Strong presidents, with high pol #'s say:
"America will not be held hostage, now or ever. If Congress sends me a clean debt bill, I'll sign it. If not, I'll use the 14th Amendment and sign it in the 11th hour. ...By the way, we need to cut the debt. If both sides of Congress meet half way, I'll sign on to debt cuts any day of the week, but NOT linked to the debt limit. This is money we already spent. We need to pay our bills."
Approval for strong president: 68%
President Obama says (after the fold)--__-->
President Obama: "I realize that if the debt limit is tied to cuts it will be a political football for every president going forward. And we need revenue cuts as MOST Americans agree with. But...the tea party feels pretty strongly about this and I can find some middle ground. We'll take on a sacred cow like the military, cuts to Medicare (gee thanks), I'll hold out for revenue cuts on the campaign trail (and hope the GOP doesn't get mean with "revenue cuts" when it's time to negotiate the debt limit in 2012).
Approval for weak president: 28%
This is transparent. The people see.