The New Reality

Despite wishful thinking from wingnuts, the reality is that Americans are not blaming Obama for the economy's problems, and in fact overwhelmingly approve of his efforts to fix it.

When it comes to assessing responsibility for the nation's economic plight, 80 percent said they put a "great deal" or a "good amount" of blame on banks and other financial institutions for taking unnecessary risks. The same percentage said they blame large corporations for poor management decisions. About seven in 10 blame consumers for overextending themselves with debt and the Bush administration for not vigorously regulating the financial industry.

Criticism of the banks, large corporations and consumers is roughly comparable across the political spectrum. But there is clear disagreement over whether Obama bears any of the blame, with Republicans far more likely to say yes than are Democrats or independents. Republicans, however, were as apt to blame the Bush administration for lax regulation as they were to target Obama for not doing enough to fix the problems.

Obama maintains a strong hand in his dealings with congressional Republicans. The public prefers his approach to that of the Republicans by more than two to one. But the percentage of independents siding with Obama has dropped 12 points, to 50 percent. Many of those independents in the new poll said neither has the upper hand in the economic debate. About a quarter of independents align with the Republicans on this question.

I wonder offhand just how many of these "independents"are in fact just disillusioned Republicans who have bolted from the Big Stupid Tent since the last election?

I'm guessing there's a lot more of them than there were six months ago. Even the die hard lifer Republicans have turned against Dubya, pretty much assuring that his legacy is that of "The Asshole Who Wrecked America" and will be for a long, long time.

This is also a big fat warning to Evan Bayh and his Sensible Centrist obstructionist buddies trying to wreck Obama's budget: the people prefer Obama by 2 to 1 to the Republicans. You'd better think about picking the right side in this fight, and soon.

[UPDATE] Bonus wingnut stupidity: Why should we care what America thinks when only Wall Street's opinions should matter?