PACE 2 I THE MEREDITH HERALD | SEPTEMBER 2. 2009
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PRESIDENT OBAMA DROPS IN
GALLUP POLL
Aubrey Jones
Staff Writer
President Barack Obama’s popularity has dropped 19 points. Ac
cording to the Gallup Poll, Obama is now at a 51 percent approval
rating compared to the 69 that was seen in January.
Although dropping below 50 percent at some point during the
presidency is almost expected, there have only been two other presi
dents since World War II who have fallen below 50 before November
of their first year in office, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.
While some studies and articles have different theories about the
fall in approval, the one that stands out the most is the healthcare re
form. Obama wants to have more federal involvement in our health
care system and to some, this screams socialism.
Cameron Lee, a recent history and political science graduate from
North Carolina State University agrees that healthcare is among the
causes for the low approval ratings: “He [Obama] is taking a huge hit
because he has created a rifl between the people in the United States.
It’s because he is pursuing very strongly a policy in a way that alienates
a substantial part of the American people.”
In other words, there are only two sides to healthcare reform and
Obama is choosing to support only one side, even if he is going to lose
half the support of the American people.
“I think it’s great. It’s a sign of action. He isn’t going to sit and talk
about something, he is going to actually do it,” said Lee.
Besides healthcare reform, the state of the national sconomy is
also something that has put Obama at such a low rating. According
to Voice of America News, the White House and the Congressional
Budget Office project a federal deficit of about $1.6 trillion for the cur
rent fiscal year, which is a new record, and also report that in the next
decade the federal deficit will reach $9 trillion. This leaves a large debt
with the next generation, which also happens to be the generation to
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which most Meredith College students belong.
While questions of how America is going to pay for such a high
deficit float around, if the stock market is rising and fewer home fore
closures are happening, many believe that the present economic fix is
all that is needed.
According to The Washington Post, "What really matters is not the
size of the deficit but how we’re spending our money.” If the invest
ments made by the administration cause high returns, the economy will
only strengthen.
Americans can only hope that Obama makes the right decisions
for the country on a financial and social level, because after all, the
concept of hope is what got him into office.
PAKISTAN’S PROMINENT SCIENTIST SET FREE
Mariamawit Tadesse
Assistant Editor
DnAbdul Qadeer Khan, the man who made Pakistan the seventh
nuclear power in the world, was pardoned by former Pakistani Presi
dent Pervez Musharraf in February 2009 after being on house arrest
since January 2004 on the charges of passing on Nuclear weapon tech»
nology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, reports France 24 International
News.
In the 1950’s, Dr. Khan’s family migrated from India to Pakistan.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physical metallurgy from
the University of Karachi. He went on to work with the engineering
department at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and
he later earned his PhD in metallurgical engineering from the Catholic
University of Leuven in Belgium.
Dr. Khan, after confessing his involvement with Iran, Libya and
North Korea in 2004, recanted “[his] 2004 confession, saying he only
took the blame in return for assurances from Musharraf,” reports A1
Jazeera News. The BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad said, “De
spite his confession and detention. Dr. Khan, remains very popular
among many Pakistanis who regard him as a national hero.”
After his release in February 2009, Dr. Khan told BBC, “I con
tinue to be a prisoner despite having been released on court orders.
The government has used the judgment of the Islamabad high court
by limiting my movement under the guise of providing me security.”
Even though western countries and the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) want to interrogate him about his previous actions,
all Dr. Khan wants is to plan a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Dr.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, “Father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb,” is 72 years
old and plans to dedicate the rest of his life to education.