Media polls set narrative, and this am the WaPo releases their 100 day assessment:
Barack Obama's performance in the first 100 days of his presidency draws strong public approval in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, but there is decidedly less support for his recent decision to release previously secret government memos on the interrogation of terrorism suspects, an initiative that reveals deep partisan fissures.
There's a split on releasing the torture memos, and on the important question of investigations:
Overall, the public is about evenly divided on the questions of whether torture is justifiable in terrorism cases and whether there should be official inquiries into any past illegality involving the treatment of terrorism suspects. About half of all Americans, and 52 percent of independents, said there are circumstances in which the United States should consider employing torture against such suspects.
An important point to remember, however, is that the popular and persuasive Obama has not made his case yet for what he's decided to do, let alone actually decide. Popular and persuasive? Yep.
ABC/WaPo, all adults, Moe +/- 3
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?
4/24 69
3/29 66
2/22 68
Add to that, it's 42 strongly approve and 18 strongly disapprove. And for perspective, the closer to the artificial 100 days deadline we get, the better Obama is doing:
In another important measure this is at least the third poll showing right direction higher than wrong track:
Right Wrong No
direction track opinion
4/24/09 50 48 2
3/29/09 42 57 1
And for the inevitable comparisons to his predecessors:
Nearly two-thirds said Obama has accomplished "a great deal" or "a good amount" in his first three months in office. In a Post-ABC poll at the 100-day mark in Clinton's first term, 37 percent said he had done that much. A majority, 54 percent, also said Obama had exceeded their expectations, significantly more than had said so of Clinton or Bush at the outset of their first terms.
This is another key finding. Don't forget that by 100 days, Bush had one foreign policy confrontation (Bill Kristol, ever reliable, called him "weak on China"), while Clinton was in trouble over his handling of 'don't ask, don't tell'.
But while Bush might have faced initial criticism that he was still in Clinton's shadow, his 100-day report card might show that he has avoided Clinton's early problems. There has been little of the distracting side issues in Bush's administration that marked Clinton's early days -- nothing on the scale of the gays-in-the-military controversy that seemed to sidetrack the previous president. And avoiding those early traps, Bush's supporters said, is exactly what the president wanted.
In fact, as it turns out, avoiding work of any kind was exactly what that president wanted. So Obama's numbers are all the more remarkable given the context of a stimulus package and an unpopular bank and auto bailout.
There are the usual "Obama does better than Congress" numbers that all the polls show, but WaPo made a point of noting something we have been tracking for some time:
There is a warning sign for the GOP in the new poll: 21 percent of those surveyed said they identify as Republicans, the fewest to do so in a Post-ABC poll in more than 25 years. Last fall, Democrats outnumbered Republicans at the polls by the biggest margin in network exit polls going back to the 1982 midterms.
How many times have we told you? No one wants to be a Republican. Daily Kos: getting the news a year in advance.