A new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll shows that now is a very good time for President Obama to make the shift to talking about jobs and pretty much nothing but jobs. His attempts to beat the Republicans at the deficit game wasn't working three weeks ago, and it still isn't.
The poll showed a significant decline in trust in President Obama’s ability to make the right decisions about reducing the deficit. Back in July, the poll found 46 percent of voters trusted the president to make the right decisions about how to reduce the federal deficit, while 34 percent trusted Republicans in Congress more.
It's not a fight he's likely to win, but on jobs, he can. He's two points behind the GOP in the public confidence in making decisions about the economy, 38 to 36, but that's within the poll's margin of error. The more he talks about jobs and taxing the wealthy, the better he's likely to do. Witness what the public likes most in debt reduction proposals:
So the public is a little schizophrenic, trusting the GOP more on deficit reduction, but preferring Obama's proposals, essentially the contradiction he's always going to be up against.
Here's the bottom half of public approval for proposals, the stuff people really don't like.
Note what's second to last: raising the eligibility age for Medicare. Good thing that's out of Obama's proposal. Hopefully the Catfood Commission II won't try to resurrect it. It's a political and policy loser.
12:14 PM PT: It's not just National Journal, btw. Greg Sargent details six recent polls showing solid support among moderates and independents for raising taxes on the rich.