Poll: Obama earns nation's trust

[NJmaverick]

Source: Politico

Three months into his presidency, Barack Obama stands out as perhaps the most trusted figure in American politics.

In a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO national survey of 1,000 registered voters, Obama outdistances figures on both the left and the right in earning the public’s trust, with two-thirds of respondents saying they trust the president “to identify the right solutions to the problems we face as a nation.”

Of those who said they trust the president, 31 percent said they trust him “a great deal.” An additional 35 percent said they have “some” trust that Obama will find the correct solution. Thirty-one percent said they trust Obama either “not very much” or “not at all.”

Voters were asked the same question of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Republican Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and the two major political parties. Among those choices, only the Democratic Party was trusted to find the right solutions by a majority of voters, 52 percent to 40 percent. Forty percent of those surveyed said they trusted the Republican Party, compared with 54 percent who did not trust the GOP.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21213.html

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It's good to see the public at large is still very much behind our President.

[lunatica]

1. Well there's proof now that he finds right solutions, so trust is being earned

It's not just blind trust which is never a good idea. I must say that my trust was increased by how he handled the pirate situation.

[NJmaverick]

2. That's a good point. The trust is now becoming based on proof

rather than a sense of the man.

[Betty]

3. the percentage who don't trust him

is about the same as the the percentage who thought bush was doing a good job. Those people are pretty much never going to budge, reality has no effect on them.

[izquierdista]

11. They need to be beaten down more

Once they reach the point that the words of a country/western song sound like an improvement, THEN they maybe they will be able to understand how they blundered into the quicksand and who is going to pull them out. I'll do my part by laughing in their face.

[acmavm]

4. Now watch. Politico says something 'bad' about Obama or a dem

and people here deride them as a souce. Watch the opposite happen now.

[NJmaverick]

5. Does positive news about President Obama bother you?

[acmavm]

6. No, not at all. It's just that one day this media outlet is BAD BAD

BAD and the usual derision of using Politico as a source is all over the place.

But now they say something good. Is it okay to use them now?

That's all I want to know.

What are the 'official' standards.

[NJmaverick]

7. Most feel that Politico has a Republican tilt

considering that it was founded by Republicans it would seem to be a fair bet. Still, I am not sure why you would discount a poll that goes against their interests. If anything coming from Politico would only strengthen it's reliability since they would have preferred to report on negative results.

[brentspeak]

18. Politico has a corporate/Wall St. tilt, not necessarily "Republican" or "Democratic" tilt

K-Street Democrats are just fine with Politico. An Edwards or Dean-type populist Democrat, on the other hand, would have the Politico hacks burning the midnight oil coming up with all kinds of attack articles.

[Demit]

8. I'd say the standard is, follow the money, and the past affiliations, and always take what they say

with a large grain of salt:

The Politico is financed by Robert Allbritton, chairman and CEO of Allbritton Communications, which owns tv stations in Washington and elsewhere, and is an affiliate of Disney-owned ABC. Robert L. Allbritton is CEO and chairman of Riggs National Corp. (Riggs Bank laundered money for Pinochet in 1999.)

Frederick J. Ryan Jr., president and CEO of The Politico, is former Assistant to Ronald Reagan and current chairman of the Board of the RR Presidential Library Foundation.

CBS News partnered with Politico.com for campaign 2008 coverage. As did The Washington Post, aka General Electric/NBC/MSNBC/CNBC, and ABC News.


The Politico is the very definition of establishment/insider media. Why do you think it sprang forth in 2007, fully formed, as the go-to blog, by TV and newspapers? When there were so many previously established blogs already covering politics? I'd say always doublecheck what they say with other, less cozy with beltway insiders, voices.

[Frances]

9. Are you saying that the poll

UNDERstates Obama's support as well as the Dems' support?

That would seem to be the logical conclusion.

I do agree that Politico is biased toward Republicans. It seems to me that there are more right winger comments than Dem comments when I read the comments on their articles.

[Demit]

10. No, I'm not questioning the specific circumstance of the poll. I was responding to the poster who

was asking about the credibility of Politico. I'm cautioning that Politico is not at all an independent news agent. It represents powerful interests, and that fact will always inform whatever information it presents as well as how it presents it. It's not like Fox News with its obvious agenda of being anti-Democrat and anti-Obama. It's more subtly controlling than that.

[brentspeak]

19. Exactly.

Politico exists to PR for the Beltway way of U.S. government.

[RainDog]

12. I voted for Obama. I support Obama. but...

if he does not uphold our constitution and hold the torture-planners responsible for violating our treaties, he will lose not only my support, but the support of people from around the world... support which the U.S. needs in order to defeat the problem of terrorism.

I'm waiting to see how this issue plays out - however, it is an absolute deal-breaker for me.

And if he fails to uphold the Constitution, that will be the nail in the coffin for my belief that it is possible to change the system from within - or change it at all. At that time, I will have to admit that we are, in fact, a fascist state no matter who the face of the executive branch may be.

at that point, voting would seem like a sort of "Potemkin Village" show and I will not bother any longer to support the facade.

[pat_k]

13. Protecting government officials who ordered Americans to torture

. . . from prosecution is more than a deal breaker. It makes Obama, Holder, Panetta, et al., accomplices to War Crimes.

And pointing out this stark truth does not make one an "Obama-hater." Is it "tough love."

Those who commit crimes can't destroy us -- we designed our government to deal with criminals, however high their office. Only the corruption and dereliction of those we charge with enforcement can take us down. Bush and Cheney committed war crimes, but they didn't turn the USA into a War Criminal Nation. Pelosi and those who tolerated and tacitly endorsed torture by refusing to demand impeachment did that. And the high officials who refuse Act to prosecute the torturers are ensuring we Remain a War Criminal Nation. (And any "leader" who "denounces" torture, while protecting torturers from prosecution, needs to be condemned, not applauded.)

Right now, the battle for the soul of the nation is not between people who label themselves "liberal" or "conservative." It's between those who tolerate the harboring of torturers and those who refuse to; those who are willing to continue as a War Criminal Nation and those who are not; and those government officials who are acting in accord with their oath of office and those who aren't.

With our foundation in ruins, anything our so-called "progressive leaders" manage to build will be as lasting as a castle built on quicksand. There can be no real progress toward "a more perfect union" until we confront the truth, admit that the failure to impeach was monumental failure that can never be erased, and must never be repeated, and Finally Do what duty demands and prosecute Bush, Cheney, and their co-conspirators.

[Mari333]

14. what you said. nt

[Pastiche423]

15. This is imperative!

Many years ago, when I 1st heard the words uttered by Gerald Ford, "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over" I knew that that nightmare was being swept under the rug. I thought then and know now, that if we did not deal w/the criminals, the crimes against our Consitution would coninue over and over until that rug turned into a mountain.

Will Obama flaten that rug?

[Iowa]

16. I agree with everything you said...

I would add that to allow such crimes to go unpunished encourages even worse abuses in the future, and moves us ever closer to being the "subjects" of a tyrannical government of the type our founders fought and died to overthrow. And when combined with Obama's position on habeas... well, I find it difficult to "trust" a guy who says one thing and does the exact opposite - especially on matters that strike at the very core of what it means to be free:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/11/bagra... /

And I would add that the battle for the soul of the nation is also between those who will tolerate gross infringements upon liberty, and those who will not. This is something that people from almost ALL political persuasions should be able to agree on, yet we continue the slide toward tyranny. Party affiliation means less with each passing day.

[Bigmack]

17. What can you say about a country....

where 29% of the respondents trust Rush Limbaugh?

Trust of Obama or whoever in the White House is transitory. Look at Dumbya after 9-11 compared to when he left office.

But Limbaugh is, was, and will be the same junky gasbag.

And 20% of the people questioned trust him.

Game Over!