Democratic Chatter 3-17-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

Today, President Barack Obama will be busy celebrating St. Patrick's Day - he has meetings and receptions all day with Irish leaders. He will also attend a traditional St. Patrick's Day luncheon hosted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.). ThePage.Time.com has more here.

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Number of Americans who fear U.S. will enter a serious depression increase - a CNN/Opinion Research poll showed 45% feared the country could be headed toward a serious depression which is up 7% from the 38% number from December. Seems former president Bill Clinton was right when he suggested recently that President Obama try to include some optimism in his comments on the economy. CNN.com has more here.

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More bad news for U.S. Banks - reports show there was a 149% increase in troubled assets across the banking industry over the last year. The number of banks with more bad loans than capital increased to 163, up from 13 a year ago. However, there are over 8000 banks across the country and the overwhelming majority of them are healthy. MSNBC.com has more here.

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Obama's approval rating slips to 59% - the latest poll conducted March 9-12 by Pew Research Center showed a slight drop from the 64% approval rating Obama enjoyed in February. The disapproval rating for the President increased from 17% to 26%. You can read more here.

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