Underwater

President Barack Obama has reached the first crossover point of his presidency, where his job approval numbers with the public are lower than his disapproval numbers. This is not exactly good news for Obama fans, especially heading into a midterm election.

For five months, Obama was holding his head above water, metaphorically, and charting extremely stable polling numbers where his approval was slightly above his disapproval. This trend has now ended, and a new trend is emerging -- downwards for the president. What's even more ominous is the fact that this trend seemed to accelerate dramatically at the end of July, meaning August may be even worse for Obama.

After taking a quick look at July's numbers, we're going to attempt to put this into some sort of historical perspective by taking a look back at where other presidents first reached this crossover point in their presidencies, without drawing any sweeping conclusions (other than: "don't attempt to draw sweeping conclusions"). If at any time, while reading the rest of this, you get too depressed to read further, I would suggest skipping down to the last historical section and at least giving that a chance.

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Republicans and conservatives (virtually indistinguishable, these days) have been better at creating a narrative for their political philosophy than Democrats and liberals (at least in my lifetime). They "tell a story" about their political beliefs, and it's a story anyone can relate to, mostly invoking words like "freedom" and "liberty" but also holding sacred "private property" and severely frowning on "big government" which is perennially "on the backs" of the little guy. See, I don't even have to tell their whole story, just a few quick references, and the story pops into your mind in completion. You already know how the rest of this story goes, in other words.

But this is not an article decrying the Democrats' seeming inability to match Republican rhetoric in the public mind, as that's what we do around here on Fridays. Ahem.

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President Obama gave a speech to veterans today on the progress of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. The speech also addressed the situation in Afghanistan, as well as some more specific veterans' issues; such as Obama's poignant personal plea for soldiers not to hesitate to ask for help with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

So today, I want to say in very personal terms to anyone who is struggling -- don't suffer in silence. It's not a sign of weakness to reach out for support -- it's a sign of strength. Your country needs you. We are here for you. We are here to help you stand tall. Don't give up. Reach out.

But in all the media reports I've seen yet on the Iraq withdrawal part of the speech (considered by the media to be the most newsworthy part), very little attention is being paid to how exactly we got where we are today -- President Obama announcing he's meeting an important milestone on the timetable for American military withdrawal from Iraq. So I thought it'd be worth a look back at what preceded today's speech. Because, as I said, the mainstream media so far have fallen down on the job of providing any sort of context or perspective (or, even, "a timeline") to Obama's Iraq withdrawal whatsoever -- or, even worse than omitting things, getting them factually wrong.

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Last week, this column took a week off, due to an extended trip into the desert for the Netroots Nation convention. But now, we turn our sights back on the Nation's Capitol region once again to examine what's been going on there in our absence.

Whoops! Looks like the first thing that's been going on is that the region now has a new nickname -- the "DMV" -- amongst the hipster set (note: I fully understand that that use of "hipster" automatically disqualifies me from judging what is cool and what is not among today's youth). This moniker comes from the hip-hop music scene, and it stands for "District (of Columbia), Maryland, and Virginia."

But is this wise, one wonders? The question that immediately springs to mind is how can anything called the "DMV" be considered remotely cool? For those of you in states with differently-labeled government offices (such as a Motor Vehicles Administration, for instance), allow me to explain. In many states, this acronym stands for the not-so-beloved Department of Motor Vehicles. You know -- the government office we all love to hate more than any other, with the possible exception of the Internal Revenue Service.

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So I have arrived back home from the big Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas. Since it was the first one I've been to, I thought I'd share some random impressions. Now, I know this sort of thing doesn't appeal to everyone (which is why I didn't even attempt to "liveblog" the conference), because quite frankly if you weren't there then you probably don't want to hear about it. For those readers, I apologize, and swear we'll be right back to normal columns here starting tomorrow. This is also why I posted a column very late yesterday as well, to give you something else to read, just in case this sort of thing bores you.

In any case, these musings are mostly random and presented in no particular order whatsoever. This may be a little confusing.

Which is a good place to start. This wasn't just the first Netroots Nation I've attended, but the first convention of any type. So the entire thing was a new experience, and admittedly somewhat confusing in nature.

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Crack cocaine, it is widely known, causes irrational behavior. I speak not of irrational behavior among the drug's users, but rather among politicians. It has done so ever since crack appeared on the scene in America during the 1980s. Today it was announced that Congress has approved a bill (which will now head for President Obama's desk) which will scale back the worst of the irrational legislation which passed in the Reagan era. Somewhat. In true incrementalist fashion, Democrats have now made things slightly less unfair, but fell far short of actual fairness. It's as if, right after the Civil War, Congress announced that black people would now count as four-fifths of a person, instead of the previous three-fifths -- in other words, a step towards equality, but not exactly the giant leap of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. Which makes it rather hard to praise such an effort, even though it does represent (some) progress.

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We are back at home base, as is the car... to which I can only respond: "don't ask."

I apologize for the interruption in our normal column service, and promise everyone that a Wednesday column will appear at least pretty close to normal posting time.

I just drove 500+ miles, and for the first time in a whole week, the temperature dropped below 95 degrees. In other words, we're glad to be home! The temperature when we arrived home was 55 degrees, which is exactly half of the average of what we experienced for the time we were gone (the top record was 115 degrees, the day the car broke down...).

Anyway, just wanted everyone to know that the car repair nightmare is over, things are back to normal, and to offer my apologies, once again, for the interruption in our normal service here.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

[Program Note: Sorry, no Friday Talking Points column today. The good news is that this will be our final "encore presentation" of an old column, and new columns will begin again on Monday. This column ran approximately a year ago, and was rather prophetic, since a report just out by the folks at RAND -- not exactly a bunch of hippies, in other words -- confirms exactly what I predicted here. The report said that the price of marijuana would drop (if legalized) from $375 to $38 per ounce -- the exact ten-to-one ratio I predicted last year. So it's good to be confirmed in such a fashion, I have to say. Of the two proposals discussed in this column, the first (the one with the 25 square foot limit) is the one which will go before California's voters in November as Proposition 19.]

California voters may soon get a chance to weigh in on whether marijuana should be legalized and taxed by the state. If enacted, this may help the state's budget by providing revenue from a brand new source, while also freeing up money that previously went to enforcement efforts against marijuana growing. Of course, marijuana would still be illegal under federal law, but this may be a turning point in the legalization movement -- the point where politicians desperate for tax revenues see dollar signs instead of prison bars when looking at the cannabis plant.

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Another dispatch from our resident cartoonist, C.W. Cunningham. And you thought there would be nothing here but a reprint of an old column today... surprise!

About the Cartoonist | Reprint Policy

[Program Note: We will be running repeats of a few past columns this week (except tomorrow, tune in...). New columns will return next Monday. The following column ran one year ago today. For all the forgotten geeks of the world, I thought it was worth running once again.]

Quick -- who was Michael Collins?

No, not the Irish patriot who had a movie named for him, but the American Michael Collins. Don't recognize his name? Even today, after watching yesterday's news?

You're not alone. Very few people remember the name Michael Collins. And yet, without him, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin wouldn't have been able to take those giant leaps for mankind down on the surface of the moon. Because Michael Collins was the guy who had to stay aboard Columbia, the "mother ship" of Apollo 11, which orbited the moon while the Lunar Entry Module (LEM) Eagle descended to the lunar surface.

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