Today's New York Times write-up of its big poll leads as follows:
Overwhelmingly, Americans think the nation needs a fundamental overhaul of its energy policies, and most expect alternative forms to replace oil as a major source within 25 years. Yet a majority are unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources.
Well, this isn't exactly man bites dog, is it? I don't write about these kinds of polls very much, and the reason is that they generally tend to affirm that majorities of Americans have fairly progressive inclinations and think lots of shiny new things (like alternative energy) sound like pretty good ideas, but then they show that when it comes to paying for these things, support goes down. A decisive plurality of people want things both ways and just don't comprehend that it doesn't work that way.
The split on the gas tax question is actually pretty close: 45 in support, 51 against. (You can see the full poll results here.) But of course if something is 45-51 in America at large, the political reality inside the Beltway is in fact much worse than that, because of the power of the minority in the Senate and of the lobbies and their money, so you have to factor that in. So 45-51 in America means, like, 35-61 in Washington, which means no effin way. There are of course other taxes besides a gas tax, but the Times didn't ask about those.
This "Washington deviation" comes even more into play on the questions about regulation. People think both that regulations should have been stronger and that the ones that do exist weren't well enforced (see questions 49 and 50). But of course, talking about really increasing regulation and putting more money into enforcement of same counts as socialism in Washington.
There is some surprisingly good news for Obama in the poll, with numbers better than I'd have thought on questions like strong qualities of leadership (62%) and confidence in his ability to handle a crisis (53%). Most don't think he has a clear plan for the economy, but hey, even I don't think that.
