02/24/2009 (11:26 am)
Poll Problems for Republicans
Today’s blog chatter focuses on polls (WaPo, Times, Gallup) that show the President’s approval ratings riding high after his first month. Despite the partisan spin on the polls that we should expect by now from the Democrats’ press poodles, these polls really do spell some serious problems for Republicans.
It’s not the headline polls that are so bad, though. Obama’s approval ratings at this point are right in line with approval ratings for new Presidents at this point in their terms, just one month in. In fact, Jules Crittenden actually discovers some growing weakness in the numbers, with Obama’s negatives doubling in the past month (from 12% to 24%) and the number of people with no opinion about him dropping (from 21% to 13%). He somehow misses the fact that nearly all the weakening is occurring among Republicans; Democrats and Independents still like him as much as they did. Crittenden also informs us that the Presidents whose 1st-month numbers were the best were 1-term Presidents (O, let it be so!)
The more disturbing numbers appear over the topic of bipartisanship. Greg Sargent (not a guy I admire) actually has the best read on this, observing that the majority in the CBS/Times poll actually would prefer Obama sticking to his campaign promises over his working in a bipartisan fashion. The Republicans in Congress, on the other hand, should be working in a bipartisan fashion, according to a full-throated 79% of those polled by CBS. Greenwald, at Salon.com (a guy I admire even less,) notes the same, and is positively crowing about it.
Now, this is not all that surprising for a President in his first 100 days. The country generally would prefer that Congress go along and give him an easy start, rather than immediately whacking him with partisan opposition. However, most Presidents don’t begin their terms with massive power-grabs by the government that promise to top the previous record deficit by a factor of 4. And the fact that the public is still wishing for a pleasant honeymoon after the stimulus whopper and Obama’s grotesquely inept management of his own cabinet appointments tells us either that they’re not paying attention, or worse, that they’ve bought the Democrats’ definition of “bipartisan” — which is, “Republicans should shut up and go along with Democrats.”
Either way, what we’re seeing is an enormous hurdle Republicans will be forced to leap if they’re to gain any traction in the coming years. The public has drunk the Kool-Aid. They’re on board with the press. They want Republicans to go away, and they want Lightworker Obama to perform his Magic. When things start turning sour (as the current policies inevitably must cause to occur, because they’re just plain bad policies,) they may even blame the Republicans for “talking down the President’s plan.” Prophets are seldom rewarded when their prophecies of doom come to pass; more often, they’re blamed.
By the way, it should not be necessary for me to say this, but due to the vicious lies of hard leftists that are already spreading, I’m forced to: there is no part of me that wants President Obama to fail. I would be the happiest man in the universe if my estimation of his character and my predictions for his performance turned out to be completely wrong. The only possible good that could come from the disaster that I’m anticipating is that people would get a solid lesson in just how evil progressivism truly is. It’s a lesson I would have hoped we would not have to learn. However, the disaster is inevitable given the man and his policies. Brace yourselves.
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6 Comments »
Comment by RM
The polls may be good now, and the public has no doubt drunk the kool aid, but there are a lot of people out there who hate the bailouts and the stimulus package. And many others have an uneasy feel about them even if they haven’t expressed it. They aren’t ready to eat crow yet, but there are a lot of people out there in that 52% who voted for him, who have to be wondering now about what the **** is going on.
Unless the economy starts coming around pretty soon, the love affair will start to end. The conservative and moderate part of that 52% who voted for the ‘thoughtful’ Democrat may dig their heels in for a while longer (it hurts to admit you erred in judgment), but if things keep going wrong, they will turn on him. And they will turn with a vengeance.
I could be wrong but anyone who is not a die hard lefty will not be able to ponder a 5000 or 6000 Dow and the wreckage of their 401K and say with a straight face, “Yes, he’s doing a great job. This is what we hired him to do. Hope and change.”
Comment by walkercolt
Oh, but RM, they already can blame Bush for this mess – they already have, with O’BamBam’s “we inherited this economy from…” comment a couple of weeks back.
Democrats are operating on their own dictionary on these polls, too.
Bipartisanship:
1) when GOP is in control, dissent. Because dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
2) when we are in control, “shut up and do what we tell you to, regardless of your own principles and beliefs, and to hell with dissent!”
One only hopes the kool aid comes with an amphetamine this time, and people will wake up. Maybe a growth hormone too, so they also grow up.
Comment by RM
I hear you loud and clear, walkercolt. Maybe my hopes are too high. But the Reps did not sign on to the stimulus bill. Obama basically got exactly what he wanted. I think there will be so much carnage over the next year, people may get tired of hearing, “Bush did it”. Obama, by then, may own it. At least at this point I’m not letting myself believe he can go for four years blaming every mishap he stumbles on or creates on Bush. He’ll try for sure, and the press will help him, but I’m not sure he can make it stick for four years.
Comment by Chris
The problem is that people haven’t seen the costs yet of the socialist agenda that’s being foisted upon them. When they see their taxes go up, and jobs disappear, and their retirement in ruins, then they’ll begin to see. Until then, more kool-aid!
Comment by Robert
You want Obama to fail? Seriously? I hate him. I hate his guts. I hate everything he stands for. I hate his arrogance, I hate his profession, I hate his smug smile. I can’t stand him, I detest him, and I can’t believe that Republicans stood by and let him buy the White House. I still think McCain threw the election, I wonder, do Democrats have pictures of McCain naked with farm animals or something? Why doesn’t he just “cross the aisle” permanently and take that committee chairmanship you know they’d give him in appreciation for getting Obama elected.
Just think how much better off the world would have been had enought people thought the same way I do about Hitler…
Robert
Comment by Phil
Do I want Obama to fail?
Since writing the piece, I’ve realized that the question itself is a classic leftist tactic. If we even consider the question, the issue is not about Obama anymore, it’s about my wants. Sorry, not playing anymore. (And, yes, Robert, I know you’re not a leftist.)
My feelings about Obama personally are irrelevant, and whether I want him to succeed or not is also irrelevant. The first (but lesser) relevant point is, none of us over here on the right are going actively to take measures to make him fail, apart from our Constitutionally-protected role in a deliberately adversarial system. Leftists did that to Bush; they did everything in their power, including lie, cheat, forge documents, invent scandals, and commit serious crimes up to and including treason to embarrass, discredit, and cripple Bush’s policies. Active measures to cripple policy; that’s working as America’s enemies, and that’s what the left did during the Bush years. But we’re not going to do that. It’s not in our nature; and even if we wanted to (we don’t), sadly, we won’t have to.
That’s the second (and greater) relevant point: Obama will not succeed or fail based on the wishes of Republicans, but on the correctness of his policies and his ability to govern. This is the simple fact Democrats hope to obscure, because now that they have power, they know that the most natural thing in the world will be for the people to blame them for what happens next, and they want to make sure that does not happen… unless things get better. But they honestly don’t think things are going to get better soon.
The truth is, Obama’s ability to govern is nil — he’s just as much a neophyte as we all claimed, and his opening moves have been politically savvy but administratively inept — and his policies are brainless and hopeless. The only good thing so far is that Obama has quietly embraced a handful of the sound foreign policy choices of the Bush administration (contrary to his campaign rhetoric) so there’s at least a prayer of continued safety, although his overtures to radicals in Syria and Gaza portend much worse things. Beyond that, Obama has sealed the fate of the nation for decades, and even if liberalism suffers a complete and permanent repudiation in the next election (not likely) we’ll be at least 20 years undoing the damage of Obama’s first month.
Whether I want him to fail or not is completely and utterly irrelevant. He’s failing without my assistance, and whether I like it or not, he’s taking me down with him.
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