Keynoting BlogHer White House Project
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Feb
23
I’ve had the idea for a post about this subject in my head since yesterday morning, but the New York Times release of this NYT/CBS poll about support for President Obama and disdain for Republican rejectionism has made push come to shove and I really need to write it now.
First, from the poll (the full pdf is here):
Americans are under no illusions that the country’s problems will be resolved quickly, but the poll suggested they would be particularly patient when it comes to the economy, with most saying it would be years before there was significant improvement.
A month into Mr. Obama’s term, with his first big accomplishments, setbacks and political battles behind him, more than three-quarters of Americans said they are optimistic about the next four years with him as president. Similar percentages said they think he is bringing real change to the way things are done in Washington and that they have confidence in his ability to make the right decisions about the economy.
The ratings for Mr. Obama at this stage of his presidency are similar to those given in the early months for Ronald Reagan, who was the last president to take office with the country looking to be led out of economic gloom.
But far more damning for Republicans, and absolutely no surprise to many people outside the Beltway:
As the president addresses Democrats and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday evening, he does so with a sense among most Americans that he is trying to make good on his pledge to bridge the partisan divide. About three-quarters of those polled, including 61 percent of Republicans, said Mr. Obama has been trying to work with Republicans. But only 3 in 10 Americans said Republicans are doing the same, with 63 percent saying that Republicans opposed the economic stimulus package primarily for political reasons rather and policy concerns.
About 8 in 10 Americans said Republicans should be working in a bipartisan way rather than holding fast to their policies, the poll found, with almost three-quarters of Republican respondents agreeing that bipartisanship was preferable.
Slam the poll anyway you want, it’s not the first one to return results that send a similar message: Americans want relief, and results. And they do not see Republican rejectionism of all things stamped, connected to or otherwise affiliated with President Barack Obama as a means to either end.
Now, carry this down into the states, and into local politics, and into locales themselves. When it comes time for a state’s voters to select a U.S. senator or a member of congress, how many voters will believe that the best people for the jobs are the people who are telling us already – here and now – that they will say no, no, no to the administration’s desires? Just because those desires come from the administration? That they will sit and conference and get concessions – only to still vote no? That they will create ploys that look like stands on political principles, only to sell-out their state’s residents? Not to mention, we’re talking about candidates who, for the most part, are members of what already is the minority party in the Congress?
Don’t believe what I’m insinuating: that Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot, even while they think and they try to convince people (and obviously not with great success) that they are standing on principle and that this is a time when it is important to do so?
All you need to do, to see how GOP candidates already are hedging their bets on that being the case, is read what even Rob Portman, the Ohio GOP’s alleged silver bullet candidate for the 2010 Ohio U.S. senate race, is telling people as he starts to campaign in Ohio:
On the economy, Portman said he agrees that an economic stimulus package is necessary but said the recently passed $787 billion bill would not develop new employment opportunities.
“I expressed my view, which is that I think there should be a stimulus package. But I believe the one that Congress passed has too much spending that is unrelated to job growth, and grows government instead,” Portman said. “And if there was a better way to do it, it would have been targeted spending and then more significant tax cuts … especially for small businesses.”
Very typical party line, plus a certain reminder that he’s not saying he would reject Obama or the money for Ohio, per se, but that he would have rejected Obama and the money until and unless the proposals looked – just like – a Republican-crafted proposal. The problem being, of course, that the American voters, through their votes across the senate and the house of representatives and the White House, have indicated their preference for a Democrat-crafted proposal.
That’s how it works in a democracy – which Republican rejectionism also is, implicitly and explicitly rejecting, like a sore loser.
I look forward to when someone asks and Portman answers whether, if he were Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, he’d reject the federal money. Would he sound like California’s Republican Gov., Arnold Schwarzenegger who is embracing the stimulus assistance, or like South Carolina’s Republican Gov., Mark Sanford, who claims he’s going to reject it all?
But, again, the point here is this: the American voters, by and large, do not want this Republican rejectionism and do not value it. And when it comes time to vote in 2010 and in 2012, this calculation by some of the purported leaders of the GOP is going to go down as having as grave consequences as the last most prominent Republican’s miscalculations about American voters had – miscalculations that lost the GOP the White House.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:41 pm February 23rd, 2009 in Barack Obama, Bobby Jindal, Congress, Democrats, Economy, Government, Ohio, Politics, Poll, Predictions, Republicans, Taxes, Voting, Whitehouse09, democracy, leadership, rob portman, senate
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6 Responses to “[poll] Republican rejectionism is, itself, rejected”
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Ghastly Republicans see the results of the Obama election. The stock market is crushed. Where is Obama headed?
The grim reaper walks out of Wall Street. He has more trimming to do. Who’s next?
GM and Chysler will feel the blade. The banks clutch their throats. Rich men walk away pockets are pulled inside out. The lowly are safe for now, but time is America’s friend.
A world war will end the unemployment.
The future is clear. We have always been a nation of free men. Socialism is not likely to succeed in America.
It sounds to me that liberals believe that bipartisanship = capitulate. Boehner and McConnell met with Obama in good faith and offered their version of the stimulus, along with cutting out a lot of pork. Obama and the Pelosi/Reid took one or two ideas and ignored the rest. The stimulus is a waste and I would not have voted for it, but oh well. It passed so now we must wait and see.
Jill, you have it backwards. The Republicans in Congress are trying to listen to the grassroots this time around. Prior to the election, Republicans were poking the grassroots in the eye as they joined Democrats in voting for bailouts. It didn’t help them in the elections.
At the local level, Republicans are not agitating for the GOP to change its basic tenets. Instead, they are agitating for Republican officeholders to adhere to the basic tenets because for so long they’ve been trampling the basic tenets.
I’ve been to some local Republican gatherings recently, and I can tell you that grassroots involvement is picking up steam even though this is an “off-year” for elections. I know what Republicans are saying to each other. They fault Bush and Congressional Republicans for exploding the size of the Federal government, which is contrary to basic tenets, thereby exploding the deficit, and they fault Paulson and Bush (along with the likes of Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, and Franklin Raines–tip of the iceberg, for I know there’s a lot more names that can be named) for leading the nation’s transformation from the liberty-loving, individual-empowering U.S.A. into the socialist, centrally-planned U.S.S.A. That Obama and Congressional Democrats want to explode the size of government even more, explode the deficit even more, and continue down the path of socialism even farther are all non-starters for Republicans at the grassroots.
I don’t know why you even care what the Congressional Republicans are doing at this point. As you said, the Democrats have the control. Therefore, go ahead and urge your Congressional Democrats to forge onward without the Republicans. The Congressional Democrats don’t need the Congressional Republicans. That’s reality. The Congressional Republicans are voting “no” because we grassroots Republicans are finally bending their ear.
As for Rob Portman, you have indeed illuminated a large chink in his armor, and that is his penchant for Keynesian economic thought along with his service in the Bush Administration that ignored some basic Republican tenets. If challenged in the 2010 GOP primary, Portman might be vulnerable to attacks on this front. However, if he succeeds in securing the GOP nomination, I don’t expect that either Jennifer Brunner or Lee Fisher will be able to capitalize on Portman’s vulnerability on that particular issue because they are both much further to the left than Portman.
I wonder why it is that those GOP “Grassroots” remained so muted during the period 2001-2009. You know, about the doubling of the national debt and all.
Additionally, while it may be true that those once-slumbering “grassroots” on the right have awakened, rubbing their eyes at a Democratically controlled presidency and Congress…the American people, by a significant majority (see latest polling) think highly of Obama’s plans, and look favorably on Congressional Democrats’ efforts…but not so much on the Republicans’ obviously hypocritical catcalls from the cheap seats.
An attack on American soil will sober everyone up.
Is Jill reading polls? Take a survey after one year and after two years. Angry citizens will be in the streets.
Hope isn’t an answer. When the stimulus money is gone so will be the president. Time is his enemy. Preaching policy and wishful thinking beyond a first term is problematic. He obviously doesn’t have an answer. He has borrowed money and hope.
“Hope this works,” says the man defusing a bomb. Obama only gets one term, one chance just like the bomb defuser. After four years he better have answers or boom.