NEW YORK -- Obama Poll Woes

As this presidential race goes on, the more we get to know the presidential candidates, the more we don't like them. Here's Kathleen Frankovic, the CBS News Director of Surveys, "Last month 39 percent expressed an unfavorable view of Clinton. That's now 42 percent. 29 percent expressed an unfavorable view of McCain. That's up five points to 34 percent. Obama, however, shows the greatest change. From an unfavorable 24 percent a month ago, that figure has jumped 10 points to 34 percent."

The longer the campaign goes on, the more people think it's going on too long.  In the latest CBS News/New York Times poll however, "Democrats think that the campaign, the contest, will go on. Two in three say it will go on until the convention," says Kathleen Frankovic, CBS News Director of Surveys.

W.C. Fields used to say he never voted for anybody.  He always voted against somebody.  If you are so inclined, here are the latest unfavorable impression numbers.  The Reverend Jeremiah Wright hasn't helped Barack Obama.

Kathleen Frankovic, CBS News Director of Surveys says, "We saw some impact on opinions of Barack Obama in this poll from what we measured a few weeks ago. Unfavorable views of Barack Obama rose by substantially, by ten points among registered voters."

All of the candidates are now being held in minimum high regard.

"The opinions of Barack Obama has changed most in the last month. But negative opinions of Hillary Clinton and John McCain, his remaining rivals, have also increased in the last month. What that suggests is that this campaign is taking a toll on all candidates," says Kathleen Frankovic, CBS News Director of Surveys.

So the negative campaigning has been effective as such.

The Merry Minuet by the Kingston Trio contains the line, "and I don't like anybody very much."

Cures From Nature

Bio-diversity is not just desirable for us humans, it's essential. 

Dr. Eric Chivian, a professor at Harvard Medical School, is co-author of an important new book titled "Sustaining Life" says, "Our health and our lives depend on other species and the healthy functioning of intact ecosystems..."

Why should we care if a changing environment threatens some remote species?  Because it threatens us, argues Dr. Eric Chivian, "The information that other species provide us --- both in terms of medicines and medical research, and in terms of keeping infectious diseases in check, and in terms of our food supply like bees pollinating our crops --- we're totally dependent on the health of nature."

People lose bone mass when they're bedridden, yet hibernating bears produce new bone!  Dr. Eric Chivian, Professor, Harvard Medical School points out, "Denning bears may have substances in their blood that we need to understand, because they could really effectively treat or prevent osteoporosis."

Preliminary studies showed that a chemical compound in southern gastric brooding frogs might treat human ulcers, but that frog has become extinct.

"So the chemical that these tadpoles had --- the result of probably millions of years of evolution --- is essentially gone forever," says Dr. Eric Chivian, Professor, Harvard Medical School.

All amphibians are sensitive to climate change.

"Salamanders and frogs and toads are very important roles in ecosystems," says Dr. Chivian,.

As do we humans, but not for the better.

"But I think it's really a mistake for people to assume that it's 'too late' and the 'tipping point' has passed, because I think it's never too late for us to act in our own interest," says Dr. Chivian.

Soda-briety

If you're addicted to alcohol, you're called an alcoholic.  But now "aholic" has become a suffix that's used to describe addiction to anything. If you work too much you're called a workaholic.  Now South Dakota has begun a month long campaign to help people cut down on soft drink consumption.

"We have a lot of different kinds of sweetened drinks that people drink more of at this time of year and we would like to help them moderate that intake," says Kristin Biskeborn, State Nutritionist, South Dakota.

And just for fun they're calling it, "The Soda-Briety Challenge."
 
Supervising the "Soda-Briety Challenge" in South Dakota is the state nutritionist, Kristen Biskeborn. She says South Dakotans love names like "Soda-briety," "There are some darling names out there. From people, sometimes they're work-sites, sometimes they're families. There's the Chug-a-lugs. We've got several renditions of Water Buffalo. The Drinkin' Librarians. Water Regulators. All sorts of different fun names that people come up with for these challenges."

It's fun to regulate your water, because dehydration is no fun at all.  "People are going to record their water intake. We don't want them to over do. We want them to have moderation. But have a little fun, and try to encourage both themselves and their work-mates or others that they associate with to try to decrease their sugar-sweetened beverages," says Kristin Biskeborn, State Nutritionist, South Dakota.

Is it really fun though?

"It's always fun for people, but it's also serious in that people get a chance to practice a health behavior change. And we've found that people, about 75 percent of the people who participate improve that health behavior during the challenge and about 50 percent of them still have maintained that change months later," says Biskeborn.

The Mission Rages On

Five years ago today the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln had accomplished it's 10 month mission in Iraq and was nearing San Diego when President Bush landed on the carrier deck and made a televised speech.  Standing in front of a banner that read, "Mission Accomplished."

The White House says a private vendor made that banner at the request of the crew, whose mission had been accomplished.  But looking back,  the Bush administration wishes that banner hadn't been put up. And opponents of the war, and of the President, have had a field day with it ever since. 

Some things in Iraq had been accomplished five years ago, and in the times since says CBS News Military Consultant retired Army Colonel Jeff McCausland, "Certainly the government of Saddam Hussein has been brought down. The Iraqi army has been defeated. But subsequently now, we've been involved in really several different wars in Iraq. We've been involved in a war against a Sunni insurgency. We've been involved in a war against al-Qaeda. And now we seem to be involved in a war against different rival Shiite militia groups."

Five years ago today is when Paul Rieckhoff arrived in Baghdad as an infantry officer.  Today, he's executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. 

Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, "We've got to figure out how to create peace in the Middle East. How to rebuild the military after five years of combat, six years in Afghanistan. And we've got to think about how to care for all of the veterans who've served."

Whatever the brass on that carrier thought at that moment, including the Commander in Chief, says Rieckhoff, "I think most of the soldiers, especially at the lower levels, understood that this was going to be complicated and it was going to be long. I think it was a few folks in the suits, and bureaucrats in Washington that seemed to think that this was going to be quick and easy. Quite honestly I don't think they've studied their history."