Ed Kilgore notes Gallup's latest findings that "85% of self-identified 'moderate Democrats' give the president a positive assessment. 79% of self-identified 'conservative Democrats' do so as well ... And overall, 60% of self-identified 'moderates' (including Democrats, independents and Republicans) give Obama a positive job rating."
Kilgore cites these stats to refute the conventional wisdom that Obama "is representing the hard-core lefty activist 'base' of the Democratic Party, shunning the moderates who want him to cut deals with the GOP to promote growth through 'entitlement reform.' "
He omits the job-approval stat from self-identified "liberal Democrats," which is 89 percent, the highest of all the ideological categories (there are 12) listed by Gallup--which raises an interesting circumstance.
If moderate/conservative Dems in Congress were somehow able to force negotiations that did require Obama to honor his stated willingness to enact entitlement reform, he'd likely lose a vast amount of support from his strongest base. Therefore GOP intransigence just might be the best thing (politically) he has going for him at the moment.
As usual, I'm a bit confused. If republicans feel that austerity is the best way to reduce the deficit and save the economy, then why do they get to blame the president if and when that fails? Just wondering why they feel they get to play both sides of the argument at the same time
Posted by: AnneJ. | March 01, 2013 at 04:47 PM
Politics and dysfunctional political media.
You're welcome. :)
Posted by: JTL | March 01, 2013 at 07:48 PM
Your last paragraph would be ominously true and frightening for President Obama. If he were running for office again.
Posted by: Peter G | March 02, 2013 at 06:59 AM
AnneJ, because the GOP knows that its desired policy is detrimental to its own base, so they have to try to manipulate the democrats into doing it for them, while they fight against the thing they want. That way, when they get what they want and their base gets screwed, they can blame the democrats.
Posted by: shsavage | March 02, 2013 at 07:53 AM
That's it nutshell shsavage. It is not about doing what is right in governance even if they recognize it. It is about doing what they want and blaming the Democrats for it. Defense spending in the US is massively overblown compared to the military threats face. It needs to be cut and the sequester seems the one way they can do that and shift the blame to the Democrats. Or at least try. It is not something they could directly vote for without exposing themselves to a primary challenge.
Posted by: Peter G | March 02, 2013 at 11:37 AM