A senior administration official says President Barack Obama is prepared to accept some Taliban involvement in Afghanistan's political future and is inclined to send only as many more U.S. troops to Afghanistan as are needed to keep al-Qaida at bay.

The assessment comes from an official who has been involved in the president's discussions with his war council about Afghanistan strategy. The official was authorized to speak to The Associated Press about the discussions but not to be identified by name because the talks are ongoing

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9B72B480&show_article=1

So, it looks like the Obama administration is hoping to work WITH the Taliban against Al Qaeda..

Yea.. Let me know how THAT works out... :^/

It must be that "HOPE" thang that is influencing THAT moronic decision.

Michale.....

I cannot believe that while our fighting forces get chewed up one side and down the other in theater, Obama is holding a couple of meetings to discuss the issue..

Discuss the issue AFTER we get the men in theater to at least keep our people alive..

Michale.....

I actually do consider myself pretty fair on how I read the polls -- with a heavily jaundiced eye. I even get my numbers for this column from RCP, which is a fairly right-leaning web site (go to their home page and take a look at the articles they feature -- some left, some center, and a whole lot of right). But I like their methodology for their daily poll aggregate, so I went with their numbers -- I figured it would be a check on me getting irrationally exuberant.

-CW

Which explains my inherent distaste of polls in general. You are very fair about it, taking a bunch of polls into account.

The intellectually dishonest (such as I was in the previous post :D) will cherry pick the polls that support their argument and ignore the others that don't..

Michale....

Meant to say, as well -- you weren't in error in your comment. Monthly, the numbers are still getting worse for Obama. You're also right about the undecideds, on a monthly basis.

But for the first time, the trend at the beginning of a new month is such that Obama could turn even the monthly numbers around in October. We'll see, next month...

-CW

This is the problem with any one poll or any one polling organization, which is why I prefer the "poll of polls" concept. I could just as easily point you to the new AP/GfK poll, where Obama is up 6 points from last month.

My money for next month would be on "fairly flat, ever-so-slightly upward." And then a big spike (5-10 points) if/when HCR is signed into law, in the next three months.

-CW

I knew it had to me my error... :D

But then again, there is the Gallup Poll, that shows Obama's approval rating at 50% and his disapproval rating at 43%..

If one puts any stock in polls.. :D

Michale.....

In the quote, I was talking about his daily numbers. See the following paragraph to explain what I was referring to:

This was even more noticeable in his disapproval rate. Obama started the month at 43.8 percent, which fluctuated a bit and then hit a high of 44.0 percent on the 13th of September. Since this point, the numbers fell a whopping 3.5 points to close the month at a low of 40.5 percent. Once again, this is the first time this has happened since April. But although Obama's disapproval may have already peaked for now, such subtle movements don't show up in the monthly numbers for a while, so his monthly data point (being an average) is still up for this month. Both of these trends can be seen in more detail at the daily poll-of-polls graph over at RealClearPolitics, where we get our data from.

And click the link in that paragraph above to see a chart of what I'm talking about. The chart shows the mid-month highpoint and the dropoff.

-CW

Better news for Obama fans is the fact that his disapproval numbers did actually reverse course, after hitting a mid-month peak, and have settled downwards from that point on.

CW, maybe I am missing something here, but according to your chart and your numbers, Obama's disapproval number haven't reversed course. They are still moving higher...

09/09 - 42.0
08/09 - 40.8
07/09 - 38.1
06/09 - 33.6
05/09 - 31.6
04/09 - 30.8
03/09 - 29.9
02/09 - 24.4
01/09 - 19.6

As you can see by your numbers, Obama's DISAPPROVAL numbers have steadily climbed from a low of 19.6 to a current high of 42.0...

I think what you may be referring to are Obama's UNDECIDED numbers..

That HAS plateaued last month and actually gone down this month..

But all that says is that there are MORE people who WERE undecided about Obama but now are disapproving of Obama...

Michale......

CW,

I think you are overestimating Obama's chances of having his poll numbers rise..

All partisanship aside, can you think of ANYTHING that Obama has going for him that could be considered in the PLUS column??

I mean, look at things.

Iran is thumbing it's nose at the US...

North Korea has all but given the US the finger...

The military is holding press conferences, speaking directly to the public...

Afghanistan is becoming a political football that Obama will likely punt...

DunselCare is sinking in the polls...

Obama was totally humiliated by Daley over the Olympics fiasco...

Another CZAR is soon to bite the dust...

ACORN is showing not 1 but FIVE Million dollars was embezzled by ACORN officials...

and on and on and on....

Honestly and truly without any bias whatsoever, I cannot think of ANYTHING that anyone can point to that could actually be a PLUS for Obama that would cause his poll numbers to rise.

Can you??

Michale.....

Then why are Pelosi and Reid fighting legislation that will do just that???

Congressional leaders fight against posting bills online
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
October 6, 2009

While most Americans normally ignore parliamentary detail, with health care looming, voters are suddenly paying attention. The Senate is expected to vote on a health bill in the weeks to come, representing months of work and stretching to hundreds of pages. And as of now, there is no assurance that members of the public, or even the senators themselves, will be given the chance to read the legislation before a vote.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Congressional-leaders-fight-against-posting-bills-online-8340658-63557217.html

DunselCare will fail and nothing will make it to Obama's desk. Odds are now at 75/25..

At the VERY least, some limp-noodled legislation will make it thru Congress to Obama's desk. It will have no Public Option and will be so watered down that it won't be acceptable to anyone for anything except the Administration to say, "See!? We did SOMETHING!!". Odds are now at 60/40

We will see this reflected in the poll numbers starting next month. Within a few months (5-6 at the outside) Obama will be polling lower than Bush.

This, of course, assumes CW's same caveat that there isn't an external event of sufficient magnitude to push Obama's poll numbers higher (or lower)..

Speaking of such an event....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz86TsGx3fc

WOW :D

Michale....

...Stan