specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding. so the white house is saying that the president is making a distinction here between the right for the muslims to build that mosque at ground zero versus the wisdom or efficacy to do so. some are calling it a backing down of his original position or recalibration. to me this is classic obama, making a point on this been the one hand, that on the other. it is much more murky to figure this all out. whatever transpired between friday night where he appeared to be extremely supportive of the building of that mosque and cultural center into saturday. what transpired overnight, as you know, is quite a bit of criticism coming from republicans. we have a cnn poll that shows
recovery. that s right, kiran. it s certainly looking like that is facing a stiff challenge right now. they say they don t govern by polls here at the white house, but you can hardly ignore these new numbers in the nbc/ wall street journal poll showing the presidential approval rating at 47%, disapproval among the american people at 48%. that s in line with some of our recent cnn polling. more worrisome for the white house when you dig into the numbers is the fact that now 6 in 10 americans including 83% of those all important independent voters that stwung barack obama s way in 2008, 6 in 10 americans saying they re either somewhat or not confident that he has the right economic policies to turn this economy around. that s why even yesterday here at the white house when the president was touting his signature on a new manufacturing law that he hopes creates some jobs, he was still a bit on the defensive. now, we knew from the beginning that reversing the damage done by the worst
15 minutes after the hour. we re back with the most news in the morning. he s under an ethics cloud that could get him expelled from the house, but last night new york congressman charlie rangel was all about the good times at a combination fund-raiser and 80th birthday celebration. you wouldn t know about any of his problems last night. many prominent democrats were there to show their support and that included a rather surprising gesture from a former new york city mayor. cnn s mary snow is following the story for us. quite a happy birthday yesterday. it was. good morning. the big question was would politicians shy away from congressman rangel with this scandal unfolding. the answer was no. let s set the scene for you though. outside the plaza last night, this was a birthday party doubling as a fund-raiser. there were a few protesters gathering outside, some calling
lexicon with denying that he s added an emergency exit to my office. reporter: when the magic wall is not working magically. having a problem. i m going to pull a steven slate they are about three, two, one. reporter: jetblue is giving every passenger on steven slater s flight a $100 voucher. the company says that s what it often does when customers experience a disruption or abnormal circumstances. you later, steven slater didn t need no escalator just slid right down that airplane door and ran reporter: underneath this latest balad to steven his boyfriend posted, this is the best. we love you. when slater finally arrived home. welcome home, steven. reporter: the press was waiting. if we keep this up, he ll be pulling a slater on us. this microphone needs an escape chute. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. just keeps getting better.
didn t want to show up because there certainly is some liability associated with it for some people. yeah. and for the democrats running for re-election of course, they re expecting republicans to pounce on this. some of the politicians leading up to last night were a little cagey about whether or not they d actually be there. so of course they knew that all cameras would be there. governor paterson and michael bloomberg there. a lot showed up. both u.s. senators, andrew cuomo running for governor. thank you. still ahead, the legal hurdles have been cleared, but the outcry over an islamic senator and mosque going up two blocks from ground zero is not letting up. a new cnn opinion research poll shows the majority of americans oppose building the mosque near the world trade center site. 68% say they re against it. just 29% are in favor of the mosque being built there. india, the world s largest democracy, is a massive growing market for smartphone companies but will the gover