Free Republic

According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the public has soured on Obama's health plan. Do you think the overhaul's a good idea?

WASHINGTON - For much of his first year in office, President Barack Obama has largely defied political gravity in the midst of skyrocketing unemployment, an ambitious legislative agenda and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His approval rating remained above 50 percent, a plurality viewed his party positively, and even the number believing the country was on the right track — despite the bad news — temporarily spiked during his first few months on the job. But now nearing the end of his first year in office, the economy, the wars and the legislative skirmishes finally have taken a toll on...

If ubiquity were the measure of a presidency, Barack Obama would already be grinning at us from Mount Rushmore...Despite his many words and television appearances, (he) remains more an emblem of change than an agent of it. He's a man with an endless, worthy to-do list, but, as yet, no boxes checked "done." This is a problem that style will not fix. Unless Obama learns to rely less on charm, rhetoric, and good intentions and more on picking his spots and winning in political combat, he's not going to be reelected, let alone enshrined in South Dakota. The president's problem...