President Barack Obama still has support from the majority of American people despite growing pessimism about the direction of the country.

From Yahoo.com News

Obama’s approval rating stands at 54 percent, roughly the same as in October but very different from the enthusiastic 74 percent in January just before he took office. And some 56 percent of people say the country is heading in the wrong direction, an uptick from 51 percent last month and 49 percent in Obama’s first month as president.

The economy is by far the most important issue on Americans’ minds. Unemployment hit 10.2 percent last month even though the administration has promoted glimmers of improvement and many economists say the recession is over.

Those jobless figures help explain why as many people said the economy got worse in the past month as said it got better — and it’s not many people who thought it got better, just 22 percent. Most say the economy stayed the same, and just 46 percent approve of how Obama is handling the economy, compared with 50 percent last month.

“He did good on getting Wall Street up and running. But I’m not going,” said independent Jay Huffaker, 33, of Knoxville, Tenn., a construction worker who has been unemployed for a year and a half. The country is in terrible shape, he said, adding, “It seems like it’s getting worse and worse and worse and worse.”

The nation also has grown more lukewarm on Obama and the wars as he tries to wind down the one in Iraq and considers ramping up the one in Afghanistan.

Compared with October, 45 percent of people now disapprove of Obama’s handling of Iraq, up from 37 percent; while 48 percent now disapprove of his handling of Afghanistan, up from 41 percent. A majority of Americans oppose both wars. And more than half — 54 percent — now oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, an increase from 50 percent last month.

“We either need to do something to win the wars, or just come home,” said Republican Heather Johannessen, a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, who thinks the U.S. is in a holding pattern in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The longest-serving African-American elected official in Congress said the President cannot play nice with the the Senate to get health care legislation passed.

From the Associated Press

“The president could take a few pages from Lyndon Johnson’s book…and start knocking heads together,” said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Conyers, who spoke to reporters in Detroit, first came to Congress in 1965, the year Medicare and the Voting Rights Act both passed under the strong hand of Johnson, by then the president. Obama was not yet 4 years old.

The House passed the sweeping health care legislation late Saturday on a narrow 220-215 vote. By Sunday, the bill was being declared a nonstarter in the Senate.

A government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the there. These senators are locked in a battle with liberals, with the fate of health care legislation at stake.

On Sunday, Obama urged the Senate to follow the lead of the House, like a runner in a relay race. The president says he’s confident senators will do the right thing.

David Dinkins, the first African-American mayor of New York City calls out President Obama for not doing more to help out the Democratic candidate Bill Thompson who lost to incumbent Michael Bloomberg.

From New York Post:

“The president should’ve done more. He found time to go to Virginia, he found time to go to New Jersey and he should’ve been here,” former Mayor David Dinkins, who was in office from 1990 through 1993.

He was referring to Obama’s stumping with New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who lost to Republican Chris Christie this week, and Virginia Democrat Creigh Deeds, who lost the gubernatorial race to GOP candidate Bob McDonnell.

By comparison, the country’s first black president gave the most lukewarm of endorsements to Thompson, who lost to Mayor Bloomberg by a mere 5 points on Tuesday.

The Republican National Committee is under fire from bloggers and progressives after a member of their Facebook group posted a photo of the President of the United States eating fried chicken with caption that calls miscegenation, or interracial marriage “a CRIME against American Values.”

The creator of the image made reference to Loving v. Virginia–the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case that struck down laws banning interracial marriage.

Perhaps the person who uploaded the image on Facebook was inspired by the justice of the peace who recently refused to marry an interracial couple in Louisiana.

Finally, after being on their Facebook for close to a week, RNC officials removed the image on Tuesday.

Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs owe the President and their listeners/viewers an apology.

Limbaugh and Dobbs thought they had the story of the year as Time reporter Joe Klein discovered Barack Obama’s college thesis paper in which the then 20-something Columbia University student insulted the ‘Founding Fathers” and said the Constitution oppresses poor Americans.

Too bad the whole thing was made up.

The satirical blog was posted on Jumping In Pools and was meant to be a joke. But when another blogger for conservative blog network Pajamas Media picked up the story it reached as high up as CNN and Limbaugh.

When the real Joe Klein said that he has never seen the President’s thesis,bloggers from all over the country apologized for running with an unsubstantiated story. As for Limbaugh, he said this–even after realizing the story is bogus.

I’m sure no one on the campus of Hampton University, one of the nation’s leading Historical Black College and Universities (HBCU’s) expected their annual Homecoming Pageant to become national news.

But when a non-African-American woman is crowned Homecoming Queen then writes a letter to the President of the United States complaining about the racial overtones on campus…it becomes national news.

Nikole Churchilll, a 22-year-old senior nursing major became the first non-African-American to be named Ms. Hampton in the history of the institution on Friday.

While her victory has split the campus with some saying she does not deserve the award because of her Guam and Italian ancestry as well as attending classes at the Virgina Beach satellite campus instead of the main campus, her letter to the President is seemingly causing the most angst.

In her letter to Obama, written Sunday, she said her victory was the best moment in here life, however the attitudes of some students on campus has sullied her victory.

“It would be much easier to say that possibly some were not accepting of the news because I wasn’t the most qualified contestant; however, the true reason for the disapproval was because of the color of my skin. I am not African American.”

Churchill, like Obama, is a Hawaii native and is hoping the President will speak to students about racism.

There has been no response from the White House. (The Administration is a little busy right now with dealing with two wars, health care and the economy.)

Being a proud HBCU graduate myself, I’ve seen enough examples to know Homecoming pageants always come with some controversy, but get over it. The judges voted for the woman they believe to be the most qualified. There is no rule against a student attending classes on a satellite campus being Homecoming Queen.

Did she overreact by writing the President? Perhaps, but she is an American citizen with the right to contact her elected officials at her desire.

By the way, the coronation is Oct. 21.

UPDATE: Churchill Apologizes for Letter

If Rush Limbaugh becomes an NFL owner, he will have a hard time finding black players to work for him.

From the New York Daily News:

Mathias Kiwanuka (New York Giants) and the Jets’ Bart Scott made it clear Thursday that they would never play for the Rams or any team owned by the controversial conservative radio host.

“All I know is from the last comment I heard, he said in (President) Obama’s America, white kids are getting beat up on the bus while black kids are chanting ‘right on,’” Kiwanuka told The Daily News. “I mean, I don’t want anything to do with a team that he has any part of. He can do whatever he wants, it is a free country. But if it goes through, I can tell you where I am not going to play.”

Read more about it here.

Speaking of Limbaugh, listen to his comments about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

The nation’s first African-American President woke up Friday morning to receive another prestige honor; Nobel Prize recipient.

In what was a complete surprise to the President, the Norwegian Noble Committee awarded Obama due to his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

Obama is the first sitting US President to win the Nobel Peace Prize since Woodrow Wilson in 1919.

While some bloggers ask legitimately if Obama accomplished enough–with only being President for nine months–to earn the award. Of course, Obama’s political opponents are not cheering who they perceive as the first “Affirmative Action Nobel Prize Winner.”

UPDATE: FOX NEWS RESPONDS

SO DOES MSNBC:

Just in time for the holiday season, the company that creates the Chia Pet Plant brand has created (drumroll, please) Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Pet President Obama.

But according to a report on BlackVoices, you may experience some difficulties purchasing the item.

We can’t make this stuff up. During a speech at the “How to Take America Back” conference in St. Louis, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) said the the President is “an enemy to humanity.”

Hear it for yourself.

Today Franks explains that he was referring to Obama’s stance on abortion when he made his remarks.

From USA Today:

Bethany Haley, spokeswoman for Franks, said the congressman was referring to “unborn humanity” and should have clarified his statement. She also said that Franks meant to say that Obama’s abortion-related policies have no place in government, rather than that Obama has no place in government.

Haley said she spoke to Franks early Tuesday before he boarded a plane from Arizona to Washington.

“He was just referring to the way President Obama has set himself up as the most pro-abortion president in America’s history,” Haley said. She ticked off a list of the president’s policies and appointments she said were favorable to abortion rights.

Oh well, at least the Congressman didn’t use his Facebook page to do it.