{"id":647,"date":"2011-07-21T02:40:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T06:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=647"},"modified":"2011-07-21T02:40:07","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T06:40:07","slug":"the-circle-of-protection-poverty-obama-v-romney-and-aaron-rodgers-the-morning-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/07\/21\/the-circle-of-protection-poverty-obama-v-romney-and-aaron-rodgers-the-morning-report\/","title":{"rendered":"The Circle of Protection, Poverty, Obama v. Romney, and Aaron Rodgers: The Morning Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In the News<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. \u00a0\u201cChristian Coalition Asks Obama to Protect the Poor During Meeting<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0There\u2019s a lot to say about this. \u00a0On the surface it\u2019s a simple matter: of course the budget should not be balanced \u201con the backs of the poor.\u201d \u00a0Underneath the surface, it\u2019s not so simple. \u00a0What if some programs designed to meet the needs of the poor are inefficient or counter-productive? \u00a0Can we not cut those because it looks bad? \u00a0Or is it really a \u201ccut\u201d if you\u2019re just marking a smaller increase in spending than what had been planned? \u00a0Also, what does a meeting like this really accomplish, apart from its obvious PR value for the Obama reelection campaign?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not pretending I know the answers to all of those questions, but those are the questions that run through my mind. \u00a0Especially when I read things like this, from Galen Carey: \u201cI talked about the importance of fiscal responsibility, which the president articulated very clearly, so we\u2019re with him on that.\u201d \u00a0Except the budgets the President has put forward have been the exact opposite of fiscal responsibility, and \u2013 apart from self-serving leaks \u2013 he has not actually put forward a fiscally responsible budget\u2026well, ever. \u00a0The President has consistently resisted calls for fiscal responsibility, and then swoops in and begins attacking Republicans for being fiscally irresponsible. \u00a0I fear that folks like Galen Carey just became unwitting props in a campaign event.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0An explosive new report<\/a> is released on poverty. \u00a0\u201cRegrettably, most discussions of poverty in the U.S. rely on sensationalism, exaggeration, and misinformation,\u201d says Robert Rector, author of the report. \u201cBut an effective anti-poverty policy must be based on an accurate assessment of actual living conditions and the causes of deprivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Public Policy Polling, a Democratic outfit that typically shows the most favorable results for Democrats, now has Obama losing to Romney<\/a>. \u00a0Obama\u2019s position, it says, is \u201cperilous.\u201d \u00a0Most interesting are some of the details:<\/p>\n

An extremely wide electability gap has developed between Romney and all the rest of the Republican candidates. Everyone else we tested trails Obama by at least as much as John McCain\u2019s 2008 margin of defeat and in most cases more. Obama\u2019s up 7 on Michele Bachmann at 48-41, 9 against Tim Pawlenty at 48-39, 12 versus Herman Cain at 48-36, and as usual has his largest lead in a match up with Sarah Palin at 53-37.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an important note on all of this early 2012 polling though: Obama\u2019s numbers are worse than they appear to be on the surface. The vast majority of the undecideds in all of these match ups disapprove of the job Obama\u2019s doing but aren\u2019t committing to a candidate yet while they wait to see how the Republican field shakes out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, in a head-to-head matchup with a credible Republican candidate, Obama would do even worse than their figures suggest, because undecideds disapprove of Obama 61%\/21%. \u00a0They\u2019re just waiting to see whether the GOP puts forward a credible candidate. \u00a0Romney continues to fare the best \u2013 by far \u2013 with independents.<\/p>\n

In the Pews<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Mike Anderson, \u201cFour Things I\u2019ve Learned About God Through My Baby Who Was Born Blind<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0Painful and profound stuff. \u00a0A selection:<\/p>\n

As a new father it\u2019s painful to see my beautiful little baby and know that she can\u2019t see me. The depth of the spiritual blindness that God\u2019s creation are born with is even deeper than what I\u2019m feeling. God is not indifferent to our plight.\u00a0I am relieved that I\u2019m not alone in my care for my baby.\u00a0The God of the universe grieves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0John Fea writes an excellent piece<\/a> at Patheos on how Christian intellectuals need to step outside of the ivory tower and into the public square.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Did you know that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a devoted believer<\/a>? \u00a0Neither did I.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the News 1. \u00a0\u201cChristian Coalition Asks Obama to Protect the Poor During Meeting.\u201d \u00a0There\u2019s a lot to say about this. \u00a0On the surface it\u2019s a simple matter: of course the budget should not be balanced \u201con the backs of the poor.\u201d \u00a0Underneath the surface, it\u2019s not so simple. \u00a0What if some programs designed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[70,1351,123,125,176,1353,1326,201,288,1360,310],"class_list":["post-647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-funnies","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-barack-obama","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-evangelical","tag-evangelicalism","tag-faith","tag-football","tag-mitt","tag-mitt-romney","tag-obama"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Circle of Protection, Poverty, Obama v. 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