MAD MAGAZINE COVER/L.A. TIMES

POLITICS: This President seems hell-bent on alienating just about every American he can find who has an opinion about anything at all. Besides his nationalization of everything in sight and promise to bankrupt America, he now has decided to abandon the nuclear deterrence policy that has kept the nation safe for over 60 years -- apparently because he has nothing else to do this week. Polls show the bottom falling out in his support, but he mindlessly keeps forging ahead with one nonsensical initiative after another.

REAL DOOZY: The latest off-the-wall announcement Obama Limits unilaterally revamps the American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons. The new policy is part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, aides say, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions.

But it involves no change in the Russian, Chinese or the position of other nuclear powers. And it foregoes the use of nuclear deterrence even when the U.S. is under attack with biological or chemical weapons or a crippling cyber attack, essentially inviting aggression. To set that sterling example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, and even pointedly overrules the initial position Obama’s own Pentagon and defense secretary.

SHARP SHIFT: The new Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors and seeks to revamp the nation’s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China. It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war.

For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. So, Russia can launch a biological attack on Washington, and not have to worry about nuclear reprisal because it has signed the non-proliferation treaty? This sounds like the policy of a man who has way too much time on his hands.

The latest Obama nonsense, following the widely unpopular health care reform monstrosity, comes amid his usual flurry of mixed, confused political messages of a man who is seemingly lost on what direction he is going in. Last week he appeared to endorse offshore oil drilling --- but only in a disoriented variety of small areas and in reality any oil and gas production is years away.  Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans agree on the need for vast offshore drilling -- and a clear majority support it off the entire U.S. coastline. They would include California and New England, strongly Democratic areas that Obama still excludes. So nobody is happy with that one of his latest half-measures.

HC DISGUST: Back to health care, Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times notes that Obama promised that once everyone had a chance to read it (now that’s democracy, pass something nobody can read) everyone would love his plan.  But CBS News finds that a) the stumping has been ineffective, b) most Americans don't like the bill (53%), c) many expect the quality of care to decrease while costs continue to increase and d) few see anything in it for them. Other than that, it's a huge public relations success.

As another result of the passage and preceding rancorous healthcare debate, Rasmussen Reports finds that 53% of Americans now say they trust Republicans more with this traditionally Democratic issue, while 37% still trust that party. As yet another result, Obama’s overall approval ratings has now hit the lowest point since he took office -- 44% -- which is down five points since before he signed the healthcare bill and down 24 points since his poll high last April. On healthcare alone, the president's disapproval rating is 55% and approval just above one-in-three (34%).

ECONOMIC IMPACT: A realclearpolitics average has Obama's approval at 47.5% and disapproval at 46.1. A  USA/Today/Gallup Poll finds 44% of Americans believe healthcare will worsen as a result of Obama's healthcare bill vs. 34% who think it will help; 55% believe Obama's bill will worsen healthcare costs, 29% help; 61% believe Obama's bill will worsen the federal deficit, 23% improve; and 46% believe Obama's bill will worsen the economy while 35% think it will help.

The good news for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  is that Americans' opinion of her hasn't changed much recently; the bad news is they still don't like her much. Gallup finds that at the beginning of her House control in 2007, the first female speaker's approval was two times as favorable as unpopular, 44%-22%. Today, her favorable rating has slipped to 36% while her unfavorable rating has shot to 54%. Today, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid’s favorable rating is 29%, unfavorable 45%.

All the fighting over healthcare the last year while so many Americans said their top concern was the economy has now resulted in Democrats losing their large edge on the economy. Last summer, CNN found 52% of Americans knew Democrats would handle the economy better than Republicans (39%). Today it's flipped to 48-45 in the GOP's favor. On handling terrorism, the gap is even wider: Republicans 50%, Democrats 40%.

REID’S WOES: Speaking of Senate Majority leader Reid, he is hanging on by a thread. Thanks to his support for the community organizer. New Rasmussen numbers show that 62% of Nevada voters want health care repealed at once and that Reid still lags way below 50% approval as he face re-election In November. And two of his potential Republican competitors have now climbed past that level and even the third-ranking GOP candidate is still ahead of the longtime Silver State politician.

The bad polling news for Reid continues a trend since early this year. They show former state GOP chairwoman Sue Lowden whacking Reid, 54 to 39; former state Assemblywoman Sharon Angle has boosted her lead and now beats Reid, 51 to 40, in a hypothetical race; while businessman Danny Arkansan beats Reid, 49 to 42.

UNFAVORABLE OPINION: National Republicans would like nothing better than retiring Reid on Nov. 2, as they did to Senate Democratic Minority Leader Tom Deshler in 2004. Currently only 23% of Nevada voters have a very favorable opinion of Reid, while 53% have a very unfavorable opinion; that's 5 more points disapproving this month.

Nevadans gave the state's electoral votes to Bema in 2008 with 55% of their ballots. But today only 43% approve of his job in the White House, while 58% disapprove of his performance. In another revealing statistic, 49% of Nevadans say the tea party movement's positions are closer to their own than those of Congress. And 50% says the average tea party member has a better understanding of the issues confronting the country than does the average member of Congress.