Obama Faring Better At National Security Than At Domestic Affairs
Given that the conventional wisdom last year held that national security was a weak point for Obama, and given that Obama was elected largely due to our dire economic situation, it really is striking that he’s doing significantly better on national security issues than on domestic ones.
The internals of the new Washington Post/ABC News poll tell the story (click to enlarge):
More approve of Obama’s handling of international affairs (61%) and terrorism (57%) than they do of his handling of the economy (56%) and health care (53%), the two top domestic issues. More approve of Obama’s handling of Iran (52%) than approve of his handling of the budget deficit (48%) and the auto giants (45%). Other recent polls have shown similar findings.
Some of this could reflect the enormity of our domestic challenges and the extent to which the public is focused on them. That said, a lot is going on internationally, too — Obama is preparing to withdraw from Iraq, he’s dealing with Iran, and he’s closing Guantanamo. These policies are getting him attacked daily as weak on terror and indecisive in dealing with international crises.
The fact that Obama’s highest marks are coming in the realm of international affairs and terrorism is yet another reminder that his election also represented a decisive victory in his argument with Republicans about national security and foreign policy issues, something that goes a bit under-appreciated.
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Greg
For some reason using the period between paragraph breaks isn’t working now but I am going to try to format this anyway.
I found another question in the poll that I wanted to point out because it snowballs with something Nora O’Donnell said on Tee Vee a minute ago.
What I want to know is who exactly is this old style “tax and spend Democrat” they speak of? Deficits have historically been a LOT better under Dem Presidents and yet the MSM continues to aide and abet the Republican party by spreading this meme.
SG — that is fascinating. old habits die hard…and btw, when you say the period isn’t working, you mean you have no way of doing separate paragraphs?
Well I couldn’t do paragraphs in the other thread but then I figured I would just use html code to make the paragraph breaks this time and it worked. Sucks for anybody who doesn’t know code though.
okay, SG, thanks, and apologies for the difficulty. I’ll have the tech people check this out, too…
Good catch, SG. Back to Josh Marshall’s point that DC is wired for Republicans. Torture is enhanced interrogation techniques. And the profile of a Democrat is tax-and-spend. Even the alternative–Obama is a new-style Democrat who will be careful with the public’s money–is bogus because, if he is, BHO will only be in their for so long, but the horrible new bureaucracy will mow down everything in its path. Remember, the government can’t do anything right.
Another thing that may explain Obama’s numbers on foreign policy vs. domestic policy is that he has been a lot more decisive and willing to fight for his position on foreign affairs, but on domestic issues, he has shown little inclination to confront the powers that be responsible for the problems and has allowed them too much room at the table. If he would take a stronger stand on such things as the public health option instead of equivocating on the co-op option designed to gut any threat to the insurance industry or going after the Master’s of the Universe who brought us the present economic mess, I suspect that his domestic numbers would be a lot better.