, Beck, who had the gall to call the president of the United States a racist, is using the race card to alarm whites. [snip]

Although the Obama administration has bent over backward trying to gain the acceptance of distrustful whites, so far it isn't happening.

Beck and people like him can't seem to accept that John McCain lost the election and a black man and the people of his choosing are running the country.

Given the critical battle under way over health care, Jones did the right thing.

But let's stop pretending that the fierce opposition from the right isn't racism.

It is.

For the record, Reverend Wright wasn't "sacrificed" by Obama - indeed he initially stood by Wright in his famous "race speech" in Philadelphia- until the Reverend showed up at the National Press Club in Washington DC and put on such an embarrassing performance that Obama had no choice but to chuck him under the bus.

But back to Jones.  Forget the assholes comment. Forget the radical environmentalism, "racial justice frames," and accusations of white polluters poisoning black neighborhoods.  Forget the support of cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Jones's signature on a petition that endorsing an investigation based on the notion that President Bush and others had advance knowledge of (and were therefore complicit in) the attacks of 9/11 disqualifies him from serving in the capacity as an adviser to the President. More to the point: it has nothing whatsoever to do with the color of his skin.

Mitchell dismisses the Truther petition as "meaningless" and waves away Jones' endorsement of its views with this jaw dropping excuse:

As ridiculous as that might sound, a lot of black people distrusted Bush to the point that they thought anything was possible.

Well, that explains it. Clearly, because Jones is black and Bush was President, Jones should be absolved of taking responsibility for endorsing one of the most outrageous and obscene conspiracy theories on the planet.

With the kind of logic Mitchell employs, it's no wonder we aren't now - and probably will never be - in a "post-racial" America.

UPDATE: Another perfect example of "crying racism" by the left comes - not surprisingly - from of this segment last night with Keith Olbermann and Chris Hayes of The Nation.  Olbermann introduces the segment with a quote alleging Van Jones was targeted because he has "the same attributes as Obama," before serving up the first question to his guest:

Olbermann: The line of racist attacks against the president - sometimes poorly disguised as birthers or deathers or whatever - is that what's in play here principally?

Hayes: First of all, one can never read the mind of Glenn Beck, nor would one want to...so, I don't know, it seems absolutely the case that race is playing a major factor - in fact of the 3 names that were tweeted today, I wonder which one he'll go after the hardest. But, no, the fact of the matter is that clearly, unambiguously, race is playing a big factor in this - and you need to look no further than Beck's own program where he's standing there and he's got Jeremiah Wright footage on one side of the screen and Van Jones footage on the other side of the screen and he's sort of mugging for the camera like, 'oh, look, another angry black guy." (emphasis added)

Appearing with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at the White House after a meeting with President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had this to say regarding the inclusion of a public health insurance option in a reform bill, per our White House reporter Mike Memoli: "I believe that the public option will be essential to our passing a bill in the House of Representatives."

The message was certainly different, if not opposite, of the one given this morning by House Democrats' No. 2, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. He said a reform bill that did not include the public option could still be "very good" and that he would support it, though his preference would be to include the option -- which he called "an alternative that people ought to have."

"If the public option weren't in there, I still could support a bill because I think there is a lot in there that is good," he said.

Hoyer discussed the August break, saying that during his nearly three decades in Congress he hasn't seen a time when "more people have gotten more engaged in an issue than this one."

"Some 82 percent of the American public believes that changes are required," said Hoyer. "There is not a consensus, as you've seen, on exactly what those changes should be. But there is no doubt that there is consensus among the American people that change is needed."

At an off-camera briefing with reporters this afternoon, Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Ways and Means ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said employers in this economic climate would dump their employees from their health insurance rolls if a public option were available. "The government competes with the private sector the way an alligator competes with a duck," Pence said.

They said Obama and congressional Democrats should listen to the American people, who "don't want a government-run health care plan."

Obama will speak to a joint session of Congress tomorrow night, and both Republicans said they were open to hearing what the president has to say. But, Pence said, Americans "don't want another health care speech, they want another health care plan."

The Creigh Deeds campaign launched a new TV ad in expensive Northern Virginia today that focuses on education. The positive ad offers a reprieve from a recent onslaught of ads tying Bob McDonnell to George W. Bush and discussing the GOP candidate's conservative record.

"My mom sent me off to college with just four 20-dollar bills," Deeds says in the ad. "So I know that education is the best investment Virginia can make for our children and in our future."

The ad comes on the same day President Obama gave a televised speech to students across the country. Obama delivered his remarks from Wakefield High School, located in Northern Virginia.

Here is "September":

One of the most conservative candidates for Senate this year released a statement of praise regarding the speech President Obama delivered to school children across the nation today. The White House felt a ton of heat last week from conservatives due to both the speech and follow-up materials distributed to school systems by the Department of Education.

Pat Toomey, a former Republican congressman and former head of Club for Growth, is challenging Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) for the second election in a row. He said today that Obama's message is "exactly" what kids in this country should be hearing.

"Education is the cornerstone of our country's future and it is important that we relay that message to our young students. The President's emphasis on responsibility and the personal stories about his own education are exactly the kind of inspiring messages our children need to hear from our country's leaders.

"I know that I would not have had the opportunities I have today if not for the education I received as a young student. My parents and my teachers instilled in me the importance of hard work and education, and it is a message I try to instill in my own children. It is important that we make sure all students are similarly inspired."