This new polling is remarkably good for the president, displaying that nearly two-thirds of Americans approve of him and a shifting sense that the country is going in the right direction; since he took office, those who believe the country is on the right track have gone from 15 percent to 39 percent. Of course, the Times will make some weird observations:
The poll showed signs of continued political division: 57 percent of people who said they voted for Senator John McCain in November said they disapproved of Mr. Obama's performance.
Hard to believe that Obama has only won the approval of 43 percent of people who didn't want him to be president.
Amid evidence of a surge of populism in response to abuses on Wall Street, respondents said by more than two to one that Democrats cared more about the needs of people like themselves than Republicans did. Seventy-one percent of Americans said Mr. Obama cared more about the interests of ordinary people than about large corporations.
That's perhaps the most impressive finding in the poll -- it appears that the president's efforts to ride out populist anger have been succesful (so far). But that first finding is making congressional Democrats very happy going into the midterms.
Mr. Obama's push to increase income taxes on people making over $250,000 a year was supported by 74 percent of respondents. When presented with the possibility that taxing those in the higher income bracket might hurt the economy, 39 percent of those polled still backed the plan.
That's just ridiculous. Not the idea that 3/4 of Americans believe returning to Clinton-era tax rates is a good idea, but that the Times thinks it's possible that those tax increases "might hurt the economy." It's pretty well established that those brackets will only effect 2.2 percent of "small businesses," some of which are likely to be individuals who file as independent contractors. Oh, and small business grew faster under the old tax rates.
Be sure to apply all the usual caveats about polling -- snapshot in time! follow the trend! I don't read polls! Even after you do, rest assured that David Axelrod is a happy fellow this morning.
-- Tim Fernholz
