What House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is selling, the public isn't buying. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that most Americans approve of President Obama's handling of the ongoing fiscal talks, but the same cannot be said of the nation's most powerful Republican.
Oddly enough, part of the Speaker's trouble comes from his own party. While Obama enjoys overwhelming support from Democrats, only 39% of Republicans endorse Boehner's handling of the debt-reduction talks. Those who identify as "very conservative" approve of the Speaker's efforts, but self-described "moderates" and those who are "somewhat conservative" do not.
It reinforces the larger perception that Boehner has impressed his base -- and no one else.
Making matters slightly worse, for the House Republican leader, a new Bloomberg National Poll shows Obama's approval rating reaching a three-year high, majorities of about 2-to-1 see the election results as a mandate to protect Social Security and Medicare benefits from GOP cuts, and nearly half of Republican voters agree that the president's re-election serves as an endorsement to raise tax rates on income above $250,000.
It's hard to say how much public pressure sways GOP leaders, but if the mainstream's attitudes matter at all, it's clear Republican arguments have failed spectacularly to persuade most of the country.
Last week, Karl Rove said congressional Republicans should ignore the major national polls, overlook the fact that the public is standing with the White House, and focus solely on a Republican poll, conducted for Republican lawmakers, that says most of the public agrees with the conservative position.
As more data becomes available, that appears to be horrible advice.
Leave a Comment:
Yes Karl the polls are skewed, they oversampled people who aren't buying the GOP BS
Gee, what a surprise. People like the party of 'free stuff' more than the party of 'we're in this together'. Taxing everyone more, or less, is the real liberal ideal here, no?
Shooter, "real liberal ideals," like the ones under Ike back in the '50s, when the rich were taxed at 90%? Republicans were sane once upon a time.
Yeah, free stuff, Blanks. We want free stuff like the billions given to the oil companies to go with the billions they already have. We want free stuff like the bankers who partied down on mortgages til the rest of us lost ours. We want free stuff like the governors and reps that took stimulus money then screamed the government was taking over.
No, we are probably just tired of getting shafted by the thieves operating under the name "Republicans".
Shooter, I can't believe the nerve of the president, acting like he won the election by over 4 million popular votes and over 130 electoral votes. Oh wait, he did.
We want free stuff like having our capital gains taxed at the same rate as the wages of a $15.00/hr. janitor no matter how much we make because it's just that super special to the economy. Oh, and we also want free stuff like being able to pretend our vast salaries are actually "carried interest" on investments that gets taxed an an even lower rate.
Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society Shooter.
My offer still stands, I will gladly buy you and whomever you choose one way airline tickets to Somalia.
No gubmint! No taxes! No lazy moochers who just sit around waiting for a handout. It's a boot strap pullin' Utopia!!
Let me know.
On what planet is the GOP the "party of we're in this together?
And most people who collect Social Security have paid into it their whole working life, it's not free, and I AM entitled to it.
Obviously you are not aware of HOW we got into this GOP created mess that occurs every decade - GOP creates DEFICITS and Democrats have to fix the mess by spending to protect the most vulnerable. GOP Outsource jobs to Communist China and we get Unemployment which creates more strain on the programs for unemployment benefits, FOOD STAMPS recipients- Heck GOP are the FOOD STAMP and WELFARE and Unemployment creators. Learn your FACTS Shooter 242. If only the GOP knew how to add and subtract, removing government reciepts and not paying for the Two wars-UNPAID/Two GOP Socialist Stimulus Bills-UNPAID/Medicare Advantage Part D-$1 Trillion dollar giveaway to Big Pharma/No negotiations for lower cost meds to seniors or low income or to the American people/ GOP created "Doughnut Hole" tapping into more of the seniors Social Security/ GOP Bail-Outs with ZERO Return on the Investments..Stuff like that!
WHERE ARE THE JOBS, if WELFARE for the wealthy & outsourcing corporations work...Buddy?
Shooter242 "Gee, what a surprise. People like the party of 'free stuff' more than the party of 'we're in this together'. Taxing everyone more, or less, is the real liberal ideal here, no?"
Shooter lets think about this shall we
First the idea of "Free Stuff" is complete and and absolute disingenuous BS. Take Food Stamps, most of the people who get them work for a living they just don't make enough to feed their families without help.
I know from personal experience because when I was in the Army serving this country I qualified. Never mind the fact that I still paid payroll taxes and all the other things the Government took out. So was I getting something for "Free" I didn't think so.
You always accuse me of being a "Class warrior" right now you're the one with the sword. Think about it.
Jerry EZ, especially since Reagan/Atwater, and their brilliant use of racism. Those two got Americans to vote for policies that would screw them and their children by using American racism against Americans. People sat and watched unions go down the drain. They sat and watched as taxes on the wealthy disappeared, college tuition went up, social safety nets became more and more tenuous, work hours rose as wages stayed the same while benefits disappeared...all because of RACISM. Racism is our national curse.
Independent voter I pay my taxes fine, those polls are fine, and I will take that ticket to France!
Shooter keeps using this "party of free stuff" troll even though it's been pointed out to him over and over how ridiculous and lame that idea is. He has no substantive challenge to those retorts, and yet he doesn't change his tune one half-tone. He's a bot, rather than an actual person engaging in a conversation. Respond to the bot if for some reason it makes you feel better, but there's no discourse of any kind there.
Same advice he gave them on election day. That worked out well.
this was supposed to be a reply about Karl Rove. I don't know how it got way the heck down here. (I'll never be able to look at a canned ham again without laughing).
Dunk
Shooter isn't a bot he's just intransigent and nonobjective. His biggest problem like so many on the right, is that he doesn't look beneath the surface to see how what he says impacts other people and the world at large
I am actually grateful to him on a certain level because without a dissenting opinion there is no impetus to keep thinking about why your beliefs are important.
Dragoon, I agree with you in principle. My problem with Shooter is very specific. I think there was a time on this blog where he actually made arguments and responded to what people said to him. I don't look at every post, but from what I see all he does now is pick an easy troll line--something not vulgar or offensive but one guaranteed to raise hackles--and just tosses it out there. He's all about one-liners, which would be fine if when people crush the one liner (as in the "party of free stuff" nonsense he keeps trotting out) he defended it in some specific way or in any other way acted like he heard or acknowledged the rejoinders, or just changed the one-liner in a later post. He doesn't, and it's boring. Better trolls, please.
Shooter just wants attention. Let's not give it to him.
Shooter, do you ever have anything legitimate to say? or do all you do is talk @!$%# about things you don't understand? Get a fking life Lol.
The republicans are doing exactly what they did before the election "OH NO, these polls must be lies, so lets poll ONLY THOSE WHO SUPPORT US."
Of course they do, they're republican.
Deeper into the poll....
In the new Post-ABC poll, a slim majority of independent voters disapprove of each of the two principals in the budget negotiations. For Obama, it’s a narrow 42 percent approval to 51 percent disapproval among political independents; Boehner is in slightly worse territory, even as he’s more of an unknown, with 24 percent approving and 53 percent disapproving.
I don't know, Pasco. I suspect most independent voters are actually people who don't pay much attention to current events and get their "news" from the 5-minute reports at the top of the hour.
Independent Voter = Republicans who don't want to admit they're republicans.
Really an irrelevant voting block.
Actually, some independent voters are more liberal, like myself. While I typically vote Democrat, I have voted Republican in the past - but I have never voted the entire ticket one way or the other. During this past election I voted overwhelmingly Democrat, only one local official didn't make the cut - in my eyes. He still won, by the way.
So, while the name calling and finger pointing are wonderful ways to stereotype and disenfranchise voters you could be pulling to your side (yes, that was sarcasm) - it's not a very practical or polite way to do it and tends to reveal that some of us are independent because we don't agree with the actions, games, attitudes and chicanery of partisan politics.
Some of us also pay quite a bit of attention to the news, and the reason we stay independent is because neither party wholly represents what we believe in, so we are forced to split the difference.
And, as far as Shooter's latest parroting of the party-line talking points goes, I generally find it better to ignore cheap shots in favor of real dialogue.
Well citizen_pain, you and JL are both mistaken, of course that happens when you blindly generalize. I know a lot of independents, I am a registered independent and I try to find out as much as I can from different sources before I vote, having voted in every election since the early 70's. I have voted for Democrats and Republicans, I try not to get saddled by party politics, because we have all seen how well that turns out. It's amazing that you would be so blind as to dismiss a sizable voting block as irrelevant, that's happened quite recently as I recall and it didn't turn out to well for Romney either.
No, I understand that there are people who take pride in being neither fish nor fowl on principle. In fact, these are probably some of the most well-informed voters. It's why I said "most independent voters" above.
The poll that Pasco cited was targeting this group, and my opinion is that lots of people have picked one side or the other, some choose to make one decision at a time and the majority of people who haven't aligned themselves with a particular point of view just aren't that engaged. I think that's true, at least from the people I know.
I don't mean to be insulting or to disparage anyone's political leanings, but I honestly feel that independent voters are irrelevant in the current political climate.
There is a war going on right now for the soul of our country between the monied elite and we the people. At some point people have to stop sitting on the fence and pick their poison. You may not like the current state of the established political parties, but it's what we have at this moment in our history. Sometimes you have to work within a framework that isn't ideal. That's life. The end justifies the means in this case. When this hard core, ultra right wing faction that has taken over the GOP is defeated once and for all, we can start having constructive discussions about the direction and future of this country, and I would hope people from all political walks of life would be part of that.
People of course have the right to vote as they choose, but I personally don't have the luxury or time to sit back and expect a politician or political party to cater to my every political whim.
According to polls last year, it seemed to me that independents were fickle in their choices; on the other hand, their votes can decide an election. It appeared to me that their decisions are usually based on the state of the economy but since the other guy wanted to raise taxes on the middle class and reduce taxes on the rich and then claim we will save a trillion dollars, Obama earned many votes from the independents and we have to recognize their power in an election. Republicans consider Reagan a hero because they thought he proposed a trickle down policy which was referred to as Reaganomics, but he lowered and raised taxes which is a tool major economists recommend, but this is not a path current conservatives are willing to take.
Because that worked out so well during the Romney campaign.
Please proceed, Mr. Rove.
Karl Rove thought that because there were some adjustments to prevent democrats from voting and there were so many donations amounting to about a billion dollars to buy the election, I'm sure he is a very unhappy camper. I wonder what he will do in 2016. If Hillary decides to run, the election will probably be her's.
That's actually true, isn't it? Ugh.
As I mentioned in another post, John Boehner is the Congressman who stepped into Tom DeLay's shoes after he was forced to resign from office. Now there's a name I wouldn't want to be associated with. GOP politics in the past 20 years has been filled with a panoply of crooks and shameless charlatans.
There are many who are millionaires in congress and being greedy the want to increased their riches because they only make about 250,000 a year. Not quite the wages of a CEO.
You're right, Marlana. Did you know that Tom DeLay was a pest exterminator before he got into politics? True story.
He got into the House and started living like "one of them millionaires," jetting around the world in style and golfing on junkets to Scotland. Not bad for a good ol' boy from Texas who got kicked out of college for drinking and graffiti. He's still working behind the scenes, even though he's been convicted of money-laundering and campaign finance abuses. Makes me feel dirty just talking about him.
I can never understand why the GOP or Dems pander to their bases. I have news for you a hardened liberal or a extreme conservative are never going to vote for the other side. you are assured their vote, you do not need to pander to their views, even if you move to the center.
I understand the issue of the primaries but eventually they will figure out that the base wins you primaries independents and moderates win you elections.
What, exactly, is it that you consider Democratic base pandering, as opposed to keeping the promises they made during the general election?
I've got a little call from the clue phone for you: Republicans keep the promises they make during primaries and ignore the ones they make during the general. Democrats keep the promises they make during the general election and when they break a promise, which they've done with surprising infrequency, it's almost always one they made during the primaries.
The inability of our nation's mainstream media, and a vast number of voters, to recognize this reality is why we're in this perpetual gridlock.
What you're missing is the Boehner still faces a vote for Speaker at the beginning of January, and if he pisses off his base, he could well face a challenger. Given that he's presently 3rd in line to be President, it's not a position he wants to give up.
@Cory - what ever happened to a "PUBLIC SERVANT" actually doing his job for the good of the country? What has happened that as a nation our politics and politicians on the GOTP have become so entrenched in their abysmal failed ideology that they just refuse to back off of? And what happened to the common sense of the people who cannot see thru these lies and the abject poverty of the GOTP policy?
I've said it before and I'll say it again - Americans have become dumbed down and simple minded! The issues facing US are greater than the simple sound-bites of "cut taxes (for the wealthy) cut "entitlements" (earned benefits for everyone else)! When Ike was in charge the top tax rate was 90% and the least paid was 70% by the rich; over the last 30 years the rich and corporate have been over-indulged and "our politicians" have sold themselves like whores to the Oligarchy to keep their "power" - vote them out, they have proven themselves unwilling and unable to do the work of the people!
WE are not supposed to be a nation of lemmings, no matter what FAUX NOOZ says repeatedly!
Zora, it's simple to understand their motivation, unfortunately. It's spelled M-O-N-E-Y.
This chart shows what we have all known for a long time, John Boehner is bad at his job. The majority of the GOP wants a deal and still Boehner chooses to appease the radicals instead of rallying the moderates and marginalizing the fringe. They could get so munch done if Boehner grew a spine.
Well, the salient factor is that the rank-and-file Republicans are important for their votes, but the real "prize," to be protected at all costs, is the bloc of Really Rich People. The Kochs, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Foster Friess and people like Mitt Romney, who would get badly pinched by President Obama's proposed tax increase, would be very, very angry.
You see, the average person earning $350K a year sees his taxes on $250K staying the same but on the last $100K would go up 4 percent. On the other hand, the first $250K of Sheldon Adelson's income is miniscule. Almost undetectable. His >$250K income would bear the brunt of this increase, and he's not happy about it.
John Boehner can't afford to let these folks down.
Who is Karl Rove anyway? He is not a sane person! He always has been! Why is anyone listening to him?
Instead of falling off the fiscal cliff. I say we take a run and jump off. It's like falling off a bicycle it will only hurt for a couple of days.
I think taking a run at the fiscal cliff probably SOUNDS a lot more exciting than it would actually be, especially to anyone who receives ANY entitlement.
Boehner's "base" at the moment is rich people and corporations who want their taxes minimized - of course they have little influence on mass polls. But Boehner will not trade tax increases for entitlement cuts - the latter would ultimately lose votes and the former would lose money. Republicans threaten to cut entitlements to get what they really want - lower taxes on rich people.
Are these the same guys who did the Republican polling for the election? That might say something right there...
to the morons who think that the GOP is the party of we're all in this together those of us who make between 17000 and 65000 a year were never included in your party's this is for everyone tax cuts not one dime like always we carry the burden so the wealthy can skate to a free ride the GOP is the party of lets cannibalize what our parents built and reap the profits screw the next generation and oligarchy is their only aim
I've always had this theory that people who manage presidential campaigns are people who have a long-standing vision about where the country is, economically, socially and psychologically, that's wrong for most of their careers. Sometimes that long-standing vision just happens to mesh perfectly with the country's in an election year. Sometimes it's merely more in line with the country's than the other guy's.
And, the problem is that when they win, some of these guys get pegged as great political geniuses who always have their finger on the pulse of the nation, when, in fact, they're just guys who were "right" because the stuff they always believed just happened to align more or less well with a transient and ever shifting set of social, political and economic conditions that create a particular national mood at a particular time.
The generally just keep on peddling the same ideas and the same vision, year after year, long after their one or two big wins. Sometimes, campaigns keep hiring them and hiring them, and losing and losing until eventually, they get a clue that the guy's a washed-up has-been. (And sometimes, as with Bob Shrum, they keep hiring them, year after year, despite the fact that he's something even worse than a washed-up has-been, a defeat generating never-was)
The GOP's biggest problem is that Rove is a washed-up has-been who's been completely out of touch with both the mood of the country and the way politics is done at the retail level since 2005. And yet, unique among the political consultant class, he has accumulated a degree of power and money (more or less interchangeable commodities, of course) that allows him to continue to dominate conservative politics years and years after the expiration of his "sell by" date, mostly because he has long had the ear of a dozen or so borderline-insane right wing extremist billionaires.
Yeah Fox, it's time to can the ham(head) and deal with reality. Sorry. Ever since I saw the skit on Colbert I can't look at him without seeing a canned ham.
So after a disastrous misunderstanding of what the polls told him about the Presidential election just last month, we're suppose to know believe Karl Rove is capable of reading and understanding polls? Seriously?
Well, I just watched Boehner, Cantor and their token female on MSNBC saying their typical bs.
The majority of the US cannot stand what you stand for! So, get with the program and stop playing the game of The Right Wants Everything... The Left Gets Nothing.
What is really amusing... I will lay money their talking points are coming directly from Paul Ryan's mouth.
Karl Rove is the anti-christ. He's just finished his course in Ann Rand fashion. Pay no attention to the polls, just give me your money, and your first of kin, ....sound familiar.It should sound real familiar, follow me , I promise to bring you wealth and prosperity at all costs, once you sign on the dotted line, make sure you sign it in red , because that's where your businessess are all headed in the red. He is doing this to make a name for himself whether it's infamous or not. They are way too extreme, now that Satan has been dealt with we do have to take care of some of his children. Do they still do exorcisms?
Rove is a complete and utter lunatic.
Rove and the other Republican terrorists all have the same idol apparently. Paul Reiser's treacherous character from ALIENS. Think about it. That is how they are acting. They could care less about the real world.
As a footnote...
How long before he shows back up on Fox News? Next week? And, it will be a long shot so you can see Megyn Kelly's legs. She is such a great journalist! And, works for such a "Fair and Balanced" network.
I just threw up.
Next... Drive thru...
Rove is already back on Fox; I never expected him to be gone for long.
If this were Fantasy Island... I would like to take Rove and his ilk... put them in a room with two tv characters known for extreme methods... and set them straight.
Jack Bauer of 24... and Jack Bristow of ALIAS.
We are at the hands of terrorists... aka some of the Republican Party and it's many factions.
Rove back on Fox... wow... yeah, that really didn't take any time at all. I guess they gave him a big sloppy kiss.
Sorry for the attitude, but my nerves are totally shot today.
Rove is like an abusive boyfriend that a woman takes back after him saying "Honest honey I'll never do that again" And of course he does it again. It's a dysfunctional relationship.
You said it Rachel, "Speaker Boehner is not very good at his job" But he is great at having the best tan in Washington.
A Roadkill Sandwich, placed reverently inside a pristine glass box festooned with sparkly sequins, then wrapped in beautiful rainbow and unicorn paper, with ribbons and a bow made from Old Glory and Bible verses...
is STILL a Roadkill Sandwich.
let's get this done
That's exactly what Boehner is going to do...speak to the extremist obstructionist that would rather die then give Pres. Obama anything....these folks can care less about the American people who are hurting and are in need. But of course the hurting and in need are getting "Free Stuff"....which is a stupid statement considering its not just African Americans, Latinos, other minorities...its Everybody...including Whites folks!!....so, if trying to feed your family and trying to keep from living on the street as homeless by getting free stuff....then I pray they keep getting free stuff!
They constantly criticize those receiving assistance bu they don't break it down by why those people are receiving assistance. Do they want people living on the streets? I try to give money to the people walking on the medians, but it is difficult to know which ones are just begging, but are self sufficient, and the homeless and veterans.
There a a lot of things Republicans cannot be. They do not know how to be team players because they are indebted to the rich. They do not know how to be real politicians because they all out for how much money they can stuff in their personal bank accounts. Lastely they just don't care about other human beings. When one becomes non human and out only for youself, you lose your humanity.
The real Republican party is dead. Newt Gingrich heralded of its destruction back in the early 90s. People have got to learn to quite voting in Tea Party politicians whom all work against our greater better interests. Conservatism is the problem! Making people do without is not "the solution". If you do not believe what I am saying, look at the entire worlds' economic structure as it is in this moment of time. Where Conservatism has brought down entire countries.
We must come to learn, when the rich are wholly protected and the middle class is allowed to fail, it all comes tumbling down.
I know that policy attracts votes from the independents and they can sway the right or the left, that is why politicians visit purple states over and over. If most of the independents had voted for Romney, he would have won the election.
I'm so TIRED of Boehner and even the President playing games with US. Keeping their little secrets and backing and forthing.
WE are the ones who will be affected by this and I don't appreciate them passing their paper back and forth and making sure that the only ones who DON'T know what's on it is the public.
There are real human beings who are being affected by this, even before we do/don't go off the cliff, not to mention the millions who will be hurt by it. I'm a full Obama supporter and always have been, but I'm sick to death of them playing games with everybody's lives!
And because I'm listening to Kelly O'Donnell on MSNBC right now talking about the President having his town meetings and keeping it all "public", if he REALLY wants to know how it affects people, he needs to go more than a 200 mile radius from Washington. He can go grocery shopping with me and see what the real world is all about.
Why did you pick on the President when he is fighting the Republicans for you?
Wasn't it those same Republican polls that Karl Rove's tooting, that predicted a Romney/Ryan win in a landslide, snubbed Nate Silver's accurate election predictions, and that wouldn't let Rove (along with all the $$ he had invested in the outcome) call the election for/to, or especially concede Fox News' own call of OH for, Pres. Obama, on Election night? Those same kinds of polls? lol
Not really sure how I was directed to you're site, but, so glad i was. Please know i may be you're biggest fan. I watch you every night, faithfully. Sometimes at midnight. Still i never miss it.I am so political, at least in my own mind. The fact that the republicans show no respect for the good of the American ppl hits me hard. My father was one of the ppl who went on Normandy. Never really knew what that meant that before, now I do. He was one of the last on Okinawa (sp). Why dont our representatives understand what my Dad did?