Klein: Poll Bad for Obama, Worse for Liberalism

"A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showing Americans with shattered confidence in President Obama's ability to lead may be bad news for him, but it's worse news for liberalism," writes Philip Klein @ Washington Examiner.

True, there are some issues, such as global warming, in which the poll showed the public closer to the liberal view. But not on the overarching question that has been at the center of American politics since the New Deal era.

According to the poll, just 46 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that, “Government should do more to solve problems and help meet the needs of people” compared with 50 percent who agreed with the view that, “Government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.” In February 2009, right after he was sworn into office, the same poll found 51 percent thought government should do more and just 40 percent who thought it was doing too much. ...

It found that just 14 percent blamed the [Dept of Veterans Affairs] problems on “poor management by the Obama administration” compared with 61 percent who blamed “longstanding government bureaucracy.”

To the extent that Americans see problems as connected to Obama’s incompetence, it still provides an opening for another Democrat to implement the liberal agenda. But if Obama-era failures make Americans more skeptical about federal bureaucracy in general, it makes things that much more difficult. ... Obama set out to convince Americans that government could work, and as of this point in his presidency, he has failed.