The man who promised Hope and Change, President Obama, apparently is having a very hard time convincing the majority of Republicans that he has the best interests of the United States at heart in his governance if this from the Pew Research Center is to be believed.
It is fascinating because in a strange way, President Obama's current 59% approval cited in the Pew article is not all that different from President Bush 43 at this point in his presidency. While the positive for President Obama is four points higher overall than President Bush 43, it is because at this point the so-called independent voters are staying with President Obama.
It is interesting to note that more Democrats had a positive feeling about President Bush 43 at this point than Republicans, 36% to 27%.
But, and this is what Team Obama has to worry about. Losing the so-called independents. That is when his overall numbers will come down significantly.
There is no danger of President Obama losing significant Democrat support. But, he will not gain any Republican support and it may go further down. And that effect could lose some so-called independent support.
If one follows the overalls at Real Clear Politics, the numbers are pretty standard fare for a president at this point of the first term in office. It is 62% positive, 32% negative and amazingly 6% with no opinion one way or the other.
So, what does all of this mean?
It means that Republicans are uniting and that can not be good for President Obama. If a united Republican party can look responsible, many so-called independents may be willing to take a look at the alternatives that they will offer in response to President Obama's proposals. Although my favorite is what The Other McCain writes often-IT WON'T WORK!-it is necessary to have some proposals in hand to show the voters that IT WON'T WORK! needs to have something that DOES work.
Now is the time for the Republicans to do just that.
Clearly, there may be no chance to actually influence any of the legislation that the Democrat congress steamrolls through. But, being ready to point out where IT WON'T WORK! and what the GOP would do differently shows voters that they GOP got the message. Although it took two lousy election cycles to do it.
The numbers for President Obama will go down. And more so-called independents will get less and less comfortable with a President Obama being a Car Czar. Or a Bank Czar. Or any other Czar. And, it is time for the GOP to shout from the rooftops-IT WON'T WORK!-and tell the American people what will work.
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