Below The Beltway

The latest Newsweek poll contains both good news and warnings for President Obama:

Despite the tumbling economy, Barack Obama continues to enjoy a honeymoon with the American public in the face of the most trying crisis any newly inaugurated president has encountered since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The GOP, meanwhile, is viewed by a majority of Americans as the party of “no,” without a plan of its own to fix the economy, and even rank-and-file Republicans are concerned about the party’s direction, according to the first NEWSWEEK Poll taken since Obama assumed office.

“People give Obama credit for reaching out to Republicans, but they don’t see Republicans reciprocating,” says pollster Larry Hugick, whose firm conducted the survey. “A surprising number said bipartisanship is more important than getting things done.”

Overall, 58 percent of Americans surveyed approve of the job Obama is doing, while 26 percent disapprove and one in six (16 percent) has no opinion. Although his approval ratings are down from levels seen a few weeks ago in other polls, 72 percent of Americans still say they have a favorable opinion of Obama—a higher rating than he received in NEWSWEEK Polls during the presidential campaign last year. The president’s rating in this poll is consistent with estimates provided by other national media polls in the last week.

At the same time, the public remains deeply skeptical about the specifics of the policies that the President is putting forward:

Majorities of Americans think too much has been spent so far to help rescue large banks in danger of failing and domestic auto companies facing bankruptcy. A somewhat surprising majority (56 percent) supports nationalizing large banks at risk of failing—a policy the Obama administration has shied away from. And fewer than half of those polled (49 percent) say they support Obama’s proposal to allow the expiration of tax cuts for those with incomes above $250,000 at the end of next year. (Forty-two percent say they oppose ending these cuts.)

This is no doubt frustrating on many levels for Republicans.

In my recent polls, the public is clearly expressing the same sorts of doubts about Obama’s politics that Republicans have been voicing. Yet, at the same time, Obama remains personally popular and the GOP remains unpopular.

Why the disparity ?

Part of the reason, I think, is that the public has had it with Republicans for now:

The biggest problem for the GOP, according to the poll, may be that 58 percent of Americans believe that Republicans who have opposed Obama’s economic-rescue plans have no plan of their own for turning the economy around. With the Republicans having lost the White House and both houses of Congress, public identification with the party has dropped to a recent low point of 26 percent, after running at or near 30 percent for most of the last 15 years. That’s the lowest level since the Watergate era and a striking loss of stature for the party, considering that self-described conservatives continue to outnumber liberals in the country by nearly two to one (39 percent vs. 20 percent).

This, I would submit, is the legacy of George W. Bush and the Republicans who controlled Congress while he was President, most of whom are now the face of the Republican Congressional opposition. Clearly, it’s going to take more than just the end of the Bush Presidency for the public to forget about the past eight years.

The other reason can be found in this CPAC anecdote that Stephen Green relates:

At CPAC in Washington last week, I got to spend a few minutes with PJTV’s Bill Whittle and novelist Andrew Klavan, picking the brains of Michael Barone. Barone reminded us that Americans are a “magnanimous people” who want “firsts to succeed.” As our first Catholic president, Jack Kennedy’s poll numbers rarely dipped below 70%, even after bad calls like the Bay of Pigs or scarily close calls like the Cuban Missile Crisis. “His numbers actually went up a bit,” Barone said. He thinks something similar might be true of Obama as our first African-American president. People will, quite simply, want him to be a success — even if they don’t necessarily agree with what it is he’s trying to accomplish.

As long as that’s the case, Republicans are likely yelling into the wind.