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Obama’s approval at 53%…Why?

According to an Associated Press-GFK Poll, Obama’s approval rating is up to 53%,  its highest point since March, directly before the final passing of the health care bill. 

The way that I see it, there are two easy slants that one could put on this:

1) The Conservative Slant
The approval bump is the result of Obama catering towards a Republican-leaning America.  The recent extension of Tax Cuts and choice of William M. Daley (a bitter opponent of both health care reform and the consumer protection act) have both been fairly right-leaning moves.  As evidenced by the 2010 elections and recent polling showing that 56% of Americans approve of Republicans in Congress, Americans want Republican leadership and are reacting to a more conservative Obama.

2) The Liberal Slant
This is a result of swelling support for the Democrats.  Recent successes such as the repeal of DADT, the ratification of START and the tightening restrictions on CO2 emissions have shown that the Democrats really can get things done.  Americans favor Democrat policy and now that it’s actually being enacted, they’re showing support.

In my opinion, the American people want two things: strong leadership and their economy repaired as quickly as possible.  Obama’s bump is a result of at least something clearly happening at a state level after a long period of apparent inaction.  However, it’s too little, too late.  The Republicans were able to overwhelmingly take Congress not because they necessarily had better policies, but because it looked like they were going to actually do something and because the average voter couldn’t tell that anything had changed under the Democrats.  Obama’s best bet at this point is to throw bipartisanship out of the window and put up a fight because the American people don’t vote for the politicians with the best policies, they vote for the politicians who can get something done.

Look at Us

Look at the world. Look at the media, look at the politicians, look at the headlines: uncountable as stars in the sky.

What a mess right?
Now look at me. I’m rather unassuming; just a high-school student, but to me, it seems like the reason that the world is so complicated, is because we make it so complicated. Maybe it’s youthful ignorance talking, but I think that a lot of things could be a lot easier if we just used some common sense.

That’s really my goal here, to infuse some levelheaded thinking into discussions about news and politics. Enjoy.