A Mixed Bag of Tea

Poll results* yesterday give us a mixed bag: the President's foreign policy has poll numbers that are positively stratospheric; but he has sunk to the bottom of the barrel on the economy.  Can we read anything in these tea leaves? This is an easy one.  Foreign policy-wise, this President has defaulted to the policies of his predecessor, from keeping Gitmo and military tribunals, to surging troops into Afghanistan, to using information derived from enhanced interrogation to take out high-value military and political targets like bin Laden.  Despite the heated political rhetoric of the Democrats - and "rhetoric" is all it was, as revealed by the post-election behavior of this President - the American people explicitly endorsed President Bush's approach to the War on Terror in 2004, and clearly have not changed their minds.  The President is the mere recipient of this long-term trend. Contrariwise, this President has uniformly and consistently rejected any and all fixes for the economy that might resemble the tax-cut, supply side, pro-growth policies of the former President.  Unlike the foreign policy sphere, President Bush did not invent this approach, but was just a further declension of the political revolution that was Ronald Reagan.  The American people overwhelmingly re-elected President Reagan in 1984 for the most part because of his economic approach, and have continued for more than 20 years to vote for this approach in that uniquely American way: by diving with gusto into the economy, and creating the boom and boon for all Americans that only a thriving economy can.  Despite this, our President insists on governing against the political tide.  It is no wonder his poll numbers are as low as the economy over which he presides. Many regard President Obama as a political genius. Hah!  He is an ideologue who happened on the right circumstances at the right time and became President.  *(h/t Jim Geraghty's indispensable Morning Jolt daily newsletter - subscribe here).