QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 6:27 P.M. ET:  From conservative law professor and blogger Hugh Hewitt, in the Washington Examiner:

The president's popularity is plummeting -- down to a 44 percent approval rating in the most recent, post-Obamacare CBS poll -- and his rhetoric is getting angrier as he tours the country demanding that critics of Obamacare shut up.

His predecessor, George W. Bush, was blasted by the media when he used "Bring it on" against our nation's enemies.

President Obama's jeering "Let them try" challenge was followed by a sneering attempt at stand-up in Portland, Maine, on Friday when he compared critics of the new health care regime to fools wondering why seeds don't sprout immediately upon planting.

Americans love a good winner, but when the winner is a whiner, the public's reaction is not going to be admiration.

The president ran in 2008 as a post-partisan "uniter" who would usher in an era of bipartisan reform, but he has chosen to become a polarizing figure and a Chicago jam-down artist for whom trash talk is as much a part of his daily game. Rarely has the promise been so far removed from the result.

COMMENT:  So true, so true.  This is what happens when you send an amateur to do the job.  At base, Obama is a small-timer with a golden voice.   He reminds me of many of the Hollywood executives I've known who think their Ivy League degrees bought them talent.  And, strangely, a lot of them also say they like basketball, and have those little miniature hoops in their office.

April 5, 2010