Pundits Out of Touch with Voters

Ben Smith at Politico notes that criticism of President Obama's handling of the stimulus and his cabinet by pundits inside the Beltway is not shared by voters around the country.

With Barack Obama’s victory in passing a massive stimulus package marred by days of bad press — as not a single House Republican backed the bill, his health czar went down in flames and his second pick for commerce secretary walked away — the administration has been cut down to size, and lost some of its bipartisan sheen.

Such, at least, has been the beltway chatter, but so far the numbers don’t back it up. Obama’s approval rating remains well above 60 percent in tracking polls. A range of state pollsters said they’d seen no diminution in the president’s sky-high approval ratings, and no improvement in congressional Republicans’ dismal numbers.

Josh Marshall sees the same disconnect on Talking Points Memo.

It really is the big story of the first weeks of the Obama administration. In Washington, it was a battle royale between the new president and an emboldened Republican minority. At times they seemed to have him on the ropes. And yet in the country at large, Obama remains super popular. And the GOP is wildly unpopular.

If you look at the numbers, the Dems are at about 50% or higher in most recent polls, while the GOP is down in the 30s. The city remains wired for the GOP. Not that it's done them a great deal of good of late. But it remains a key part of understanding every part of what is happening today.

So much for "liberal media bias."

--Ballard Burgher