Polls Show Big Majority Trust Obama - Fox News & Bill Kristol Say America Doesn't Trust Obama

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On the same day a new Wall Street Journal poll reveals that Americans trust in President Obama and congressional Democrats on economic issues is skyrocketing (and in the same month Fox's own polls show the same), I debated Bill Kristol in a Fox News debate that the network's moderator prefaced by asking why Obama's economic actions were "forcing Americans to lose trust in the administration?" Watch it here - I kid you not (notice the graphic underneath asserting unequivocally that "Confidence In Obama's Economic Team [Is] Lost" and that "Disappointment Grows Over Obama's Economic Team").

As you'll see, Kristol has exactly one talking point: He says that the Dow Jones has lost 15 percent, or 1,355 points, since Obama took office, and he then effectively claims that Wall Street speculators' day-to-day gyrations mean the vast majority of Americans do not trust Obama, irrespective of polls showing exactly the opposite.

Of course, Obama has been in office for 44 days - so just for a comparison, let's remember that in the 44-day period between 8/28/08 and 10/11/08, the Dow Jones lost 27 percent, or 3,264 points. But Kristol doesn't mention that little detail, because Republicans were controlling economic policy then (and you'll notice Fox promptly ends the segment when I start bringing this up).

The point, of course, is to say that judging economic policy by 44-day periods in the market is absurd, and it is especially absurd to blame a 44-day-old presidency on market forces that three decades of conservative policies (that Kristol aggressively advocated) created. But that's the extent of the GOP's talking points today.

The good news is that despite Fox News insisting that Americans have lost faith in Obama's economic policies, the hard data that tracks Americans' feelings shows exactly the opposite - namely, that the public has a huge amount of confidence in what Obama and congressional Democrats are doing.

Additionally, the same data shows that the public has overwhelmingly rejected Kristol's propaganda. As MSNBC notes, the poll shows that "84% say Obama inherited this economy, and two-thirds of those people think he has at least a year before he's responsible for it." Put another way, the vast majority of Americans see right through Bill Kristol and his smarmy smirk.

What I found particularly hilarious about this debate is Kristol and Fox News' attempt to equate the day-to-day gyrations of the market - ie. the day-to-day equivocations of the Wall Street speculator class - with broad public opinion in the country at large. This is a rhetorical sleight of hand we can call "Market Populism" - ie. equating the opinions of the elite speculator class in New York and D.C. with the country at large. We saw this before with Rick Santelli. And now, on the same day another poll shows the country's trust in Obama is surging, we we see it with Fox, Kristol and other right-wingers like New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin whose column today says - I'm not kidding - "President Obama Suffers A Trust Deficit."* Indeed, it seems to be an emerging right-wing tactic that (not surprisingly) completely ignores - even scoffs at - contrary data.

As I said in the debate (to the great surprise of Kristol, who is used to being treated with reverence), it's not surprising to hear such Market Populism from Kristol - the man spends his time in country club circles in D.C. surrounded by his fellow conservative trust fund babies. To them, Market Populism probably seems like authentic grassroots populism, because they rarely leave their own circle. But you don't have to look at reams of polling data to know that's absurd - all you have to do is leave the Beltway and/or Manhattan to know that the country is far more angry at Wall Street than it is reflective of its opinion.

This is not to say that I think it's a good thing the market is dropping - not at all. But like most Americans, I believe that it is going to take a lot of major reforms to get the market working again, that during that period of reform it's going to be unfortunately turbulent on the stock exchange - and that that's no fault of President Obama's.

Likewise, this is not to say that I think Obama's economic team is perfect - I don't think that at all (as regular readers of my work know). hey should be moving far more boldly towards the progressive center of the country - not farther away from it as right-wingers like Kristol want. But even that being said, the idea that their behavior is creating some sort of crisis of trust in the Obama administration is a wholly manufactured storyline - a fairy tale created by pathological liars like Kristol for an extreme hard-core base of the Republican Party. I'm just glad Fox News gave me the chance to give its viewers a small dose of actual facts - lord knows, they can be rare on that network when Kristol's swallowing up its airwaves.

* Goodwin's column appeared on the very same day and in the very same newspaper that reported Obama's popularity is skyrocketing and "By a more than two to one margin Americans trust Democrats over the GOP to pull the country out of the recession."

 

 

Comments

[Davonne Rushing]

CENK UYGUR OF TYT IS GONNA GET THAT SLOT!!!!!

[Doofus]

' As you'll see, Kristol has exactly one talking point: He says that the Dow Jones has lost 15 percent, or 1,355 points, since Obama took office, and he then effectively claims that Wall Street speculators' day-to-day gyrations mean the vast majority of Americans do not trust Obama, irrespective of polls showing exactly the opposite.

Of course, Obama has been in office for 44 days - so just for a comparison, let's remember that in the 44-day period between 8/28/08 and 10/11/08, the Dow Jones lost 27 percent, or 3,264 points. But Kristol doesn't mention that little detail, because Republicans were controlling economic policy ...'

Way cool of you to appear on Fox so as to lend some credence to this diatribe, eh?

Anyway, Kristol is no doubt talking to his own gang of true believers, which while
enthusiastic should grow smaller day-by-day. However, the *perception* that
President Obama is somehow 'responsible' for the Wall Street collapse
can only increase over time, given persistent short-term thinking.

[AnnfromCA]

David, no job you have to put on Facebook to get will ever, ever convince your inner self that it's worthwhile.

Either build a real audience or .......fail.

[entrenchedhoosier]

You need to use a TTE to render your post grammatically legible.

[MPeter]

Thanks David. Thank you for walking into the den of hyenas and holding your own. Kristoll and that milly-mouthed host looked bloated and rattled by your passion and understanding of the real issues. Thank you. We need stuff like that. Take it to them....

[nicholieeee]

david, i agree with everything you said except one thing. it pains me to defend fox news, but i doubt they ended your segment because of what you were saying. as someone who works in television news, we have a very tight schedule to keep. our rundowns are done to the second.

but i wish they would've had just you, instead of you and bill.....but i guess that's too much to hope for.

[wonketteRAWKS]

60% is big?

[maxgen]

Huge, compared to Bush's 20%

[ManwithaParachute]

60% is bigger than 40%, correct.

Were you home schooled?

[murderBYzeN]

Republicans need to learn from the way Democrats cheered on with their votes and funding for our
successful war in Iraq. Democrats never wanted anything but the best for President Bush

[murderBYzeN]

I trust Obama....Im just worried that the world is soon gonna run out of money for him to borrow to help his wealthy backers in the banking industry.

[maxgen]

I trust his concern and honesty. I don't trust his judgment in selecting big bankers for his economic team. He should have Krugman or some other Nobelist who knows economics; not how to use an unregulated market to maximize personal wealth and screw shareholders and customers. His advisers are some of the same ones who caused the problem and I don't think they want to solve it, but just to insure their peer wealthy folks don't lose.

[cvwilson]

Over a decade ago I heard a talk given by Robert Scheer in which he stated that before the advent of television most journalists were not paid much more than the average American. He went on to say that now most mainstream journalists earn a salary that enables them to live a life-style that disconnects them from the lives of average Americans. Given the out of touch rhetoric lately from particularly Fox News and CNBC, is it any wonder that most Americans regard a lot of mainstream media as nothing more than paid corporate shills? Is it also any wonder that the ratings and circulations of a lot of these media outlets are going into the toilet? Where are the media that will speak to and advocate for the American people? To "share our rage" as another columnist put it. I see a marketing opportunity for people willing to take it.

[DAdvocate123]

David:

Fox was quite Fair to you. They gave you a full screen to yourself at one point while you were talking and let you make your points.

[riley11]

The market's plunge is nothing but the natural flushing of the system. There's not a thing to do with "toxic" loans except letting them play out. The market will rebound in time. Average citizens are more worried about jobs than their 401's....we create a 21st century job infrusturcture and the market and retirement plans will work itself out.

Obama needs a whole term to work off this economy. It's completely understandable that the GOP is using the Obama Fault strategy as they know this economy is screwed and will be for sometime. They've seen how stupid the public is and what's to stop them from using terror tactics again? Asshats.

[mcurl]

The Fox News Actress also confuses people who are in the market "2/3" and people who are actively buying and selling in the market. Millions of Americans are in Funds, and certainly don't buy and sell based on minor changes in political policies. The Wall St Elite who run the Funds may do that, but not 2/3 of Americans. Since Republicans lost the election, they have been looking for other ways to show popular support, from Santelli's bunch of traders in the background, to his internet voting system (disenfranchising millions without computers and allowing the rich multiple computer families to run the country), to daily market forces largely disconnected from Politics.

[Republicrats]

another perspective,

At the center of our economic near-depression is a credit bubble, a housing collapse and a failure of the banking system. One can come up with a host of causes: Fannie and Freddie pushed by Washington (and greed) into improvident loans, corrupted bond-ratings agencies, insufficient regulation of exotic debt instruments, the easy money policy of Greenspan's Fed, irresponsible bankers pushing (and then unloading ) dubious mortgages, greedy house-flippers, deceitful homebuyers.

The list is long. But the list does not include the absence of universal health care, or computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates. Indeed, one could perversely make the case that, if anything, the proliferation of overeducated, Gucci-wearing, smart-ass MBAs inventing ever more sophisticated and opaque mathematical models and debt instruments helped get us into this credit catastrophe in the first place.

And yet with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. , six weeks after his swearing in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis.

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Emanuel. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."

and geithner can not get a team together, its just the facts...

[ManwithaParachute]

There are definite issues with how Obama is handling this crisis. However, the GOP has one thing to offer and it has been rejected officially on 11/4/2008 and polling continues to "re certify" the vote.

The number one issue Obama has is the simple fact that the foxes are still in the hen house. The financial industry needs no bailout if it has no reform. Regulation should be the priority. There are far too many "exotic instruments". The unethical mortgage dealers are still roaming around and embedding themselves in the system to gobble up proceed from the housing bill.

Even though Obama is slow on this issue and doing other things, the American people hear the GOP talk of further deregulation and tax cuts and capping government spending. The GOP have nothing to offer but the medicine which we believe got us in this mess.

[justsomeguywhocameby]

Repub,

You might want to mention that your post was written by Charles Krauthhammer.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/a_dishonest_gimmicky_budget.html

[realpolitic]

This article perfectly illustrates the world of false narratives inhabited by Kristol and Fox News. When the facts do not fit their far-right fantasies, the facts are easily changed.

[thepianodiva]

Kristol, Republicans, the right wing etc. need to sti down and be quiet now. We did it their way for thirty years. It ended in catastrophe. Their ways are bankrupt and yield horrible fruit. Go away.

[Republicrats]

this 30 years canard is getting old, dems have been in hock all along...

[Citydog100]

I think it's time to clearly at the strategy of the Conservati­ve/Republi­can Right. I don't think they are going away. In fact, little has changed since the election; they are still campaiging and providing stategic propaganda through the media, especially the airways. Listening to the Republican spokespeople is somewhat disorientlng. There always seems to be something slightly wrong with the content of what they are saying, but they are so charming and familiar. Where exactly do they "go to school" to learn these very effective techniques? Indeed, if anything, the folks that circle the Gingrich Institute are stepping up a pace. As Arianna Huffington rightfully warned, don't underestimate the Right. What seems foolish may only be probes to see what works. All of the rising dictator leaders grew with the movement, learning effective mind and physical-control along the way.