People Turning Away from Obamanomics
Interesting new polling just out, and it is becoming clear that the American people, or at least those who were polled, are not as stupid as some have feared. While many will yawn at the headline, which states that Obama is behind where Bush was in popularity 50 days in - as with all polls, and life itself, the interesting stuff lies within the details.The details I find very interesting are the findings, and I quote from the article, not the poll numbers themselves:
Only less than a quarter of Americans believe that the federal government truly reflects the will of the people. Almost half disagree with the idea that no one can earn a living or live "an American life" without protection and empowerment by the government, while only one-third agree.That sounds to me like a complete disavowal of Obamanomics entire. More detail of how sophisticated this rejection of the lefty aganda really is lie within this paragraph:
Fifty-six percent of Americans oppose giving bankers any additional government money or any guarantees backed by the government. Two-thirds say Wall Street will benefit more than the average taxpayer from the new bank bailout plan. This represents a jump in opposition to the first plan passed last October. At that time, 45% opposed the bailout and 30% supported it. Now a solid majority opposes the bank bailout, and 20% think it was a good idea. A majority believes that Mr. Obama will not be able to cut the deficit in half by the end of his term.Interesting stuff, much of which contradicts the feeling one could get from watching major media reports and speeches made by administration figures. Looking around on any polling site (I prefer Rasmussen) will provide a wealth of information. Quite a bit of it looks promising to me. Like the fact that only 43% of Americans want government to run health care, which is 17% behind the place the people were at when Clinton failed to pass his version of it - and Obama's version promises to be more intrusive, more government, and less choice than the plan Hillary went down on in 1993. Only 27% see the need for another stimulus package. And only 23% believe the government reflects the will of the people. That may be a few more than thought so a few years ago under Bush, but it still falls far short of a mandate for radical action by those same worthies.
So, while I seldom make much of polling data, in these days we need to take out our prediction tools, if only to discern whether Obama will succeed in his stated agenda of Change. He will get change, that is unavoidable, but it appears that Obama's style of change is not the change we ALL believe in.