There’s a lot of interesting data in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, most of which I consider positive news for the president and the Democrats. The president has a 46% approval rating. Congress has a 9% approval rating. Congress’s approval rating has fallen 22% since the Tan Man took over the House of Representatives. The president’s approval numbers appear to be relatively stable, but his 46%/46% approve/disapprove rating has slipped from 49%/39% since the January New York Times/CBS News poll.
Two-thirds of Americans feel wealth should be shared more equally, and 70% think Republican policies favor the rich.
Congressional Republicans are viewed even worse than the president, with 71 percent of the public saying the party does not have a clear plan for creating jobs. And support for several other Republican proposals is more tepid than for Mr. Obama’s initiatives to lift the economy.
Only about a quarter of the public said that lowering taxes on large corporations or repealing the entire national health care law was a good idea. But half of the public favors reducing or repealing regulations on businesses in the United States.
So, here’s the deal. The people aren’t buying anything the Republicans are selling. They aren’t interested in repealing ObamaCare. They want higher taxes on the rich, not lower. They oppose cutting corporate taxes. They don’t think the Republicans have an economic plan, and they don’t like any of the Republican ideas that are presented to them. They hate Congress, never more so than since the Republicans gained so much power at the beginning of this year. If McConnell and Boehner keep it up, their approval rating may go lower than the poll’s margin of error. Seriously. They’re polling at 9% approval. And, what’s more, they hate the Republican presidential candidates. Even the Republicans hate them.
With the nation’s first Republican nominating contests just two months away, a large majority of primary voters have yet to make up their minds about the candidate they hope becomes their nominee. About 8 in 10 Republican primary voters said it was still too early to tell whom they will support, and just 4 in 10 said they had been paying a lot of attention to the race.
Mr. Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, is riding the latest wave of support among Republican primary voters that has placed him in a statistical dead heat with Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Support for Mr. Perry has weakened to 6 percent, placing him among the second-tier candidates with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Representative Ron Paul of Texas.
Does anyone else think that the Governor of Texas should be polling better than six percent? I know he’s not a good debater, but neither was Bush. Did you notice how all his support vanished instantaneously when he said that denying discounted in-state tuition to the children of undocumented workers is heartless? Despite an almost ludicrously conservative record as governor, with one hint of compassion and empathy, his campaign seemingly went up in smoke.
So, here we are. It’s Romney versus the guy with the stupid commercials who has no campaign infrastructure whatsoever. It’s the guy who killed Usama bin-Laden versus the human flapjack.
I wish I knew that we are going to win this thing. I can’t even imagine losing. If we do, it will because of this:
Not only do 89 percent of Americans say they distrust government to do the right thing, but 74 percent say the country is on the wrong track and 84 percent disapprove of Congress — warnings for Democrats and Republicans alike.
McConnell’s Plan has ramped up distrust of government to a near universal level. And that is what the Republicans will work with.
