What’s behind Obama’s rising poll numbers?
The gridlock and partisanship that threatens to ruin Christmas in Washington could be an election year gift for President Barack Obama’s campaign.
A growing number of voters , 50% compared to 44% in March, trust Obama to solve the nation’s problems while the percentage of those with faith in congressional Republicans is slipping, according to a CNN/ORC International Poll.
CNN Poll: President’s approval nearing 50%
For the Obama team, the poll numbers seem to validate the president’s fall and winter strategy: Intone the jobs message like a mantra while squaring off against a do-nothing Congress and congressional Republicans in particular.
“We can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” the president told a Las Vegas audience in October.
Congress has accomplished a few things, passing trade bills and a tax credit for unemployed veterans. But thanks to repeated failed votes on elements of the jobs bill and leaving town for the holidays with a payroll tax extension unresolved, the lasting image is one of inaction.