A CNN poll (PDF) shows that 50% of Americans support President Obama's health care proposals against 45% who are opposed. This is almost the identical result from a month ago. Also pretty much the election results. An interesting bit is the deep generational divide:

"Obama's plan is most popular among younger Americans and least popular among senior citizens," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "A majority of Americans over the age of 50 oppose Obama's plan; a majority of those under 50 support it."

Apparently there is a Laffer Curve in these results (where seniors who already have a public option are against anyone else having a public option.) In any event, we are where we have been all year, it is up to the President to get this done.

Speaking for me only

Sen. Patrick Leahy, skeptical of a State Department report glossing over Mexico's human rights violations with respect to the war on drugs, has delayed U.S plans to send big bucks there to aid in Mexico's fight against traffickers.

The State Department intended to send the favorable report on Mexico's human rights record to Congress in advance of President Obama's visit to Guadalajara for a summit of North American leaders this weekend, U.S. officials familiar with the report said.

That plan was scrapped after aides to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, told State Department officials that the findings contradicted reports of human rights violations in Mexico, including torture and forced disappearances, in connection with the drug war.

Maybe we can get some Senators to scrap the funding permanently. The money could be used so much better at home, for health care, education and starting the transition from over-incarceration to greater reliance on alternatives like drug and mental health treatment and vocational training for inmates, to help reduce the risk of recidivism.

John Podesta, who headed up the Obama-Biden transition team (currently of Center for American Progress) was part of former President Bill Clinton's Korea delegation to free Current TV journalists Ling and Euna Lee. Chris Nelson, described as "a veteran Washington foreign-policy watcher who covers Asia policy" says Al Gore was not an acceptable candidate for mission:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "always wanted to send Al Gore," Nelson continued, noting the two detained journalists worked for Current TV, a media company connected to the former vice president. "And apparently that was OK with Hillary and Obama, [whose wish was to] just get this out of the goddamned way."

"But here's where it gets interesting," Nelson continued. "I do not know how it was delivered. But 10 days ago, North Korea sent the U.S. a list of acceptable names. And I am very authoritatively told that not on that list was Al Gore. And Bill was on the list."

A Senior U.S. official told a Chinese publication that the families of the detained journalists wanted Bill Clinton to go.

Here's another photo released by N. Korea of the meeting with Bill Clinton.[More...]

Happy Birthday to President Barack Obama, who turned 48 years young today.

The LeRoy Neiman painting of Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy is one I had over my fireplace for years. I loved picking out all the politicians in it, from Bobby Kennedy and Ted Kennedy (and Ethel) to Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird and Mayor Robert Wagner. Check it out below:

A three judge panel in California has issued a "scathing" 184 page opinion ordering California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 within two years.

The judges said that reducing prison crowding in California was the only way to change what they called an unconstitutional prison health care system that causes one unnecessary death a week. In a scathing 184-page order, the judges criticized state officials, saying they had failed to comply with previous orders to fix the health care system in the prisons and reduce crowding, and recommended remedies, including reform of the parole system.

How bad are prison conditions? [More...]

Steve Clemons seems to think so:

Bill Clinton has now secured pardons from Kim Jong Il for the two journalists who he has now met with -- but more importantly, Clinton has engaged directly with North Korea President Kim Jong Il and this may steady things in Northeast Asia for a bit. As one observer told me today, engaging Kim directly matters and prevents the complex filters around him from distorting and derailing earnest efforts to get the relationship pointed in a more constructive direction. Former Japan Prime Minister Koizumi learned this through two direct meetings with Kim, and the Chinese and South Koreans also have learned that direct engagement with the North Korean leader produces radically different results than dealing with the bureaucratic minions around him.

Clinton may have just given North Korea a "face-saving way" back to negotiations in the Six Party Talks -- and North Korea may have found a valuable informal back channel to both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to partially sate its own yearning for direct bilateral talks with the United States that America can't endorse given other stakeholders in Northeast Asia committed to a six party process.

Interesting take. Not sure I buy it, but here's hoping.

Media Matters:

Economist Laffer on CNN: "[J]ust wait till you see Medicare [and] Medicaid ... done by the government"

Sheesh. There's that "Birther logic" at work again.

In the comments, andgarden makes a good point - Arthur Laffer will turn 69 on August 14. Does he have "government run health insurance" (aka Medicare)? If so, is he not aware it is government run health care and if he is just now becoming aware of that fact, will he be buying private insurance?

Speaking for me only

UPDATE: Kim "Pardons" Journalists. Hope to be flying back home tonight.

This is pretty interesting:

Sources told ABC News that Clinton's trip [to North Korea], while a surprise to some, was planned weeks ago and that it was former Vice President Al Gore who asked Clinton to go.

Gore's involvement is more than understandable. Good for Clinton and Gore working together on this. Of course, some folks can't get over their Clinton hate.

Speaking for me only

Sam Stein writes:

The White House and allied Democrats are ramping up efforts to make belligerent anti-Obama town hall crowds -- and the media outlets that feed their resentment -- the face of opposition to the president's health care agenda, aides tell the Huffington Post.

Not a bad idea. It is the White House that can do this too. Hell, link them to the birthers. Here is the real question though - how do you treat the Media on this one? I have always been one who thinks that mau-mau-ing them always works.

Update - Here is Gibbs executing the strategy.

Speaking for me only

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

The Red State heads are exploding today:

Sotomayor: Qualified, mainstream Judicial confirmation hearings weren't always ideological witch hunts.

By Pat Toomey

. . . If I were a U.S. senator, I would vote for her confirmation, because objective qualifications should matter more than ideology in the judicial confirmation process.

(Emphasis supplied.) Once Specter became a Dem, giving Toomey a clear field on the GOP slate in Pennsylvania, his rush to the Center was inevitable (just as Specter's move left is a result of a primary challenge by Joe Sestak.) This is the reverse of Charlie Crist's run to the right in Florida, an inevitable consequence of the challenge from the extreme right by Florida state senator Rubio. Pols are pols . . . Oh BTW, and primaries are, as always disciplining functions for pols. Whether the primary is successful or not.

Speaking for me only

Atrios:

I think Obama's a smart talented guy whose instincts mostly point him in the right direction. I also think he's a smart talented guy who has, for whatever reason, tended to have opposition melt away when he pointed at them.

Atrios' implicit question is can Obama fight? Specifically can he fight effectively for health care reform? He certainly won the Democratic nomination in a tough and close battle with now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But did then candidate Obama shine in that fight? Did he outfight Clinton in the second half of the primary battle? Not really. Atrios poses a good question.

Speaking for me only