Obama Approval Ratings

SurveyUSA has job approval ratings for Obama in 14 states.

SurveyUSA
1/20-21/09; 600 adults, 4% margin of error (for each state)
Mode: IVR

14-States Job Approvals

Alabama: 60%
California: 77%
Iowa: 68%
Kansas: 62%
Kentucky: 62%
Massachusetts: 78%
Minnesota: 64%
Missouri: 65%
New Mexico: 65%
New York: 78%
Oregon: 68%
Virginia: 62%
Washington: 69%
Wisconsin: 70%

While obviously Obama has been in office less than a week at this point and these numbers most likely won't stay this high...

These numbers are great. Obama has a pretty clear mandate right now. Republicans may not be wise to prevent this stimulus package right now.

Have a good day!

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Obama's Stimulus Plan

Obama is a smart man.

Many people have heard about Obama’s stimulus recovery plan. There are two basic tenets to the plan: (1) the liberal approach – government spends, spends, spends, and (2) the conservative approach – tax cuts. While this is an extremely condensed version, it is fairly accurate.

Obama’s stimulus plan included 300 billion dollars in tax cuts, even though his economic team came out with a report showing that tax cuts are only two-thirds as effective in creating growth as increased spending is. While he had more money going towards spending, it isn’t as much more as one would expect. Why is this?

Over the last couple weeks there has been some public outbursts about his plan. Where did these come from? Republicans? No, but instead they came from Democrats. Mitch McConnell (the Republican Senate Minority Leader) didn’t make a peep. Instead, John Kerry and other Democrats demanded increased spending, especially on “green industry.”

Obama then met with Senate Democrats and agreed to their wishes, giving the appearance of working with the Senate, while improving his plan and still keeping Republicans content with the 300 billion dollars in tax cuts.

This is smart for four reasons:

1) Obama isn't going it alone. People love checks and balances.

2) It will pass through the Senate, I think, fairly easily.

3) If it doesn't pass for some reason, people will blame the Senate.

4) If it passes and then fails when it is implemented, Obama isn't solely responsable.

Have a good day.

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