Faced with irrefutable evidence of solid, national approval of the policies and performance of President Barack Obama, right-wing shills and pundits are trying out a new frame in the form of a back-handed compliment. You'll hear this new meme being test-driven on talk radio and FOX News panel discussions.
Paraphrasing Glenn Beck this morning, the tune goes something like this:
People like him as a person. He's well-spoken and certainly charismatic, but when you look more deeply into the polls, they don't approve of his policies.
They'll be tootling this one around town for the next couple of weeks, see how it handles and what kind of mileage it gets. As a public service, I thought I'd pass out a couple of spike strips.
Economic Stimulus
Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor National Survey. April 8-14, 2009
"And, who do you trust more to develop solutions to the country's economic challenges: President Obama OR Republicans in Congress?"
President Obama-55%
Republicans in Congress-26%
Both-3%
Neither-12%
Unsure-5%
Health care reform:
CBS/NY Times April 1-5
"Would you be willing or not willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans have health insurance they can't lose, no matter what?"
Willing-57%
Not willing-38%
Unsure-5%
Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor National Survey April 8-14
"Do you think the country would be better off or worse off if the president and Congress passed health care reform, or don't you think it would make much difference?"
Better off-45%
Worse off-20%
Not much difference-23%
Unsure-12%
Energy
Gallup Poll. March 5-8, 2009
"Would you prefer the government to increase, decrease, or not change the financial support and incentives it gives for producing energy from alternative sources such as wind and solar?"
Increase-77%
Decrease-8%
Not change-13%
Unsure-3%
Iraq
AP-GfK Poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. April 16-20, 2009
"Do you approve, disapprove or neither approve nor disapprove of Barack Obama's decision to end the combat role of U.S. troops and remove most but not all U.S. troops from Iraq by August 31, 2010?" If unsure: "If you had to choose, do you lean more toward approving or disapproving of Barack Obama's decision to end the combat role of U.S. troops and remove most but not all U.S. troops from Iraq by August 31, 2010?"
Approve-74%
Disapprove-21%
Neither-5%
CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. April 3-5, 2009
"Barack Obama has announced that he will remove most U.S. troops from Iraq by August of next year but keep 35,000 to 50,000 troops in that country longer than that. Do you favor or oppose this plan?"
Favor-69%
Oppose-30%
Unsure-1%
Cuba
Gallup Poll. April 20-21, 2009
"Do you favor or oppose re-establishing U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba?"
Favor-60%
Oppose-30%
Unsure-11%
I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Americans don't give Obama 60+ JOB approval ratings because he's cute, or talks nice, or is polite to his mother-in-law, or because of his darling daughters.
Americans approve of the JOB our president is doing. And they want him to continue on with the policies he's pursuing. And, as Richard Cranium notes a few diaries down, they'd rather not have Republicans' hands on the levers of policy right now, thank you.
This brief public service announcement brought to you by the Vor Institute of Counter-Propaganda.
All poll data available at pollingreport.com