NEOAVATARA

This has been a common thread among the ever growing chorus of conservatives (apparently the biggest political block, if you believe poll numbers, which I am highly dubious about).   Is Obama’s policies as popular as the man?

Look, even I like Obama.  I know conservatives cringe when I say this, but liked Bill Clinton.  Both are guys I would like to hang around; Obama around coffee discussin existentialism, Billy Boy with a few beers in my backyard grilling.  My best friends tend to be liberal too.

That doesn’t mean I agree with them on politics.

The public…well, they appear to be having the same dichotomy.  In polls from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, both show personal popularity, while Obama’s polices drop in support.

“The public is really moving from evaluating him as a charismatic and charming leader to his specific handling of the challenges facing the country,” says Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducts the survey with Republican Bill McInturff. Going forward, he says, Mr. Obama and his allies “are going to have to navigate in pretty choppy waters.”

Obama’s job approval remains high (56%/63% within WSJ/NYT respectively…).  His job approval remains high on foreign policy (54%/59%).  The public is still split on Gitmo as well.  Generally, the public still does not blame Mr. Obama for any of the major problems going on.

Where he starts to have trouble is on the economy.  This was his strong suit early in the year.  But that has been plummeting as government intervention and the budget deficit increase, and unemployment skyrockets.  52% of people in the NYT poll said that government should not spend money to stimulate the economy, and should focus on deficit reduction.  A whopping 60% felt that the Obama Administration had no clear plan to deal with the deficit…a very powerful statement repeated in the WSJ poll.

Obama’s major initiatives are less well liked.  Less than half of Americans say they approve of how he is handling health care and the effort to save General Motors and Chrysler. Most people  said his policies have had either no effect yet on improving the economy or had made it worse, showing that his support on singular policies is limited.

Couple points.  First, let us be honest:  Obama may have received the best media coverage of any President ever in his first term.  Even independent analysis of positive and negative coverage shows that.  Show it is no surprise that he is ‘beloved’.  Hell, the theree major networks are crawling over each other to get him (or Michelle) on, becuase apparently they are the only way the news networks can improve their ratings.  Has there been any bad coverage of the President, anywhere?  The little negative coverage he has received has been from Fox News, or ironically the extreme left, which has been angry about his flip-flopping on issues like Gitmo and Gay rights.

Overall, what this means is that the American public is starting to look past Obama the person, and looking at him as Obama the leader.  He will still have a significant grace period, and that will give him the opportunity to do much of what he wants.  But what these polls show is that the grace period is not indefinite.