Robert Gibbs last year lashed out at Gallup — “a 6-year-old with a crayon,” declared the petulant press secretary. Presumably, Gallup (among the most widely respected polling outfits) was not to be taken seriously. Well, the Obami can put their fingers in their ears and hum all they like when Gallup or Fox or Rasmussen deliver unpleasant news. But these organizations are simply the bearers of bad news. And there is more bad news these days. Gallup reports:
The increased conservatism that Gallup first identified among Americans last June persisted throughout the year, so that the final year-end political ideology figures confirm Gallup’s initial reporting: conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009.
Maybe that is why the Democrats are facing a meltdown in 2010, and the Tea Party protesters’ ranks and confidence are increasing. The Democratic Party seems to be losing ground in the era of Obama. Again from Gallup:
The year 2009 marked the end of a three-year run of majority Democratic support among U.S. adults. Last year, an average of 49.0% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they leaned Democratic, the party’s first yearly average below 50% since 2005. Still, Democrats maintained an average eight-point advantage in support over Republicans last year, as 40.7% of Americans identified as Republicans or leaned Republican. . .The 2009 yearly averages do not tell the whole story of changes in party support last year, as they to some degree obscure the sharp decline in the Democrats’ advantage over the course of the year. In the first quarter of 2009, coincident with the beginning of the Obama administration, Democrats enjoyed one of the largest advantages for either party since 1991, 13 percentage points (51.7% of Americans identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, versus 38.7% who identified as or leaned Republican). In each subsequent quarter, the percentage of Democratic supporters declined, and by the fourth quarter, the Democratic advantage had shrunk to 5 points (47.2% to 42.2%).
In other words, the more the voters saw of the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress, the less they liked them and the more conservative they became. The politicians who can capture that backlash will do well in 2010. Those who defend the Obama agenda and its handiwork, I suspect, will have a tough time of it.