Just watched Obama's town hall meeting in Indiana. Based on the post-event cable yakking, it seems to have done the trick. The main thing Obama hadn't really done to this point, a very fair criticism from those who are doubtful that the stimulus bill in its current shape can jolt the economy, is reframe the bill away from "spending" (bad) and toward "saving jobs" (good). He did that today.
He talked a good bit in his prepared remarks about education and school construction. The Senate took out some money along those lines that the House had kept in. I wonder if he was signaling that he'd like to see some of that money put back in the final version.
Anyway, he's on pretty solid ground. Inside the Beltway last week, the view was he was getting killed. Two polls are out today saying, not really. Gallup:
The American public gives President Barack Obama a strong 67% approval rating for the way in which he is handling the government's efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill, while the Democrats and, in particular, the Republicans in Congress receive much lower approval ratings of 48% and 31%, respectively.
The GOP congressional rating is 31 up, 58 down. Republicans may not understand economics, but I think they can read polls. The second one is from CNN, via Eric Kleefeld at TPM:
Yet another poll, this time from CNN, shows that President Obama is viewed very positively in the legislative battles over the stimulus bill, while the Republican Party remains the unpopular player in this gameObama has a 76% overall job approval and 23% disapproval. On the economy specifically, his rating is 72%-28%. Meanwhile, Congress has a very poor rating of 29%-71% -- but it quickly becomes clear that this should be not be simply laid at the feet of the majority Democrats, and is instead the GOP's fault.
The Democratic leadership in Congress has a solid rating of 60%-39%, while the Republican leaders are at 44%-55%. Furthermore, respondents said by 74%-25% that Obama is doing enough to cooperate with Republicans, while they say by a 60%-39% margin that Republicans are not doing enough to cooperate with him.
As for the stimulus bill itself, it is currently favored by a 54%-45% margin. If it becomes law, 16% expect it to do a lot to help the economy, 48% expect it to help somewhat, and only 20% say it won't help.
Meanwhile, interesting tidbit from Ben Smith at the Politico:
My colleague Carol Lee reports that Indiana Republican Senator Dick Lugar won't accompany President Obama to his home state tomorrow, despite an invitation from the president.
That's a rare occurence, and it's especially weird in this case because when Obama was a senator, he and Lugar were pals. And, remember, Obama won his state. I don't wanna jump to any conclusions here but it wouldn't shock me to learn that Lugar checked with the RNC while mulling the invitation.
Meanwhile II, Florida GOP governor Charlie Crist will appear with Obama tomorrow in Ft. Myers. That is a rare occurence too.
All good fun. TomaskyTalk coming tomorrow morning on Obama's first press conference tonight.
