links for 2009-09-01

While other 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls crash, burn, and sputter, Mitt Romney has quietly been raising millions, casting himself as a New Hampshire son, keeping cozy with the NRA, and otherwise perfecting his Mr. Perfect approach.

A majority of independent voters disapprove of how President Obama is handling his job as president, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll.

Fifty-three percent of independents now say they disapprove of how Obama's handling his duties in the White House, with 43% in approval. That result marks the first time in a CNN poll that a majority of independents give the president's performance a thumbs-down.

Overall, Obama's approval rating of 53% is down 3 points from a month ago, and down 8 points from June.

Zogby puts it at 42 percent, for what it's worth.

Some don't like Rasmussen's robo-callers, and Zogby – well, folks have debated his numbers for years. But if you look at Obama's approval rating in the other pollsters, the numbers are generally pretty mediocre. Gallup puts it at 51, and was at 50 for a few days. YouGov puts it at 48 percent. ARG puts it at 52 percent, Clarus puts it at 49 percent, NBC puts it at 51 percent, Pew puts it at 51 percent, PublicPolicyPolling puts it at 52 percent. The highest it's been in a recent poll was the Washington Post/ABC poll which put it at 57 percent back on August 17.

The leader of the state Senate said today that his top goal in the final days of the session is passing legislation to overhaul the state’s water system.

“Water is the best opportunity we have right now to show that we can do something big,” Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told reporters. “Maybe we won’t get it done in the next 10 days,” he added. “But I’m sure going to do my darndest.”

The work will begin this afternoon, when a newly created 14-member Senate-Assembly committee will seek consensus on bills that could potentially lead to new canals, dams and restoration of the beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Steinberg said he will lead the conference committee, which includes Valley lawmakers Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto. The Assembly had not yet named its members as of this morning.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.

That represents the lowest level of support for Democrats in recent years, while Republicans have tied their highest level of support for the third straight week. The previous low for Democrats over the past year was 37%.

Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley said Monday he remains hopeful a limited health care reform measure can be negotiated, but that a small bipartisan group of senators working on the issue agrees a government-run public option won't be part of the package.

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., meanwhile, said an overhaul measure will be presented this year with or without bipartisan support — though he said a compromise would be far better than any bill pushed through solely by Democrats.

The senators are among a group of three Democrats and three Republicans on the pivotal Finance Committee who are negotiating a proposal to overhaul the nation's health care system. Both said Monday they were hopeful a bipartisan deal could be reached.

Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been privately talking with friends about a possible comeback, and is considering a run for statewide office next year, several sources told The Post.

Less than 18 months after he left Albany in a prostitution scandal, Spitzer has held informal discussions in recent weeks about the possibility of making a bid for state comptroller or the US Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, sources said.