Blue Collars, Green Ties

Matt Damon, Gene Simmons, and others who are disappointed

(NEWSER) - President Obama was quite popular with Tinseltown's biggest stars four years ago, but as he seeks reelection, he's fallen out of favor with some Hollywood liberals. The Week lists eight who have criticized the prez:

• Gene Simmons: The Kiss rocker now regrets supporting Obama in '08, because he believes the president hasn't done enough to help the economy. Who does he like this year? Mitt Romney.
• Matt Damon: He also doesn't think Obama has done enough (his beefs are with Wall Street as well as policies from the George W. Bush era), and said in December that "a one-term president with some balls" would have been better.

But he backtracks on accusations of 'phony theology'

(NEWSER) - Rick Santorum set his sights on the president this weekend. On Saturday, Santorum accused President Obama of believing a "phony theology," not a theology "based on the Bible." Then, yesterday, he clarified that he wasn't talking about Obama's religious faith, just his faith in environmentalism, reports CBS News . "I was talking about the radical environmentalists," Santorum said on Face the Nation. "The Earth is not the objective. Man is the objective. I think a lot of radical environmentalists have it upside-down." More»

Netroots Nation convention bemoans dashed progressive hopes

(NEWSER) - One emotion running high at this year’s annual meeting of liberal bloggers: disappointment in the president. One popular panel at the Netroots Nation Convention was even titled, “What to Do When the President’s Just Not That Into You," and featured an editor at Daily Kos noting, “It’s like the president’s not our boyfriend anymore.” A gay-rights blogger added, “I honest to God thought I was voting for these guys and that it was going to be the first time in my lifetime that I'm finally in a position of power." More»

Surprise: San Francisco tops list

(NEWSER) - After compiling its list of the most conservative-friendly counties in the US, the right-leaning Daily Caller now brings it with the top counties for liberals:

• San Francisco. With liberals, unions and gays, “surprise, surprise,” Chris Palko writes.
• Montgomery County, Md. This DC suburb is rich, educated, and home to “the bureaucrats conservatives despise.”

Pragmatic president must reassure his supporters tonight, Tomasky writes

(NEWSER) - "The summer has been a bummer for American liberals," writes Guardian America editor Michael Tomasky; after the heady optimism of President Obama's first 100 days, "reality has set in, and with force." Not only is conservative opposition "as Leninist as ever," but liberals have descended into a funk, unable to believe that their man is floundering. That's why Obama needs to go big during tonight's address—not only to save health reform, but to save his own supporters. More»