Eric Alterman: You Are Only Coming Through in Waves

[dennis4868]

What a weird election. For all the hysteria, Barack Obama is still pretty much the most popular practicing politician in America, and his polls remain roughly where two-termers Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were during their first midterm elections. What's more, a recent New York Times poll found that while Obama's approval rating remains stuck around 43 percent among registered voters, about 60 percent of those polled say they are optimistic about the second half of his term and almost 70 percent predict the current downturn will be temporary. Rather amazingly, fewer than 10 percent blamed Obama and company for the economic problems, with the vast majority laying the blame where it belongs, on Wall Street and the Bush White House occupant. So why all the fuss?

Well, this being America, a great deal of easily exploitable ignorance is fueling the fire. Obama's healthcare reform, his financial reform, the stimulus, the saving of the auto industry, etc. make these two years among the most consequential in the past half-century. Yet according to a recent poll published in Politico, only 23 percent of respondents thought Congress accomplished more than usual, and a New York Times/CBS News poll found that fewer than 10 percent of Americans knew they'd gotten a tax cut, while three times that number were under the misimpression that their tax bite had gotten bigger. And how is it, one might fairly ask, that a 47-42 plurality told Bloomberg pollsters that they support a repeal of the healthcare reform law, but three-quarters of the very same people support a ban on insurance companies denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, 67 percent support allowing children up to age 26 to stay on their parents' policies and 73 percent want to keep more prescription drug benefits for those on Medicare? Um, these are the primary provisions of the law you people say you oppose. Hello?

See more...http://www.thenation.com/article/155850/you-are-only-coming-through-waves

A GOOD ANALYSIS OF THE ELECTION. We are dealing with an ignorant voting public. Most people have NO CLUE what is actually going on in Washington!

[DJ13]

1. only 23 percent of respondents thought Congress accomplished more than usual

Thats what happens when all the MSM ever talks about are the GOP talking points for two years.

The Democrats will never get a fair shake unless they either buy up their own news outlets, or they break up the media conglomerates.