People Like Obama, But They Don't Like the Republicans Nearly As Much

While American punditry goes through yet another round of hand-wringing about Obama overreaching, not succeeding, etc., the U.S. public has a clear idea of who's on their side - and who isn't.

A new national poll suggests that three out of four Americans approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, but the economic stimulus package he's trying to push through Congress is not nearly as popular.

Seventy-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday gave Obama a thumbs-up on how he's performing his duties, while 23 percent disapproved.

While the president puts on a full-court press, the debate over the $800 billion-plus bill -- which includes increased government spending and tax cuts -- appears to have split the public. A slight majority, 54 percent, favors the bill; 45 percent are opposed.

And there's a partisan divide. Three out of four Democrats support the bill, but that number drops to 51 percent for Independents and just 32 percent for Republicans. Nearly seven in 10 Republicans questioned in the survey oppose the bill.

Lets see, a majority of Democrats and Independents support Obama and the stimulus package and a majority of Republicans oppose both.  Republicans didn't get it on November 4 and they still don't.  But wait, there's more.

The survey indicates, however, that Obama and the Democrats in Congress do have some advantages in this political battle over the stimulus. Three out of four poll respondents said that Obama is doing enough to cooperate with Republicans in Congress, but only 39 percent feel that congressional Republicans are cooperating enough with the president.

Six out of 10 approved of the way Democratic leaders in Congress are handling their jobs. But only 44 percent of those questioned approved of the way Republican leaders in Congress are performing. Overall, only 29 percent said they like the way Congress is handling its job, with 71 percent disapproving.

That's far below Obama's 76 percent approval rating, which is higher than other recent national surveys by other organizations.

Emphasis added.  Those congressional numbers are interesting in that both Democrats and Republicans disapprove of Congress.  But if 60% of Democrats approves of the way their leaders in Congress are handling their job, it probably means that a good chunk of those Democrats believes Congress isn't doing its job because Republicans are messing things up.

The Gallup Poll pretty much has the same results.

So, if the Republicans don't want to become even more irrelevant, they better start listening to what the people have to say.