Obama's Approval Rating Hits New Low  —  Posted by Tucker Reals 15 comments - Share - - - Share - E-mail - Print - Font Last week, President Obama signed historic health care reform legislation into law — but his legislative success doesn't seem to have helped his image with the American public.

Mount Dora doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere  —  (Photo by Deirdre Lewis / April 1, 2010)  —  MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care “elsewhere.”

U.S. Adds 162,000 Jobs in March; Rate Remains 9.7%  —  The American economy added 162,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported Friday, in a month when the government hired thousands of temporary census workers.  —  Multimedia  —  The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent …

Communications Corruption at the White House  —  The communications team at the White House has an extremely difficult job — and I admire how hard Ben Rhodes, Bill Burton, Tommy Vietor, and of course Robert Gibbs and others work to connect the President's policy direction with a communications effort that furthers the Obama agenda.

At Vatican Service, Persecution of Jews Is Invoked  —  ROME — A senior Vatican priest speaking at a Good Friday service compared the uproar over sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church — which have included reports about Pope Benedict XVI's oversight role in two cases …

Don't let the tea party go Perot  —  Like many influential causes before it, the “tea party” movement appeared on the scene uninvited by the political establishment.  Democrats in the White House and in Congress recognize it for what it is — a spontaneous and pointed response to the Obama agenda …

Obamacare was mainly aimed at redistributing wealth  —  It hasn't attracted much notice, but recently some prominent advocates of Obamacare have spoken more frankly than ever before about why they supported a national health care makeover.  It wasn't just about making insurance more affordable.

Sen. Corker Clarifies: Repeal Isn't Going to Happen after “This Election Cycle”  —  John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and most Republicans say that the GOP platform is to repeal Obamacare (or “repeal and replace it with real reform").  Yuval Levin argues in this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD that …

FBI Warns Extremist Letters Might Encourage Violence  —  FBI warns extremist letters to more than 30 governors may encourage violence  —  The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group's call to remove governors from office could provoke violence by others.

An Absurdist Take On “Both Sides”  —  Charles Lane compares the radicalism of white supremacists with the radicalism of escaped slaves: … Lane is referencing, in rather disrespectful fashion, the awesome Shadrach Minkins.  A Norfolk-area slave, Minkins' unthinking extremism deluded him into believing that he was a human being.

Erickson: I'll 'pull out my wife's shotgun' if someone comes to my door for the American Community Survey.  —  Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) took to the conservative blog RedState to call out “blatant misinformation coming from otherwise well-meaning conservatives” about this year's Census.

Employment-Population Ratio, Part Time Workers, Unemployed over 26 Weeks  —  Here are a few more graphs based on the employment report ...  Employment-Population Ratio  —  The Employment-Population ratio ticked up slightly to 58.6% in March, after plunging since the start of the recession.

Ratings Fall on Newscasts at 2 Networks  —  With buyouts and layoffs in progress, the mood at ABC News cannot be good.  It was probably not enhanced by the ratings report for the first quarter of the year showing that the network's evening newscast, “World News,” had sunk to the lowest numbers …

The Ecstasy of Fiscal Policy  —  Let's say you're a political consultant.  You're sitting there in your West Hollywood bondage-themed strip club with party donors picking up the tab, and, of course, you're thinking about what a great country this is.  Swept up in the spirit of gratitude, you decide you'd like to give back.

THE LIMITS OF AN EXTREME IDEOLOGY, CONT'D.... Republicans in D.C. and Tennessee were “giddy” about recruiting Stephen Fincher to run against Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) in the midterms.  Fincher, a 37-year-old farmer, never went to college, but he's a blue-eyed charmer with a knack for raising lots of money.

Financial Reform 101  —  Let's face it: Financial reform is a hard issue to follow.  It's not like health reform, which was fairly straightforward once you cut through the nonsense.  Reasonable people can and do disagree about exactly what we should do to avert another banking crisis.

Democrats map out midterm campaign strategy for Obama  —  Facing a tough midterm election in which they could potentially lose their majorities in Congress, Democrats are privately debating where and how President Obama can help — or hurt.  —  The president is unlikely to campaign in Arkansas …

Trendy Fashion Buys Reimbursed as “Office Supplies” to RNC Finance Officials  —  For one Republican National Committee official, a spin through a trendy clothing boutique racked up hundreds in “office supplies,” all billed to party donors.  And there's more.

Kal Penn returns from Washington for Christmas-themed ‘Harold & Kumar’ movie  —  Who needs Washington when you can have White Castle?  Kal Penn's reps confirm that the actor will leave his post as Barack Obama's associate director of public engagement to return to his acting career.