Even white men without a college degree, who have been one of the toughest groups for this president to win over, give him higher ratings than they have all year. More than 40 percent approve of the job he’s doing, and that number is higher than the share of that demographic group who voted for Obama in 2008. Early this year, only 22 percent of that group approved of the president’s job performance, according to a National Journal/Pew Research Center poll.

I’ve written before about the need to move beyond the charge of racism when analyzing the political views of white working-class and non-college-educated voters. (They aren’t precisely the same thing, but they’re often pretty close.) No doubt racism is part of the president’s difficulty with this demographic group, but that’s not the whole story, and it’s both incorrect and divisive to insist that’s the main explanation. The volatility in this group’s views of the president reflects its economic vulnerability at least as much as racial or cultural discomfort, and Obama shouldn’t give up on them when shaping his 2012 pitch. He may not win a majority, but he shouldn’t settle for the 65-35 drubbing Democrats took in 2010. Democrats are fighting for the working and middle class now.

It’s also good news that senior citizens are happier with the president. Of course, John McCain won that group in 2008, and a Republican may win white seniors again in 2012. But Obama’s climbing approval rating with seniors – they’re now about evenly divided between approval and disapproval – ought to show the importance of standing up for Social Security and Medicare, and the political and moral dangers in continuing to crusade for a deficit “grand bargain” that cuts either program.  Let’s hope the president leaves those ideas behind in 2011.

Obama’s stern, sober remarks chiding House GOP radicals indicate he knows he has a winning strategy. Unlike last summer, there was no talk about one last compromise. It takes two parties to compromise, and Obama is done compromising with himself.

Woe is John Boehner. What do you call a leader who can’t lead? Mr. Speaker, apparently. He’ll have a blue Christmas, for sure.  Unfortunately, so will struggling Americans if there isn’t a last-minute deal to extend the payroll tax cuts. But Democrats are absolutely right to put an end to compromise at this point. I’ll be talking about all these developments on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” with Rev. Al Sharpton at 6 ET.

The proposal to extend unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut has divided the Republican Party, with some arguing that the measures are too costly and will create little economic benefit, while others are reluctant to oppose measures that would provide relief to tens of millions of American workers. Sensing advantage, President Obama and the Democrats are pressing hard for approval of the extension of the benefits and the payroll tax cut.

Boehner recently described his payroll tax proposal as turning “chicken shit into chicken salad,” indicating that he’s going to make Democrats pay for any legislative victory. He knows that a bill proposing to hasten the Keystone review process would never make it through Congress on its own, and is hoping to keep the pipeline’s adversaries from scuttling the proposal by attaching the quick review to popular legislation that Democrats are determined to pass.

Terry’s proposal would transfer decision-making authority from the State Department to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and would require FERC to issue a ruling on the pipeline almost immediately, within 30 days of receiving a permit application — despite the fact that, as George Zornick points out, “FERC has not been involved in the Keystone process whatsoever,” and has no prior experience with similar projects.

Environmental groups claim the strategy is simply an attempt to evade a public debate about the pipeline: Environmental leader Bill McKibben described the negotiations as going on “behind closed doors in money-filled rooms.” Kim Huynh, a dirty fuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth, called the House GOP strategy an attempt to slip the Keystone decision “under the radar of the U.S. public, limiting the ability for real debate.”

While Huynh called the bill a “really long shot” for congressional approval, Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups have mobilized to block it with a petition signed by a hundred thousand people asking Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi not to give in to Republican pressure. Becky Bond, the political director of CREDO Action,  which organized the petition, said that the group is only asking that Democrats stick to their guns, saying that people are “sick of being thrown under the bus to appease Republicans” in what she described as a “game of chicken” between the two parties.

In an open letter to Reid, a group of five Democratic senators, including Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., called the attempt to seek legislative go-ahead for the pipeline “completely inappropriate,” warning that removing the State Department from the process of making decisions about cross-border projects would “set a troubling precedent.” After meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday afternoon, Obama said, “Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut, I will reject.”

Still, while this particular attempt to get the Keystone pipeline approved is unlikely to succeed, it is only one of several environment-related riders the GOP is seeking to sneak into various pieces of upcoming spending legislation, including proposals that would block the EPA from regulating agricultural runoff and limiting toxic air pollution from cement kilns.

The president had called Boehner to congratulate him on passing those pointless trade agreements. But Boehner wanted to talk about how Obama had accused the GOP of not having a jobs plan. That won’t fly with hard-charging House Speaker John Boehner! According to Boehner’s summary of how cool and in control he was on the phone, Boehner had no time for these congratulations. “I want to make sure you have all the facts,” Boehner said, according to Boehner:

“The speaker told the president that when he sent his jobs plan to the Hill, Republicans pledged to give it consideration, and have done so,” the release stated. “The president was reminded of a memo written by GOP leaders outlining the specific areas where they believe common ground can be found. The Speaker also noted that a number of the president’s ideas have already been acted on in the House, including a veterans hiring bill, trade agreements, and a three percent withholding bill approved by the Ways & Means Committee today that will be considered on the House floor this month.”

According to Boehner’s account of the call, Boehner then put on sunglasses and got on a motorcycle. Also he was smoking the whole time, coolly. Then Boehner continued not holding votes on anything important while Eric Cantor repeatedly and blatantly undermined him to the press and the most conservative members of their caucus.