Dr. Drew Remembers Sen. Ted Kennedy: He Owned a Better Bullet Proof Vest

I only met Sen. Ted Kennedy once...at a parade in North Adams, MA. I was recruited to run as a Republican assembly candidate in 1988 and one of my jobs was to walk in the parade and wave to all the registered Democrats lining the parade route. I felt so uncomfortable with the idea that one of my brothers sent me a bullet proof vest to wear during the festivities.

I tried it on...but it looked so boxy under my suit that I decided it was better to die of a gun shot wound than to look like I was wearing a cardboard T-shirt.

Herded into the parade starting area, I was surprised to find myself introduced to Sen. Ted Kennedy who - like me - was waiting to march in the parade. I immediately noticed that his eyes seemed to sparkle as if the departed President John Kennedy was looking at me. It was eerie. This face-to-face meeting helped me understand the unreasonable affection that voters in MA seemed to have for Sen. Ted Kennedy.

The second thing I remember is that his bullet proof vest was a lot smoother and rounder looking than the one I had left behind in my Williamstown apartment. It was apparent to me that wealth and power had its privileges...include the ability to protect yourself while still looking cool to the general public.

Although Sen. Kennedy took out time to greet me and exchange pleasantries, this superficial wholesomeness was not enough for me to forget or forgive his past. Even today, I see Sen. Kennedy's legacy in the burnt out buildings of Detroit...the crumbling gang-infested inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles...and in the shattered lives of everyone harmed by high unemployment and racial preferences for minorities.

Like his sad personal life, Sen. Kennedy's policies did great damage to our nation, even as he received the praises of those who, momentarily, thought they benefited from his ideas.

Sen Kennedy left a profound amount of wreckage in terms of the people harmed by his life including his ex-wife, his children, and - of course - his most famous victim - Mary Jo Kopechne (July 26, 1940 – July 18, 1969). Of course, I didn't mention Ms. Kopechne during that face-to-face meeting with Sen. Kennedy. For that tiny moment, I was part of the general lethargy of the living, too constrained by social niceties to vent my true feelings - that Sen. Kennedy should have been a felon and not a U.S. Senator.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

How Low Can He Go? Rasmussen Reports Shows Steep Drop in Obama Job Approval Ratings

I trust Rasmussen Reports because they look at likely voters, the registered voters most likely to actually make a difference by turning out for elections. Moreover, Rasmussen has demonstrated an uncanny degree of accuracy in predicting the exact results of Presidential elections. Accordingly, I think Barack Obama and his administration have just gotten the clearest possible warning from the American people that the administration is going in the wrong direction.



For example, in today's Rasmussen survey, Obama reached the lowest point of his presidency - an overwhelmingly negative -14 on Rasmussen's "approval index." Rasmussen constructs this approval index by subtracting the 27 percent who now "strongly approve" of Obama's performance from the 41 percent who "strongly disapprove."

I think these negative approval numbers are a little unfair to President Obama since they include people who disagree with Obama on policy issues and others who agree with the President and are upset that he is not winning the battle on health care or other prized liberal issues. In a larger sense, however, low approval numbers undermine a President's credibility and political influence. These numbers indicate that it will be easier for Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans to claim that the President is making mistakes and that they should not follow his direction - particularly when he leads us towards his beloved Marxist socialist utopia.


John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Sen. Reid Now in Hot Water Over Health Care Reform

It’s kind of fun to watch the Democrat party self-destruct over its insistence on sticking us with a public option, an option that would pave the way to single payer. The good news for the vast majority of us who vehemently oppose single-payer is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now trailing a top Republican challenger by 11 points according to a new poll.



The Mason-Dixon Polling and Research survey of 400 registered voters shows GOP candidate Danny Tarkanian leading Reid by 49 percent to 38 percent in Nevada.

Sen. Reid, of course, has been among the most vocal in stressing that he would push through single-payer no matter how little support it had in the Senate among Republicans…even if it means violating long-held Senate norms and procedures. I sincerely hope his friends in the Senate realize that this ruthless politician is in a precarious position.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Rasmussen Reports: Increasing Power of Opponents of Obama's Health Care Reform

Rasmussen Reports indicate that Obama's health care reform program is still dropping in the polls. This, of course, is one of the reasons he wanted to push it through before the August recess. Rasmussen also indicates that opposition to single-payer medical care (socialized medicine) - which Obama supported quite publicly in the past - runs at 57% to 32%. To me, the larger question is why does Obama keep pushing a project that is so unpopular with the American people? This can't do anything but undermine his influence and reduce his power overall.

Part of the answer, according to Rasmussen, is that Democrats strongly approve of single-payer. Democrats support single-payer at the rate of 62%. In contrast, Republicans reject single-payer at a rate of 87%, while those not affiliated with either party reject single payer by a 63-22% margin. The lesson here, I think, is that single-payer is a terrific "wedge" issue.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Obama Drops in Polls: Former Centerist, Now Socialist Joker

Here's a quick 30 sec. Animoto video I put together based on creepy posters showing up in the Los Angeles area. The link is below:

http://animoto.com/play/5S3XFwUykFaObgyBdJIiAg

The posters show Obama made up like the Joker in the movie the Dark Knight. This is particularly creepy to me because I remember that Heath Ledger died of a drug overdose and that Obama has been a hard drinker and smoker nearly his whole life.

Also, like the Joker, Obama wears a mask as a centerist - despite his extreme left-wing ideology. Even now the White House is angry that new videos show that Obama has long believed that some sort of public option would be the gateway to socialized, single payer, health care. This poster is a timely reminder that the real Obama is a frightening guy who would take away our cherished freedoms.

Xtranormal Movie: How Our Celebrity President Relies on Drinking to Solve Problems

Augustine 25 is the pseudonym of an award-winning political scientist.