Public still sky-high on Obama brand

[Adelante]

With Barack Obama’s victory in passing a massive stimulus package marred by days of bad press—as not a single House Republican backed the bill, his Health Czar went down in flames and his second pick for Commerce Secretary walked away—the administration has been cut down to size, and lost some of its bipartisan sheen.

Such, at least, has been the beltway chatter, but so far the numbers don’t back it up.

Obama’s approval rating remains well above 60% in tracking polls. A range of state pollsters said they’d seen no diminution in the president’s sky-high approval ratings, and no improvement in congressional Republicans’ dismal numbers.

-snip

“It’s eerie—I read the news from the Beltway, and there’s this disconnect with the polls from the Midwest that I see all around me,” said Ann Seltzer, the authoritative Iowa pollster who works throughout the Midwest.

-snip

A CBS News poll released February 5, for instance, found 81% of Americans said Obama is reaching out to congressional Republicans, while just 41 percent said the congressional Republicans were looking for bipartisanship.

“There have been a number of different surveys that have shown that Americans perceive that Obama is extending a hand of cooperation, a hand that the Republican leadership is not reciprocating—that’s very striking in the data,” said Mark Blumenthal, the editor of Pollster.com, who also noted that Obama has managed to remain popular even with some Republicans.

-snip

“I don’t think he’s lost anything in terms of overall job approval or favorability,” said Andy Smith, a pollster at the University of New Hampshire. “That’s just the a perception inside the Beltway that everybody outside Washington pays attention to politics and eats and lives politics the way you guys do down there.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18861.html

[maddezmom]

1. hey you!

Happy Valentines Day. :hug:

[Adelante]

3. Hi, Mom!

Happy Valentines Day to you, too :hug:

[pdxmom]

2. I was about to post about this. I have thought from the outset of the

argument about the stimulus that the Republics and the MSM just weren't getting it. The general public is tired of the partisan politics and just want answers and something to be done. Obama represents that idea and presents himself and his arguments in a rational and understandable way. The media doesn't get it and the chattering class can howl all they want, but people are making up their minds in spite of the spin, not because of it.

Obama has the bully pulpit and is using it well. The Republics are going to continue to suffer. They can either get on board or get out of the way. Of course they have differences of political opinion, but instead of stonewalling, they are going to have to start working with, not actively working against, Obama's ideas.

[Undercurrent]

4. Yes!

And the CNN poll says that 80% of Americans think that Obama is providing strong leadership for the country.

There's more... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8196629