For President Obama there is, it seems to me, a hopeful statistic nestled among the latest WaPo-ABC News poll's mass desolation. His disapproval is way up, to 55 percent, with 44 percent disapproving "strongly," and "Half or more now say he is not a strong leader, does not understand the problems of 'people like you,' and is not honest and trustworthy." With numbers like those, SNL's second-term Paxil skit wasn't far off base. Yet there's this, too:
The Post-ABC survey asked people whether they thought that he told the public what he believed to be true [about the ACA's provisions] or that he intentionally misled. By 52 percent to 44 percent, Americans say they think he told people what he thought was correct at the time.
That would seem to undercut the public's genuineness about Obamian dishonesty. A significant part of the preceding stats' registered hostility may reflect momentary ire, but no fundamental readjustment of opinion. That a majority believe Obama only said what he thought was correct suggests an enduring belief in Obama, though unquantifiable for now. In short, his political position is recoverable.
Which brings us back to old, head-scratching bugaboo: Why is Obama not doing more, now, on offense, to rehabilitate his standing?
The Post's Balz and Craighill report that White House aides "think that as the health-care Web site improves and as the economy grows, he will recover." But that's a shockingly passive way to think. Nobody feeds on the wounded more gleefully, aggressively and perpetually than the GOP. If the WH's strategy is to wait out the opposition's infinite frenzy--as the economy crawls to respectable growth--well, the proposition condemns itself.