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Things are looking up? Pres. Obama and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon in WH Situation Room. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The first major poll from CBS News/New York Times taken after Osama Bin Laden’s death shows the event has produced a significant 11-point bump in President Obama’s job approval numbers. From CBS News:
The poll found that 57 percent of Americans generally approve of Mr. Obama in the wake of the raid in Pakistan. Two weeks ago, when bin Laden was still America’s most-wanted terrorist, the president’s overall approval rating was at 46 percent. A whopping 85 percent of those polled gave Mr. Obama high marks for his handling of the operation to find bin Laden.
While we will still need to wait for other major pollsters to weigh in before we know the extent of the bump, this event has at least temporarily improved Obama’s standing with the American people.
Looking at other parts of the poll, don’t expect this increase in approval to last long. As I previously said, despite the temporary excitement, the issue of terrorism and the wars were ranked extremely low by Americans and are not seen as things that have a strong effect on day-to-day life. The really big issues for voters are jobs and the economy, and on that front, Obama is having serious trouble. The same poll found only 34 percent approve of his handling of the economy, a new low. People will stop thinking much about this incident with bin Laden in only a few weeks, but the economy isn’t going away.
29 Comments
My first thought was why didn’t O wait to do the OBL action until 10/12.
Is that when they’ll get Zawahiri?
This is just the kick-off to his campaign, we haven’t seen the climax or finalé yet.
It also probably goes a long way to pushing out even further the entry of Republican candidates into the race, which is one of the best things Obama has going for him at the moment.
Well on February 26, 2008 the Clintons stated, in reference to Obama’s prior statement that he would “take out” Osama in Pakistan if the Pakis were unwilling or unable to do so, that “bombing” Pakistan is a bad idea, so now although McCain and the Clintons in the 2008 primaries opposed entering Pakistan to go after Osama, does it really matter?
Bush I got a bump after invading Iraq. The timing for Obama’s bump is better, but it’s not going to help him in 2012 any more than Bush I’s bump helped him 20 years ago.
No doubt the eleventy mention chess stratergery will become clear to us great unwashed at some later time.
This gives him a nice little bundle of ephemeral political capital. Now is not the time to keep the powder dry. Notice the Republican talking point about “he’s trying to politicize this”? They are trying to head off any attempt by Prez O to use this political capital before it dries up, because the see that it will be effective. Won’t work. The WH is in full campaign mode. Nobody is stupid enough to take a political risk (of the operation failing) this big without having a plan to capitalize on it. Prez O may leave much to be desired as a Prez, but he runs a mean campaign.
On a similar note, what is the deal with a ceremony “celebrating” the assassination of ObL at the WTC? Seems in really poor taste to me, but this whole operation is not addressed to me. Looks like a way to whip up a bit more capital while the opportunity is available.
You are proabably right, but O has some political capital at the moment, if he were smart and gutsy, he might try to leverage that capital to get some of his appointments quickly confirmed in Congress and then let the actual work that they do propell even more political capital.
Following up this with the confirmation of a dozen judges, would start a momentum going.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Jon Walker:
I would like to suggest that progressives stop playin’ the “horse race” game and instead follow the money and keep yellin’ about it. Progressives and communities like FDL can learn everything we can about the “war on terror” and keep rippin’ the cloths off of the terrorist emperor but we must keep makin’ the connection back to the economy, jobs, fascism and the democracy movement both in this country and in the Middle East.
Citizen Walker, please don’t play the game of who is up and who is down and what the “people” think of all this…let Obama and his corporatist handlers play that game. We must keep usin what is learned about this entire dangerous game that the oilagarchs played for the last 10 years to connect to the real issues of jobs, taxes and the world-wide democracy movement. Obama is not the enemy here, he is simply a politician who has the support of only one faction of our ruling oligarchy so in order to win he’s gunna hafta give us what we need in the next 18 months and not in words and promises but in deeds. Keep your eyes on the prize and keep speakin’ for the people that Obama will need to win re-election. And we do that by not makin’ Obama “the enemy” and certainly not by playin the shell game of commercial politics.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, WE ARE ALL EGYPTIANS NOW!!
This sort of a bump is generally short-lived, especially when the economy is as way-jacked up as it is right now. And when the debt ceiling shit hits the fan, the OBL news is going to be pushed right off the front page – or down below the fold, at least. In the end, the election is going to turn on the economy. The OBL hit is nice window-dressing for a campaign spot, but in the final analysis, it’s all about the (lack of) money.
As for the OBL hit per se, I’m most curious about the contents of the mag media that were (allegedly) picked up. We may never hear about it, but…
Shep Smith and others over at Fox Noise are unhappy about Obama getting OBL they are calling the Presidents action Illegal. Hears the Video
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/04/shep-smith-bin-laden-illegal_n_857356.html
Bingo. Making BO the enemy is just another distraction that keeps us unfocused, dithering and doing the completely unproductive “Us vs. Them” thing…which is precisely what the oligarchs want us to do. We must not play their idiotic game. We’re smarter than that.
FoxPac is just doing what they do. They have to really reach on this one, but that’s never deterred them before. Just make the shit up and keep on moving. That’s their game.
Timing of it all is interesting. Will take some more time to connect all the dots & see how it pans out. Of course the rightwing had their typical nonsensical (but very pallitable to their ever eager audience) talking points lined up & were spewing them out almost within seconds of Obama’s announcement.
Whatever… I can see this definitely being used in the 2012 campaign, and I suppose it may influence *some* segement to vote for O. But I think it’s more likely that jobs and economy will weigh more heavily in the 2012 campaign than this. Just my take.
Of course, if the PTB want O to win, then O will win no matter what. Let’s get real. Given the line-up of stooges & clowns on the Repub “stage” at the moment, O looks like a genius, more’s the pity. I don’t believe that’s accidental.
The Fox audience doesn’t give a sh*t about facts, truth or reality. All they want is some red meat of “us v. them” and they’re good to go.
Bright Shiny Object. What else is going on?
Citizen Shoto:
Indeed, now you’re gettin’ it Citizen. So here’s what I have been tryin ta tell folks around here for about 6 months now and I’m gettin real disappointed that at least some of the “cool kids” and progressive blog-brain trust haven’t picked up the thread.
The coalition within the ruling oligarchy is divided into two basic factions: The Northeastern Banksters and the Southern and Southwestern oil cowboys. The 2 major instruments of state power, the military and the civilian security apparatus, are the instruments of control that each faction balances against the other and as long as both are bein’ fed and growin’ fat there is relative political “peace”. Whenever there is a “war”, however, at some point the balance tips and one faction (Wall Street banks) begins to understand that the economy can not sustain itself and that whatever created the opportunity for war (in this case the extinction of oil reserves) must be dealt with and the engine of the economy retooled. That’s where we are right now, the military has thrown in with the banksters and the civilian security state (CIA) has been retaken by Panetta and the banksters and now the politics of “terror” must be extinguished or it will end up eating the Golden Goose.
I agree with you and Shoto.
David Dayen has a fresher cross-post already in progress: The Gang of One: Conrad Introduces His Own Budget Plan
HA!
NYTimes
57% approval, up from 46% last month
Democrats: +7 to 86%
Independants: +11 to 52%
Republicans: +15 to 24%
And there you have it, the reason FOX is going nuts. If they lose the authoritarian followers, they have nothing left. Aristocrats hate democracy, since they still need the little people to vote for them. At this demographic point, they can’t afford to lose any votes.
Thus the propaganda, reeking of desperation. “ObL isn’t really dead. Bush gets all the credit, Obama gets none. Torture made it possible. This was illegal. This is being politicized. ObL doesn’t matter any more.”
As soon as a few cracks in the dam appear, with low-information righties saying “well, at least he did one thing right, maybe he isn’t all bad”, they’ve lost.
I will say that Osama did what he set out to do…he bankrupted this country, made us live in fear with the help of Bush and company and made us a very hated country that seems to have lost it’s soul. So if he’s residing with 10,000 virgins mermaids, he should feel more accomplishment than some of our very much alive politicians.
More likely use it to pass the “Grand Compromise” budget he is dreaming about.
If I remember correctly, on September 10, 2001, Bush’s approval numbers were in the tank. On September 12, 2001, Bush’s numbers had levitated into the 90s. It didn’t escape the notice of the supporting cabal that war was good for them, and off we went. We’re a primitive emotion species.
Why can’t I get past the notion that in that picture Tom Donilan looks like Tim Conway?
Jokers.
This is on point: http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=841 Oh, yes, about all those ongoing domestic nitpicks. This country has become one long high school pep rally.
Mr. Walker, I think you underestimate the power of jingoism. U.S. “voters” salivate over it. The buffoonery of waving American flags over the death of one man and whose death doesn’t really change any of our policies demonstrates what a short sighted and easily manipulated populace we are. Remember the huge row over Obama not wearing a flag lapel pin or supposedly not saluting the flag.
Furthermore, being caught up in the fake presidential horse race, as some have said here already, is merely a distraction.
If we are going to waste time on horserace horseshit, we might as well frame this event properly. The percentage of voters in 2012 who will state explicitly they’re voting O because he killed Bin Laden 18 months prior will be near zero. But, O’s enhanced “effective/strong leader” perception will also bolster his economic/jobs cred among undecided vs any Republican. Its simply a matter of degree.
Approval polls don’t matter to these politicians. The politicians are not listening. The only polls to which the politicians will listen are the polls of their corporate and superwealthy campaign contributors.
Bush the First was removed from office because he didn’t comply with the MIC, he didn’t want to occupy Iraq, like Bush the Lesser.