by Damozel | On the eve of Obama's first address to the nation, a New York Times/CBS News survey shows that most Americans -- whatever other worries they may have -- still have a lot of confidence in Barack Obama and believe he can get the job done. Oh, and most aren't fooled by GOP posturing and obstructionism, though -- as ever -- the GOP's motto is: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and that's good enough for us." The New York Times reports:
So, with a 63% job approval rating -- "similar to the aura of good will that benefited Ronald Reagan as he led the nation out of gloom," the NYT points out -- Obama's still in what my dad used to call "the catbird seat" with respect to his plans. That's the case even if Republicans are still telling themselves that their too-little-too-late burst of so-called "fiscal responsibility" is going to fool people. Here's a bit more.
Most Americans said the president was trying to make good on his promise to bridge the partisan divide. About three-quarters, including 6 in 10 Republicans, said Mr. Obama had been trying to work with Republicans. But only 3 in 10 Americans said Republicans were doing the same.
On the economic stimulus plan, 63 percent of poll respondents said Republicans opposed the legislation for political reasons, not policy ones. Seventy-nine percent said Republicans should now be working in a bipartisan manner rather than holding fast with their policies.
But 56 percent of those surveyed said Mr. Obama’s priority should be following the policies he proposed during the campaign last year, rather than working with Republicans...Mr. Obama’s approval rating is about 10 percentage points higher than either George W. Bush or Bill Clinton were at this early stage of their presidencies. His job approval rating of 63 percent includes 88 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of Republicans..
The poll also showed that the public has fairly realistic expectations about Obama's ability to make the recession go away, or go away faster: approval or no approval, they don't think he's a magician. Interestingly, they approve his efforts to fix the economy without actually believing that his actual policies can accomplish all that he intends.
As Steve Benen says, the desperate bleatings of Republicans who boast that they've got their groove back (obstructing any legislation designed to help people survive) and are back in the saddle (obstructing progress) are shown up once again as the empty posturing that they are.
Glenn Greenwald, who worked out a long time ago that Republicans aren't interested in working together toward a common goal, has never had any time for the "people want a bipartisan president meme." He points out now:
Put another way, the reason that Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of Democrats in the last two elections and overwhelmingly against Republicans is because they want Democratic policies and not Republicans policies. They drove Republicans out of office in massive numbers because they don't want Republicans and their policies governing the country....[I]t's scarcely possible to imagine how a major political party could be held in lower esteem among voters....(Salon)
Of course, the poll shows that everyone outside the media and the Beltway already gets that. The problem is, as Greenwald points out -- once more, because he's been saying it over and over for years -- that the media and the establishment (including the Democrat invertebrates who populate Congress) don't get it.
Of course, nobody embraces this bipartisanship myth more than Democrats do, even when (perhaps especially when) they're in the majority. When Republicans controlled the White House and Congress during most of the last eight years, demands for "bipartisanship" -- even from Democrats -- were virtually impossible to find. Instead, Democrats were more than happy to meekly assume the complicit posture for which they became known, using their minority status as an all-purpose excuse as to why they couldn't stop -- and usually supported -- even highly unpopular Bush policies (such as the Iraq War). Yet now that they're in the majority, "bipartisanship" suddenly becomes not only the supreme Beltway religion, but the battlecry of Democrats as well -- the phrase that justifies everything from embracing GOP positions to allowing flagrant Bush war crimes and other lawbreaking to go unpunished.... (Salon)
The difference between the "bipartisanship" of Congressional Dems and the bipartisanship of Obama seems quite clear to this observer: Congressional Dems assume the position and stay in it to avoid taking responsibility for ... anything.
Obama, on the other hand, seemed sincerely if rather pathetically to believe till a couple of weeks ago that he could forge a working relationship with the GOP minority and work together toward a common goal. When this proved not to be the case, he speedily -- to his credit -- abandoned this notion, showing he's willing to do what it takes to try to fix things and to take responsibility for the outcome.
Let's hope the Democrats in Congress will learn by his example to find their spines. Er, well, fingers crossed!
And let's hope that Republicans will harken to Utah Gov Jon Huntsman, who "who let loose during an interview with the Washington Times, saying the GOP's leaders in Congress are "inconsequential" and that they've failed to move beyond "gratuitous partisanship""(Salon) to come up with any big new ideas for saving America.
Fortunately for humankind, it's looking more and more as if they probably won't.
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So, with a 63% job approval rating -- "similar to the aura of good will that benefited Ronald Reagan as he led the nation out of gloom," the NYT points out -- Obama's 30 day rating is the same as that of George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, the man whose eight years in office the Illinois senator so often denounced as destructive during the recent campaign.
Posted by: flowerplough | February 25, 2009 at 12:51 AM