A host of recent polls have been very positive - both for Obama himself and for progressive policies in general.A Pew poll shows Obama at 61% approval with only 26% disapproval ratings, with 60% agreeing that the government needs to do more to regulate the financial sector (with only 31% opposed), and by a 54% to 36% margin Americans feel Obama's economic plan will reduce the deficit in the long term.
A recent CNN poll revealed that only 26% of America agrees with Dick Cheney's recent claim that Obama's policies have increased the chances of a terrorist attack against the United States, while a resounding 72% disagree. That 26% pretty well tracks Cheney's normal personal approval numbers, and the percentage of Americans who agree with almost any of his policies. But its a bad sign for the GOP - when they can't sell America on fear, they have a tough time winning elections.
Heck, more Americans polled feel their taxes are fair rather than too high. This as we watch the Fox News promoted "tea parties", where small groups of right wingers protested Obama's tax policies (even though all of them making less than $250,000 were getting tax cuts) and the expansion of the federal deficit in general (although strangely most of them were silent while Bush was running up deficit records).
Obama is also the most trusted current political figure, and 71% specifically trust him to fix our economy.
Much of this is the early support of a popular new President, elected with a clear mandate, who has been following through on his campaign promises. But part of it also has to be attributed to the comically poor nature of the opposition party. Following its massive defeats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the GOP is still staggering about aimlessly, trying to find leaders and a message (one different than their usual stale platform that has been soundly rejected at the ballot box). When your public face consists of such crazies, has-beens, and not ready for prime time players as Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, and Rush Limbaugh - something has gone very wrong. Ironically, many Republicans tried to convince themselves that their party's political ills were all due to Bush's low personal approval ratings. Yet compared to that group, he looks like the most sane, reasonable, well liked leader they have going for them.
Well done, you hit every single Dem talking point on the tea parties.
ReplyDeleteFox News - check
Right Winger - check
"why are they crying, they're getting $400 more a year" - check
"Bush had a deficit too" -check (BTW what do you think was one of the big reasons for the low approval amongst Reps, his Dem like spending plans)
Any real thoughts of your own on this topic or are we pasting from Huffington and firedoglake?
P.S. Notice the more you make the less you think taxes are fair? Any correlation there maybe? How can anyone making $30k a year think their taxes are too high, they pay NO INCOME TAX!!
Haven't read either of those blogs you mentioned in a while, but I'm certainly not surprised that many people have noticed the same basic facts. I mean it wasn't exactly a secret that Fox News was heavily promoting the tea parties. Or that most of the protesters were getting tax cuts under the current plan. If I'm understanding you right, you aren't really disputing the facts, just upset with the messengers. Fair enough, I guess.
ReplyDeleteFox news covered the events, kind of a stretch to say they promoted them, although an Obama supporter who is used to media acting as a promoter I can see how you would be confused.
ReplyDeleteTell me this though, what good is this extra $13 a week if it means hyper-inflation as a result of printing all this extra money.
In short yes, I do dispute your version of the "facts", although you did not really present facts, just poll results. This tea party movement is beyond normal rep/dem battle lines, there is palable anger here and yes it does go back to Bush's drunken sailor spending (Viagra for old folks, NCLB to name a few). But as bad as Bush was, how was the deficit trending before the housing bubble burst? Kind of like Clinton's surplus before the dot com burst no?
There are pretty funny compilations all over the web of the Fox News "coverage" leading up to the tea party events. If what they did didn't qualify as promotion, then its hard to picture what would have. Their network stars were even telling viewers which city they would each be at, and encouraging people to attend and bring their families. But this is 2009 - its not like anyone is still debating if Fox News is a right wing operation or not.
ReplyDeleteThe recent polling actual highlights that the tea party movement doesn't go much beyond the normal GOP/Dem lines. The majority of the American people wanted Obama's policies, voted for those policies, and still approve of them. The majority polled think their taxes are fair as is, which is a stunning number when you think about it. There are also some great clips online of people trying to speak at the tea party events and getting booed for criticizing Bush's deficits (you were only supposed to criticize Obama and the Dems apparently). Have you seen the polling numbers on the overwhelming Democratic support of the Obama policies? This is not a bipartisan thing in any way.
The bottom line is the tea party folks have a right to be angry about whatever it is they were angry about (fascism, socialism, taxes, spending, government in general - the gripe seemed to change with each person being interviewed at them). But we tried it the GOP way for 8 years, it was a disaster, and America voted overwhelmingly in 2008 to try it the Democrats way. Obama was clear in the campaign he would raise taxes on the very rich, while lowering it on the middle and lower classes. So they can be bitter that he is following through on what he was elected to do, and Fox News can try to gin up right wing populist outrage, but the reality is they campaigned on their policies and track record in 2008 and lost.
I remember hearing many of the same complaints from the right wing in 1992-1993. Clinton was going to destroy the economy, tax people into poverty, and end the American way of life as we know it. There are some great quotes from key Republicans at the time about how bad things would be. 8 years of peace and prosperity later, it looked a little foolish. Let's hope for America's sake the same thing plays out again here.
ONe big thing about Billy C, he had a rep. congress to keep him in check. Do you honestly think welfaree reform would have happened under a dem. controlled congress?
ReplyDeleteYes, the tea party movement is a bit disjointed right now. But as someone who was at three of these events last week, trust me when I tell you this goes beyoned rep/dem lines. There is real frustration with the entire Washington (and Sacremento) culture right now. I heard names like Dodd, Specter, Murtha, Pelosi, Arnie a lot more than Barack last week. I think Obama gets a bit of a pass (but not much) because he is still new to the scene relatively speaking but people who try to dismiss this movement out of hand as a fringe conservative movement are vastly underestimating the potential here.