Yeah, gotta love that narrative about how Obama is coming out as "the man above the fray" in the battle over the debt ceiling, and how those intransigent Republicans are going to feel it on the campaign trail. It's sounds reasonable, I suppose, if you are a desperate Democrat surrounded by like-minded thinkers who are clutching at straws to convince themselves that everything is going to be OK come 2012. To bad it has as little to do with reality as my aforementioned baseball analogy...
Peter Wehner in Contentions:
Last week, a Gallup Poll showed President Obama receiving only 39 percent of the vote against an unnamed Republican candidate. Today we learn, courtesy of Scott Rasmussen , that his poll, too, finds the president now earns his lowest level of support yet against a generic Republican candidate in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup (a generic Republican earns support from 47 percent of likely voters while the president picks up 41 percent of the vote). And over the weekend, according to Gallup, Obama’s approval rating sank to 42 percent approval v. 50 disapprove.
What’s interesting is these sinking polling numbers are occurring in the midst of the debt ceiling debate, which (we’re constantly being told) Obama is not only winning but dominating. What I suspect is happening is that everyone involved in this matter is being hurt, from Republicans on Capitol Hill, to Congress as an institution, to Obama himself. And one individual who is not being stained by this mess is the eventual GOP nominee, whoever that person is.
No matter how this turns out, Obama will always be playing defense, as neither he nor his side ever offered a budget, or even the compromise plan they keep harping about on the debt-limit issue. All they've done is attack the Republicans, and block their attempts at legislation, from the Ryan Budget to "Cut, Cap, & Balance" (which may yet see the light of day in the Senate?)
The American people see that, unlike the media, for whom the thrill still tingles. Let them have their narrative. We'll take Rick Perry, and the victory, please...