Richard Tafoya
Feb 24th, 2009, 03:28 PM
Washington Post Plumline:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/poll-majority-doesnt-want-obama-to-be-bipartisan/
You routinely hear it asserted that the public wants bipartisan comity in Washington, but some striking numbers buried in the internals (http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20090224poll-results.pdf) of the new New York Times poll find that in the current context, precisely the opposite is true: Which do you think should be a higher priority for Barack Obama (http://whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Barack_Obama) right now — working in a bipartisan way with Republicans in Congress or sticking to the policies he promised he would during the campaign:
Working bipartisan way: 39%
Sticking to policies: 56%
Meanwhile, a huge majority says that Republicans should emphasize working with Obama in a bipartisan way over pursuing their policy ideas:Which do you think should be a higher priority for Republicans in Congress right now — working in a bipartisan way with Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress or sticking to Republican policies?
Working bipartisan way: 79%
Sticking to policies: 17%
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen poll numbers suggest this clearly that the public has no interest in bipartisanship for its own sake. The public doesn’t seem to care about the preoccupations of process-obsessed Beltway pundits, and seems to be looking at the “bipartisanship” question through the prism of what they want their leaders to accomplish in policy terms.
The only bipartisanship majorities want is for Republicans to help Obama realize his policies. Though the poll also shows some skepticism as to whether Obama’s policies will work in the long term, the above numbers would seem to constitute one of the most striking endorsements of the President and his agenda that we’ve seen yet.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/poll-majority-doesnt-want-obama-to-be-bipartisan/
You routinely hear it asserted that the public wants bipartisan comity in Washington, but some striking numbers buried in the internals (http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20090224poll-results.pdf) of the new New York Times poll find that in the current context, precisely the opposite is true: Which do you think should be a higher priority for Barack Obama (http://whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Barack_Obama) right now — working in a bipartisan way with Republicans in Congress or sticking to the policies he promised he would during the campaign:
Working bipartisan way: 39%
Sticking to policies: 56%
Meanwhile, a huge majority says that Republicans should emphasize working with Obama in a bipartisan way over pursuing their policy ideas:Which do you think should be a higher priority for Republicans in Congress right now — working in a bipartisan way with Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress or sticking to Republican policies?
Working bipartisan way: 79%
Sticking to policies: 17%
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen poll numbers suggest this clearly that the public has no interest in bipartisanship for its own sake. The public doesn’t seem to care about the preoccupations of process-obsessed Beltway pundits, and seems to be looking at the “bipartisanship” question through the prism of what they want their leaders to accomplish in policy terms.
The only bipartisanship majorities want is for Republicans to help Obama realize his policies. Though the poll also shows some skepticism as to whether Obama’s policies will work in the long term, the above numbers would seem to constitute one of the most striking endorsements of the President and his agenda that we’ve seen yet.