With horrific events unfolding in Norway, the usual back-and-forth and who’s up and who’s down in American politics seems petty and small today. File this away for early next week, when we can return to our usual domestic passions:
CNN’s latest poll, of adults, puts Obama’s approval at 45 percent and his disapproval at 54 percent. Among independents, the split is 39 percent approval, 59 percent disapproval . . .
John Boehner, interestingly, has a 43 percent favorable, 32 percent unfavorable split.
A surprisingly high 46 percent of respondents say they “never heard of” House majority leader Eric Cantor.
Majorities think everybody should compromise more.
When Democrats were asked, “Do you think the Democratic party should renominate Barack Obama as the party’s candidate for president in 2012, or do you think the Democratic party should nominate a different candidate for president in 2012,” the survey found 77 percent thought Obama should be renominated; 22 percent wanted someone different. That’s a bit lower than I expected, but the number has bounced between 76 and 83 in the past year or so.
Fascinatingly, only 78 percent of Republicans think “the policies being proposed by the Republican leaders in the U.S. House and Senate will move the country in the right direction.” Another 19 percent think they’ll move the country in the wrong direction.
Of course, in the minds of the respondents, the “policies” could be the McConnell plan, could be the Gang of Six or Seven, could be Cut, Cap and Balance . . .
May the opposition to Obama's terrible rule not peak too early!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't give much consideration to the opinions of people who favor raising taxes, but have no clue who Eric Cantor is because they obviously aren't paying very close attention. It would be interesting to know how many Americans would favor a compromise on the debt ceiling that includes spending cuts and tax hikes if the tax hikes aren't limited to millionaires and billionaires and increasing taxes on business owners would increase consumer prices and delay job creation.
More importantly, would most Americans favor tax hikes if they knew the additional revenue would be spent rather than used to pay down the deficit? Increasing revenue so Washington has more to spend and can cut less gets us no where with regard to reducing the debt and ending Washington's addiction to spending. It just delays the ultimate disaster for another day.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJim Geraghty writes, with respect to the apparent terrorist attack(s) in Norway, “who’s up and who’s down in American politics seems petty and small today.”
I take the point that details and intricacies of polling and percentages for each of many candidates are not, of and by themselves, vital. There is, however, a larger issue directly related to “who's up and who's down.”
In the long game that is our politics, who becomes president matters greatly. The “ups and downs” of the primaries are vital to us nominating, and electing, someone who will be a leader. A strong leader.
Someone who won't go about the world bowing and scraping, giving apologies and projecting weakness. Someone not ashamed to stand tall for America, and convince would-be terrorists that the price of attacking us will be high, indeed.
This matters greatly, and even seemingly insignificant events, like the poll of very few folks in Ames, Iowa, can have an impact far greater than a single terrorist incident.
Of which, there are, partly due to our current weakness, far too many.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen 46% of those polled don't even know the name of the majority leader, it kind of puts the wisdom of polling in perspective, doesn't it?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr is it Mr. Geraghty, that now that the perp in Norway has been shown to be as a white, self-described fund. Christian, nationalist, CONSERVATIVE...and not a Muslim, you aren't that keen to discuss it?
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