There appears to be a pretty big gap between what DC journalists think Americans think, and what Americans actually think. No better example of this can be found than the "winners" and "losers" that DC media are proclaiming in the wake of the passage of the stimulus bill, and what DailyKos/Research 2000 polling on the subject indicates.
DC opinion: It's good for the Republicans!
According to Daily Kos polling, however, the change in public opinion from a poll taken from Feb. 2-5 to the latest one taken from Feb. 9-12 indicates that Pelosi, Reid and the Democratic Party have actually gone up in public approval -- all had a net change of +2 points, while the Congressional Dems scored a +3. Conversely, Republicans went down -- the Republican Party had a net change of -2, while McConnell, Boehner and Congressional Republicans all had a loss of -3.
And if you go back to the beginning of the year and track how the public is viewing the political situation in Washington DC, the changes are even more dramatic:
Pelosi and the Democratic Party are the big winners, scoring a +5. Congressional Dems score a +3, and Reid has actually lost two points.
But contrary to beltway opinion, the Republicans are getting hammered. While the Republican Party has only had a net change of -2, those directly involved in the stimulus battle are taking huge hits: McConnell and Boehner at -11, and the Congressional Republicans who are getting such applause from the beltway denizens score a -10.
As Markos notes:
The supposedly hated "San Francisco Liberal" Nancy Pelosi not only has the only net-positive favorability rating of the bunch, but she has a net favorability advantage of 40 points over her hapless and clueless Republican counterpart. The 18-point gap in the net favorability ratings in the Senate leadership is less dramatic, but still significant. Especially since Democrats are stuck with the ineffective Harry Reid as their leader.
The "Reid wins, Pelosi loses" narrative only seems to stick with people who believe what Joe Lieberman thinks matters.
And what about those cherished "independents" that Davids Brooks and Broder always claim to speak for? Congressional Republicans have only a 15% favorability rating, with a 70% disapproval rating. (You can find the crosstabs here.) I eagerly await columns from both reflecting this irrefutable consensus that by anyone's measure falls well outside the margin of error.
DC lives in an economic bubble and remains largely insulated from the troubles hitting the rest of the country. No matter who is in power, no matter who is on the receiving end of taxpayer largesse, the money finds its way there. Fairfax and Loudoun Counties in VA and Howard County MD (where lobbyists and contractor beneficiaries of the defense/homeland security boon of the past 8 years live) are the top three wealthiest counties in the country, and seven more DC suburbs chart in the top 20.
The people who live in DC, who pretend to speak for the rest of the country, have no direct experience with what is happening there -- and their attempts to handicap DC politics have more to do with the inside baseball games that seek to protect their own interests above all else. The fact that three and a half million Americans will have jobs as a result of the passage of this bill, or that people who are unemployed or living on food stamps will continue to be able to eat, doesn't seem to graze their analyses.
The American public looked at DC, they saw the Democrats trying to do something, and they liked what they saw. People who are deeply worried about staying employed and taking care of their families do not seem to have the universal high regard for House Republicans who stood together to oppose helping them out that the DC establishment do.
Jane Hamsher blogs at firedoglake.com
Opposition to the stimulus in particular, Obama in general, etc. is really more manufactured than you might guess. Does the average American, suffering through this slump, really have all that much time and energy to be cheerleading obstructionists? Doubtful. Not to say there isn't some ideological diversity out there, but come on. It really is in the interest of the DC press corps to exaggerate, no?
http://TheSnarkingLot.blogspot.com
Obama and the rest of the Democrats need to get it too, and get it right for WE THE PEOPLE.
Worrying about what might happen if we prime the pump is not an option. The stimulus bill is actually covering all the things that should have been done the last eight years instead of starting an unnecessary war and opening the markets to manipulation by speculators.
Jane has it right. Voters wanted to see something happen for the Middle Class. Those who don't like it are getting in our way and may need to be removed in 2010. I'd rather have someone in charge who audits the books before setting up objectives and strategies with criteria to evaluate them than to have the same crowd who has been shooting from the hip with hunches and faith-based assumptions.
There is now responsible action and then their is the last eight years.
They're as happy to go overboard with noxiously overplaying the Octuplets story, as they are hyping the Republican torpor.
Why? Simple. They're terrified viewers will get BORED and think people won't watch if they're simply reporting the facts and pondering them intelligently. It's a circus,baby! And since the time of Richard Nixon's presidency, they're convinced that they have to give every cockamamie thing a mainstream politician says equal time with more sensible utterances. Otherwise someone might brand them as (omigod no!) LIBERALS.
Really, this is mainly a matter of justifying their existence. But MSNBC has proved that you don't need to toady to the right to get an audience. You just have to have strong reporting, some witty formats and some smart commentators. Is that too much to ask?
Apparently it is.
I disagree with you that they're not repub sycophants. The passes that repubs get on question and answer sessions is stunning. the same questions asked of a dem and they get called on every one. repubs are constantly allowed to make ridiculous or outright lying statements without question, but a dem making a common sense statement is challenged to justify it. History is not going to treat msm very kindly. Then again, the way things are going with the new speak and truth speak in place who knows, but it doesn't resemble reality.
From the comments I'm gathering that everyone has forgotten that with few exceptions the msm remains repub, right wing religious sycophants with no apparent change on the way. I said in mid November and I'll repeat it now. They have gone into election mode already, they're going to consistently attack anything Obama does as not the best thing for America. It is still unfathomable to me that Obama only got 54% of the popular vote. With the bush record and mccain/palin ineptness I figure he should have been in the nid to high 60%.
It would be laughable if it were not so pernicious.
it has been amazing to me how the MSM has tried to turn this into a loss for Obama -- while grudgingly admitting that the bill passed in Congress despite the Rethuglicans' obstructionism.
how does that work, exactly?
you vote against something, it passes-- and you're declared the winner.
you work to get something passed, it passes -- and you're declared the loser.