Who Cares What The Public Thinks?

A poll reveals that 37% of Americans think the Egypt crisis increases the chances of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, 28% think it won't make any difference, and 22% think it will hurt. That leaves 13% who don't have a clue -- which at this stage of the game is the right answer.

Department Of The Bleeding Obvious

The American people continue their discernment a year after Barack Obama's election. USA Today's summary of new poll results:

He's seen more as a down-the-line liberal, less as someone who can bridge partisan divides.

Hat tip to Mike Cheever

GOP Shrinking And Souring?

Andrew Sullivan argues that President Obama isn't the hyper-polarizer that analysis of recent poll results seems to suggest:

The polarization being touted by Rove and Wehner and Gerson and the rest of the Bush left-overs is almost entirely a function of Obama's astonishing popularity among Dems, buoyancy among Independents (whose approval rating is very close to the national average), and extremely polarized and shrinking pool of Republicans. To interpret that as Obama's fault, rather than a function of GOP extremism and disaffection, whipped up by Fox and Drudge and Pajamas and the rest of that machine, is, well, Rovian. But it is a reminder of what alone can keep the Bush-Rove GOP alive: the same old, ancient culture war debate that Obama offers us a chance to move past. They will do all they can to keep dividing this country until they see some signs of progress for their operation. That's all they've got.

Obama's Pragmatism Deficit

Michael Gerson argues that President Obama's big-spending policies have polarized our politics as never before, his moderate temperament notwithstanding. Burgeoning deficits notwithstanding, I don't buy it. Gerson's theory doesn't account enough for many conservatives' pathological distrust of Obama, which preceded his '09-'10 budget.

Reality Bites

Analyzing polls that show support for President Obama breaking along typical partisan lines, David Paul Kuhn argues that the "We Are The World" moment of inaugural week was, well, a moment. He exhumes this quotation from a political warhorse:

I could just stand up here and say "Let's just get everybody together, let's get unified." Maybe I've just lived a little long, but I have no illusions at how hard this is going to be."

That was Secretary of State Clinton during the 2008 campaign.