President Obama is receiving mostly plaudits for his address at the memorial for the victims of last Saturday's violent outburst in Tucson (Joan Walsh in Salon called it his finest speech as president, while noted Obama agonistes Brit Hume and Charles Krauthammer waxed absolutely positive)
Brit Hume: “It wasn’t a memorial, it was more like a pep rally, but I think that is precisely what the people of this region needed and wanted.”
Chris Wallace: “It was a very powerful speech, the most powerful moment was when he talked about Gabby opening her eyes.”
Charles Krauthammer: “He did his speech in a very skillfully, successful way.”
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac University on Thursday released a new poll (taken before last night's speech) showing Barack Obama's poll ratings at 48%, the highest such survey by that organization since October 2009.
And those improve ratings aren't just being shown by Quinnipiac.
An AP-GfK survey released Wednesday found that 53 percent of Americans approve of how Obama is doing his job, what the poll says are his best numbers "since the divisive health care vote 10 months ago."
And though Gallup's daily three-day poll is apparently not taking polls every three days, the last survey that polling organization produced also had Obama reaching 50%, for the first time since late May/early June of 2010.
What can we attribute the numbers to? Obviously, much of it has to do with the flurry of legislation that was approved in the waning days of the 111th Congress – that lame-duck session that perhaps produced more legislation during the time between the end of an election and the beginning of the new year ever.
And the fact was, though there had been a lot of Republican obstruction, the bills passed: repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the New Start treaty, a bill for the 9/11 responders, a bill on food safety, were all pretty darn popular with the American public. And then there was the huge $858 tax cut plan that enraged many of the President's supporters, but in fact was embraced overall by the public (though that same public had shown in earlier polls that they didn't want to see tax cuts for the rich enacted).
As every political commentator under the sun has speculated, the President is shifting to the center, as there will now be over five dozen new Republicans in the House, while Democrats barely maintain an edge in the U.S. Senate.
Going back to last night's speech, apparently not everybody in the county thinks it was a strong and moving event.
Namely, a lot of conservatives, taking their directions from the Drudge Report and other conservatives sites (especially over twitter) that somehow because the Tucson crowd was more lively and festive than one might have imagined for such a solemn occasion, Obama deserves the criticism of it. Oh well, at least he had some Fox commentators on his side, if just for one night.
And no question that the President
http://www.gallup.com/poll/145442/Obama-Job-Approval-Reaches-First-Time-Spring.aspx
In two separate questions, which allowed for any answer, voters were asked to name the president's best and worst achievements while in office. Twenty-six percent of voters named health care as the best thing the president has done, while an almost equal amount (27 percent) said health care is the worst thing he has done.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.