Poll Suggests That Americans Want GOP To Move Toward Obama

Since Election Day, the key argument between pundits and politicians on either side of the political divide has been over what point on the political spectrum Obama can, will, and should govern from, with progressives pointing out that the electorate has embraced many of their policy positions as mainstream, and the defeated GOP insisting that America remains a fundamentally "center-right" nation. ThinkProgress has a nice compilation video of how this argument played out on Fox News Sunday this morning, with John Podesta explaining that the electorate had rendered a mandate for "real change" and "progressive philosophy," and Republican Congressmen Mike Pence and Eric Cantor arguing to the contrary:

Which side is right? Well, a poll conducted by Campaign for America's Future (CAF) and Democracy Corps in the wake of the election garnered results that should aid Podesta's point of view:

US voters want the Republican Party, which took a beating in this week's general elections, to embrace progressiveness and work with Democratic president-elect Barack Obama to get America back on track, a poll showed Friday.

More than three-quarters of 2,000 people surveyed on Tuesday, the day of the historic election which saw Obama become the first African-American elected to the White House, and on Wednesday, said the US has gone "pretty seriously off on the wrong track" and needed change.

Only slightly fewer -- 71 percent -- said Republicans "should give Obama the benefit of the doubt and help him achieve his plans," against 24 percent who said it should oppose the progressive changes proposed by Obama, said the poll by the Campaign for America's Future (CAF) and Democracy Corps.