McClatchy reports on new Pew polling that shows just how volatile the national mood is right now.
"By almost every conceivable measure, Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days," said the report from the non-partisan Pew Research Center.
The center said its new survey found "a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government - a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials."
A key finding: Americans oppose greater government control over the economy by a margin of 51-40 percent.
With the bruising health insurance reform debate and continued high unemployment and sluggish economy, those results aren't too suprising. But there is a major exception to that general distrust of and contempt for government--Wall Street.
A solid majority, 61 percent, do want greater government regulation of the financial industry, something that Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress are pushing now.
Obama and Congressional Dems need to push that advantage, hard, and not react to Republican stonewalling by watering down the bill. This, of all fights, is the fight to take the Republicans and to Wall Street.