Somehow, Despite the Teabaggers, Obama Massively Popular
The First Hundred Days! Oh how we've talked about them, and evenlived through them, although that's never as good as talking about them. And now? We must assess. According to cable news andThe Politico, which owns cable news, this has been a very tough, very disappointing, veryhumiliating100 days for Mr. Socialist Kenyan Barack Obama. It's amazing he has (barely) escaped impeachment, thus far. Also, teabaggng! America, at the teabag-roots level, has REVOLTED against this false president. And that's why 72% of Americans heartily approve of this new administration. Wait, HUH?
Beyond specific policy areas, Obama continues to get high personal favorability ratings across a range of attributes. Overall, 72 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of the new president, down slightly from the eve of his inaugural but far higher than it was during the 2008 campaign. It is also about double Bush's favorability rating when he left office in January (37 percent) and above where Bill Clinton's was at this stage in 1993 (59 percent).
Nearly two-thirds said Obama has accomplished "a great deal" or "a good amount" in his first three months in office. In a Post-ABC poll at the 100-day mark in Clinton's first term, 37 percent said he had done that much. A majority, 54 percent, also said Obama had exceeded their expectations, significantly more than had said so of Clinton or Bush at the outset of their first terms.
Why the whole "first hundred days" bullshit, anyway? Because, like so much in 20th/21st Century American Politics, FDR had a "first hundred days." Roosevelt promised a bunch of stuff -- and mostly delivered -- during his first hundred days in office. From saving the banks to making beer legal again, the Roosevelt Administration's New Deal had a pretty dramatic take-off.
Of course, the far right spent those 100 days calling FDR a communist. In fact, they did that for Franlkin Roosevelt's entire momentous presidency of America-changing history, and they sure didn't stop when he died, during histhirdfourth term. [SORRY YOUR EDITOR WROTE THIS AT 3 A.M. BECAUSE SARA IS "TRAVELING" THIS MORNING.]
Obama Off to Solid Start, Poll Finds [Washington Post]
1933: President Roosevelt's First 100 Days Give People Hope [VOA]