To add to the good news for the president, more Americans say the nation is heading in the right direction now than at any time since the start of his first term.
Via Gallup, where there are more details and another graph. Slowly but surely, things are looking up:
Democrats are driving the rise in satisfaction this year, not surprising given that an incumbent Democratic president is seeking re-election. The Sept. 6-9 Gallup poll, conducted the final day of the Democratic National Convention and the first three days after it, shows satisfaction among Democrats surpassing the majority level. A small fraction of Republicans, 7%, say they are satisfied, as do 25% of independents.
The September update marks the first time satisfaction has surpassed 50% among any party subgroup since August 2009, when a majority of Democrats were also satisfied.
The U.S. economy will grow faster than expected this year, despite the headwinds of higher gas prices and Europe’s financial crisis, according to USA TODAY’s quarterly survey of economists. [...]
Economists think job growth for the rest of the year will be about 20% stronger than they did after Christmas. [...]
The biggest reason: Consumers have bought more vehicles and gone out to eat more often, even though gas prices had been expected to make them spend less, says Jeff Rosen, an economist at Briefing Research in Chicago. [...]
•The economy will grow 2.5% this year vs. their 2.3% forecast three months ago.
And gas prices have dropped. Will they give President Obama credit for that after blaming him when they rose? Fat chance. And they shouldn’t.
PRINCETON, NJ – Forty percent of Americans believe the U.S. economy is growing, up from 27% last April and 3% in 2008. While this represents a major shift in economic perceptions over the last four years, nearly half of Americans, 46%, still say the economy is in either a recession or a depression. An additional 13% say it is slowing down.
Negative perceptions of the economy were already the dominant view in January 2008. These become significantly worse in September 2008 — after the start of the global financial crisis — when many more Americans said the economy was in a recession or depression than merely slowing. Since then, fewer Americans have said the economy is slowing or in a recession or depression, while more have said it is growing.
Americans’ increasing positivity is widespread, given that optimism that the economy is growing has increased fairly evenly across the nation’s major social, regional, and political subgroups.
“According to The Times, the president will showcase measures he is taking on his own to revive the economy. The Associated Press reports he will unveil at least two or three directives per week.”
The White House on Tuesday downplayed news reports that President Obama will go it alone with Congress this year.
Two senior administration officials said there’s work to be done with Congress — including work on the deficit and full-year extension of the payroll-tax cut — and Obama will look for opportunities to work together with Congress to improve the economy.
The administration officials said Obama will also be pushing lawmakers to pass some parts of his jobs package that did not win approval in 2011. Anything that hasn’t been signed into law, Obama still wants to sign into law, the officials said.
Jay Carney says this isn’t an “either or” situation… and also that President Obama “hopes” Congress will work with him.
You can stop laughing now.
But he also said that if Congress does the one thing it does so well– obstruct– “the president’s not going to just sit here.” That’s more like it.
White House officials believe that some Republicans who are up for reelection will break with their party and do what Eric Cantor refuses to do, compromise. In fact, in his interview on “60 Minutes”, Cantor said he wants to “cooperate,” but the other C word is not an option, because it really means compromising “principles”. That’s funny, I thought it meant meeting someone half-way.
1a: settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions
b:something intermediate between or blending qualities of two different things
2: a concession to something derogatory or prejudicial <a compromise of principles
So Eric Cantor and his buddies cherry pick the definition (“derogatory” Eric?) that is the least relevant or applicable in order to avoid giving the president so much as an inch.
And this is who President Obama still feels will meet him half way.
WASHINGTON — Americans are hopeful for what 2012 will bring for their families and the country, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, though most say 2011 was a year they would rather forget.
Nearly seven in 10 say the year gone by was a bad one, more than double those who consider it a success, according to the poll. But 62 percent are optimistic about what 2012 will bring for the nation, and more, 78 percent, are hopeful about the year their family will have in 2012.
(snip)
Overall, the poll found 68 percent of Americans described 2011 as a bad year, compared with 29 percent who felt it was a good one.
A partisan divide, much like the one that ruled Washington this year, seems the only split in public opinion on 2011. Democrats were most likely to view 2011 positively (40 percent called it good), while independents and Republicans were less effusive. Beyond that, the poll found general agreement that 2011 is best left in the past.
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