Given that there is still over a year until the election, which is plenty of time for opinions to change, probably the bigger worry for the Obama administration is that this pessimism could become self-fulfilling.

When simply asked whether they wanted Medicare to remain a defined benefits plan or see it changed into a voucher system to buy private insurance, a full 65 percent of Americans said they were opposed to this change, while only 34 percent supported it. After the poll explained that the cost of private insurance would likely rise faster than the value of the vouchers, causing seniors to pay more for insurance (as the CBO says would happen under the House Republican budget), the total opposed jumped to 84 percent.

Every liberal that was momentarily cheered up by Obama’s deficit speech should have known better, known that by ceding so much rhetorical and policy ground to conservatives, his speech was going to produce this result.

Overwhelmingly, the American people think the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting, and 73 percent of the country wants us to withdraw substantial numbers of troops soon. Yet a majority of Americans, 53 percent, doubt President Obama and Congress will listen to the electorate about the war.

In an interview with ABC News, General David Petraeus allowed ABC to spin their Afghanistan poll to put US efforts there in the best possible light, which made it possible for him to then come on camera and appear to be conservative with regard to whether an eventual “victory” can be declared. However, what we don’t hear in ABC’s framing or in Petraeus putting on his “aw, shucks” performance is that the poll also found that “Nationwide, more than half of Afghans interviewed said U.S. and NATO forces should begin to leave the country in mid-2011 or earlier.” Instead, we get only information that is slanted to give the best possible lighting for “progress” and a need to stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to give the government a chance to take over. In addition to Petraeus’ efforts to spin Afghanistan prior to the upcoming “review”, we find that the whole process is a sham and that the Obama administration is already sharing with the New York Times what the outcome of the “review” will be. Surprise, surprise, we are going to learn that progress has been made and that we need to continue fighting.

Lost in all of the post-election analysis and hoo-hah is the inspiring tale of the death of Andrew Breitbart’s 1st Amendment rights, when ABC totally cock-blocked his opinions, and how this affront to freedom and our fighting men and women has inspired the unpaid drones at his Big Stupid Journalism/Government/Chalupa/Racist sites to be even more citizen journalisty than ever before.

This is part of a larger question in the progressive community over whether to share stages with the likes of Breitbart, or whether to appear on Fox News, or what have you. Some argue that they should not allow the lies of a Brietbart or a Fox to go unchecked, and that progressive voices have to be heard in those venues. Others think that no progressive should de facto legitimize a Breitbart or a Fox News. This was the argument behind the ultimately successful boycott by Democratic candidates of a 2008 Fox News Presidential primary debate.

I think the debate gets a little too intense sometimes, but in this case, with ABC dealing with their own self-inflicted drowning, I would see no reason to hand them a lifeline and a way out of it. Let them have their little Breitbart show, and I will enjoy checking the ratings the day afterwards.

Voters have every reason to despise their current members of Congress. We have nearly 10 percent unemployment, no economic turnaround in sight, an overwhelming feeling that Washington is filled with corruption to benefit Wall Street at the expense of regular people, and a Senate stuck in endless gridlock, incapable of passing simple laws to help people.

It was not Ben Nelson who killed the nomination of Dawn Johnsen, nor was it Arlen Specter or Senate Republicans. No, the sole reason Dawn Johnsen is not leading the OLC is that Barack Obama and his coterie of advisors did not want Dawn Johnsen leading the OLC.