Chad’s Morning Brief: Voters Say Obama Has Made the United States Weaker, Early Draft of Texas Republican Party Platform Takes Shape, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of June 5, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.
Important Election Dates:
KFYO District 3 Debate Between Jeff Griffith and Deanne Clark: June 11th at 9am on The Chad Hasty Show
Early Voting for the District 3 Runoff Election: June 9-17
Election Day for Lubbock City Council District 3 Runoff: June 21
Obama Has Made the U.S. Weak
According to a FOX News poll, voters believe that Obama has made America weaker.
By a decisive 20 percentage-point margin, Americans think the country is weaker under the leadership of President Obama, whose White House is seen as less competent than the previous two administrations.
These are just some of the findings from a new Fox News national poll.
Fifty-five percent of voters think the Obama administration has made America weaker. That includes 22 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents and 89 percent of Republicans.
Just over a third says the country is stronger under Obama (35 percent).
That’s a significant deterioration since 2010, immediately before the midterm elections, when voters said Obama had made America weaker by eight points (45-37 percent) (October 2010).
The new poll, released Wednesday, also finds that most voters -- 68 percent -- think the Obama administration is less competent than former President Bill Clinton’s administration. And a 48-percent plurality thinks it is less competent than former President George W. Bush’s.
It’s no surprise that most Democrats think Obama is more competent than Bush (76 percent) and that most Republicans think he’s less competent (81 percent). So what about independents? They say Obama is less competent than Bush by 47-34 percent. Another 14 percent say there’s no difference.
Majorities of Democrats (53 percent), independents (69 percent) and Republicans (84 percent) agree that Obama’s administration is less competent than Clinton’s.
Thirty-nine percent rate Obama’s leadership skills positively (excellent or good), while 61 percent rate him as only fair or poor. That’s unchanged from views in November 2013, and down slightly from 45-55 percent a year ago (May 2013).
More than three times as many voters rate Obama’s leadership skills as poor (35 percent) as say excellent (11 percent).
The president’s leadership ratings roughly match his overall job performance ratings, which also remain underwater: 40 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove. That’s near his record-low job rating of 38-54 percent in March 2014.
While his approval is down a bit from last month’s 44 percent, it’s mostly in line with the ratings he has received this year.
On foreign policy specifically, voters disapprove by 56-34 percent. Obama received a record-low 33 percent approval on foreign policy in March.
Thirty-nine percent of voters approve of Obama’s handling of health care, down from 43 percent last month. Some 58 percent disapprove.
Same story on the economy: a 58-percent majority disapproves of the job Obama is doing, while 39 percent approve. Last month, voters disapproved by 50-46 percent (May 2014).
The Clinton brand remains strong
Former Sec. of State and possible 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a new book coming out June 10. The poll finds that a majority of Americans like her: 54 percent have a favorable opinion, while 43 percent have an unfavorable view. That’s up from 49-45 percent in April.
Moreover, Clinton captures higher favorable ratings than New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- the top two Republicans in the 2016 GOP presidential primary race according to recent Fox News polling.
Christie stands at 33 percent favorable, 36 percent unfavorable, with another 31 percent unable to rate him.
For Bush, 33 percent view him positively, 39 percent negatively and 29 percent can’t rate him.
Clinton also does better among independents. Forty-seven percent have a favorable opinion of her, compared to 35 percent who feel that way about Christie and 31 percent about Bush.
And check out this gender gap: 60 percent of women have a favorable view of Clinton vs. 46 percent of men.
Yet Hillary’s husband gets top honors: overall 61 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of Bill Clinton vs. 34 percent unfavorable. No gender gap here: 61 percent of both men and women view him positively.
Both Mr. & Mrs. Clinton outperform the current president on this measure, as 45 percent of voters have a positive view of Obama, while just over half -- 52 percent -- have a negative one.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,006 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from June 1-3, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Texas GOP Platform
Immigration is shaping up to be one of the biggest debate topics at the Texas Republican Party convention. According to the Houston Chronicle, the language has changed but a guest worker program is still in the platform, for now.
The first blueprint of the Republican Party of Texas' 2014 platform contains a revamped immigration plank that emphasizes a beefed-up plan for border security and a proposes a visa program to allow undocumented immigrants to serve as guest workers, according to a copy obtained by the Houston Chronicle-San Antonio Express-News.
Delegates to the GOP state convention are girding for a big immigration fight as a faction of the party has been lobbying to gut guest worker language dubbed the "Texas Solution" that was inserted into the party platform two years ago.
Republican delegates meeting ahead of Thursday's start of the convention crafted the draft platform, which currently is being amended by a committee of 31 delegates. That process will not wrap up until late Thursday, and will tee up a review by another group of delegates before the platform eventually is OK'd for floor debate later this week.
The 2014 Texas Solution makes no explicit mention of a guest worker program, opting instead to "support replacement of the current employment visa system with an efficient, cost effective system that responds to labor shortages" and support of "the reallocation of immigration slots balanced to meet labor shortages." According to the draft platform, the revamped Texas Solution demands that "the Federal Government immediately secure the borders and bring safety and security for all Americans."
It also says Congress should develop and pay for a national border plan based on recommendations from Texas lawmakers. And it calls on Texas to develop and fund a "border and port of entry security plan utilizing state and local law enforcement."
The draft language also emphasizes that the spirit of the guest worker program opposes amnesty, and sets a variety of requirements such as background checks. With that, supporters of the Texas Solution are hoping to appease critics, who have portrayed the guest worker plan as weak on border security and equivalent to amnesty.
Some other highlights from the draft platform:
On homosexuality:
Delegates have stripped language from the party's plank on homosexuality that says, "we affirm that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God." However, delegates have inserted language that supports therapy or treatment to "escape from the homosexual lifestyle."
"We recognize the legitimacy and value of counseling which offers reparative therapy and treatment to patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle. No laws or executive orders shall be imposed to limit or restrict access to this type of therapy."
This change drew some ire during testimony Thursday morning, with at least one delegate imploring the committee to return to the platform language about homosexuality tearing at the fabric of society.
You can read more about some of the issues by clicking on the link above. One interesting area of discussion and debate was over medical marijuana. According to David Saleh Rauf, the platform committee moved forward with medical marijuana on a 15-14 vote.
Other Top Stories:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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