Some polling data to think about:
Nearly two-thirds of people questioned in the poll say they have a moderate or great deal of confidence in the administration to protect the public from future terrorist attacks, up 2 points from August. Thirty-five percent say they have not much or no confidence at all, down 1 point from August.
A number of Republicans have criticized the president over his handling of the attempted bombing of Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. But according to the survey, 57 percent approve of the way President Barack Obama’s responded, with 39 percent disapproving of how he handled the situation.
“Only a third of Republicans have a positive view of Obama on this matter, but the key for the administration is the 55 percent of independents who approve of how the president responded to the incident on Christmas Day,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
The poll also indicates no increase in overall concerns about terrorism. “In October, about a third said they were worried that a family member would become a victim of terrorism, and that number is unchanged in the wake of the attempted attack in December,” Holland notes.
“The public seems to react calmly to individual incidents, possibly because most Americans believe that the government cannot prevent every single terrorist plot from occurring.”
Six in 10 say the terrorists will always find a way to launch an attack, no matter what the government does, he adds – identical to the number who felt that way during the Bush administration.
In a nutshell, it means that the public is comfortable with the way Obama is handling things. Republicans are not.
The most refreshing thing in the poll is that six in ten Americans realize that no matter what the government does, terrorists will find a way to strike. That tells me the average American has a better understanding of the realities of terrorism than the average congressmen.
Tom Levenson
Every now and then it is good to get a reminder that not all of our public discourse is insane.
valdivia
but but Cheney said we were doooomed!
robertdsc
Shouldn’t this be a GSAVE tag instead of war on drugs?
Thanks for bringing this news to our attention.
Warren Terra
Which raises the always-important question: is the “average congressman” really that stupid, or are they aping such stupidity because they think it works politically?
In a way, I’d be happier if I thought that they actually knew better, even though that would make them truly evil … but I suspect many really are that dumb.
(Edit: hey, when was the edit function updated? It now works better than before, at least with my Google Chrome browser, in that after I edit a comment I’m returned to the comments thread, with my comment now containing the changes I made, instead of being left at the “your changes have been saved” page.)
dmsilev
Or the average member of the political media.
In either case, that’s clearing a pretty low bar.
-dms
Zifnab
I think we can safely file that under “Bad News for the Democrats”. The McCain campaign is really about to turn the corner on this election. Six more months, and I predict a massive Republican resurgence. Also, other Iraq War Propaganda metaphors.
valdivia
Another very important point–the Village has zero clue about what matters to the ‘people ‘ on the issues. They just like repeating what Cheney told Allen and they want to echo that.
Roger Moore
@Warren Terra:
I’m pretty sure that they’re doing it for political gain rather than because they think it’s actually true. What they’re really hoping is that they can convince the public that the (Democratic) government is supposed to keep them perfectly safe, so that Obama will be in trouble if/when there’s a successful attack. Of course you can expect them to take a different tack if/when there’s a successful attack during a Republican administration.
demkat620
But what if the terrorist knows kung-fu? How do they feel about that?
Leelee for Obama
I will sleep better tonight knowing that a large percentage of my fellow citizens are intelligent, grounded and practical. It’s a belated Holiday gift that I find encouraging.
Obama’s cool, clear and constant insistence on being sane is beating the Cheneyites all to hell. McCain needs to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up and this type of polling may just convince him it’s time to cut some brush of his own. With any luck, others will go with him.
General Winfield Stuck
Where’s my Rassmusen?, I WANT MY RASSMUSEN?
SpotWeld
In genearal the popular (as a whole) seems to be a lot more mello under Obama then they did under Bush.
I mean as a CEO, a person who can whip up his administration into a frenzy is probably a good thing (after all coffee is for closers!)… but a president, well.. as much as the media wants to deride a president not giving them a nice batch of pithy snarky frat boy sound bites, I gotta prefer a guy who’s a little more dull.
jeffreyw
Dammit, EPU’d.
Soup”s on!
BR
Taking a cue from Bruce Schneier, we should call them “underpants of mass destruction”:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/my_second_cnnco.html
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Warren Terra:
I will always take evil smart over sincere stupid. In the long run, the former does far less damage than the latter.
Midnight Marauder
Well, the citizenry might be sane, but the ol’ reliable White House Press Corps is just as crazy as ever:
Underexposed Press Corps Demands Press Conference from Overexposed President
Here’s a taste of some of the banter between Gibbs and the WH press corps:
geg6
Well, based on my unscientific poll of my friends, family, and co-workers (even the wingnuts), this sounds about right. I don’t know anyone other than the Villagers who went into panic mode over this. But after reading about MoDo screaming for her daddy and Roger Ailes hiring his own private security force and building his very own panic room at his FOX office, I’m thinking the Villagers are the biggest cowards ever.
Chad N Freude
The politicians are, I believe, for the most part smart enough to know that the probabilities and statistics are on the side of “Yawn”. The scare-mongering press, I believe, is totally clueless and really fearful (except for Fox, which is biblically evil). The public at large seems to believe that the draconian theatrical antics of the TSA are way out of proportion to the likelihood of a successful attack, thus demonstrating a better instinctive grasp of risk analysis than they did when they bought all those houses.
Chuck Butcher
Saner?
This generally means 100 million bedwetters are running around loose. It’s frightening enough that 20+% are hard core Republican loons. Call me less than re-assured.
Annie
@General Winfield Stuck:
Don’t worry. They are coming — new poll out tomorrow that says that today’s poll was for dyslexics.
The real numbers are 57 percent of Republicans approve, but 93 percent disapprove of how he is handling the situation. (And, don’t worry that the numbers don’t add up right — that is only for wimps and progressives.)
General Winfield Stuck
@Annie: LOL. You nailed it.
HRA
Anyone see the ad made by Liz Cheney’s org. on national security that is all about the Detroit would be bomber and countdown to when Obama responded publicly to it?
I am totally disgusted by the antics of the Cheneys. I just heard a little blurb about how maybe Cheney has an in at the CIA. Disgusted some more and I hope to hell he gets caught sooner rather than later.
Sly
For curiosity’s sake, I would have liked to see the regional breakdown of that poll.
If you look at polls that provide such a breakdown, you’ll see that a lot of Anti-Obama/Democratic and pro-GOP sentiment is being driven by the South. Like this one on GOP favorability done back in September. I’m just curious if the same applies to national security issues (I’m sure the assumption that it does is safe to make). Especially in the breakdown between high population and low population areas, and whether people who live in areas under no credible terrorist threat are more worried about such an event more than those who do.
Little Dreamer
Not exactly, 39 percent would disapprove of Obama no matter what he did. Most of them probably don’t even understand what happened in this incident, they simply know they are supposed to be outraged and so they are!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Sly:
Better yet, break it down by state, county and city. My guess would be that most folks in Detroit, where the actual incident happened, are more concerned with who bombed their economy and what they have to do to get some “jobs theater” to go with all that “security theater”.
John O
6 in 10 is of absolutely no comfort to me.
donovong
Well, we won’t really know what REAL AMERICANS think about this until tomorrow morning, when President McCain weighs in on The Today Show. Among the topics for discussion will be Harry Reid’s blunt honesty and Bloomer Bomber.
I kid you not.
valdivia
@donovong:
you jest yes? I mean, you *have* to be kidding, I thought President McCain was very busy protecting us from Terror.
kay
Well, good. I was hoping this would happen.
Ya know, eventually.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
If the American public is actually sensible and sane, what does that say for the future of political blogging?
ZOMG!
I just can’t get worked up into being afraid of terrorists, even when perfectly virus-protected software on pilotless drones is sending down the righteous fire onto carefully chosen targets that turn out to be wedding parties every once in a while …. or worked up into being afraid of righties, even when they are saying the most rottenest things about us ever on some of the most favoritest cable tv channels.
What’s wrong with me? Is my fear gland drying up? Do I suffer from threatile dysfunction?
Comrade Jake
I’m sure there are lots of sane people in this country, but none of them seem to be commenting over at Ambinder’s blog. Holy crazy people batman.
New Yorker
Well, it makes me feel better knowing that a significant majority of this country is sane, whereas I can’t say the same for the mass media, or the political punditocracy. 60% think the government won’t be able to stop a terrorist attack, and go about their lives anyway. That’s the way it should be. Nobody’s ever declared a War on Earthquakes/Tornadoes/Hurricanes, and yet the people of San Francisco/Oklahoma City/Miami seem to be able to live their lives normally knowing that there’s always the chance of disaster. That’s the way we need to approach the threat of terrorism.
Blue Raven
@New Yorker:
I work near the Transamerica Pyramid, which would be a nice little target for someone who didn’t feel like trying to dick with the Golden Gate Bridge. SF runs its air raid sirens every Tuesday at noon since 9/11. I’m supposed to be scared? Why? I can’t stop it if it happens and odds are it won’t. So, yeah, sanity prevails.
New Yorker
Right, and I’m less than 4 miles from the WTC site, and given terrorist attacks in London and Madrid, the NYC subway system seems like an inviting target. It is what it is.
But my original point was that natural disasters kill and maim scores of people every year in this country, and yet we’re all adult enough to go about our lives despite the threat of them. I’m glad to see that a majority of Americans seem to have the same attitude towards the threat of terrorism. I mean, I know I’d be a lot more scared of a 7.0 earthquake or a F-5 tornado than some idiot who set his junk on fire.
Little Dreamer
Not yet, anyway! ;)
Little Dreamer
@DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:
Yes, and so do I. Apparently it is a non-gender anti-condition!
eastriver
yes. if only to save the snaps of the furries.
Mayken
Yeah, but on the other hand something like 80% of people thought the full-body scanners are a good thing in airports so… while I am glad that there’s no panic over this (outside of the MSM and the Cheney-a-day talk show beat) I am depressed that my fellow citizens are so ready to hand over naked pics of themselves to the TSA. *sigh*
theturtlemoves
Ok, two things.
1. This is quite possibly the funniest response to a media douchebag I have ever heard: “MR. GIBBS: Scratch and win, Major. Scratch and win.”
2. What the hell is it with all these Villagers having such stupid damn names? Who the hell names their kid Major or Wolf?
SiubhanDuinne
At first I wasn’t 100% sure about Gibbs. I didn’t *not* like him or anything, I just wasn’t completely convinced he was a press secretary worthy of Obama. But anyone who can ad lib a line like “Scratch and win, Major. Scratch and win.” is fine by me and I’m never again going to worry about his chops.
Midnight Marauder
@theturtlemoves:
I know. There’s a whole lot of win in that presser, but that retort is by far the standout. I was just stunned that these people were seemingly incredulous about a meme that they helped create. And by stunned, I of course mean “expectantly amused.” I also enjoyed “Do you have a question or an opinion, Mr. Pundit?” The Robert Gibbs Pithy Response Era is going to be very entertaining, to say the least.
Edit: Let us also not forget another gem, “Maybe It’s Madrid?”
Mayken
@theturtlemoves: Not to be too much of a pedant but Wolf (and its variants) is a rather unremarkable German boys name. I assume Mr. Blitzer is of Germanic decent… My nephew’s middle name is Wulf (one of the variants) and he’s named for an uncle.
I’m the last person to make fun of other people’s names given my surname took me until 2nd grade to learn how to write (16 letters, most of them consonants.)
Also, cool screen name!
theturtlemoves
@Mayken: Yeah, I realize a German named Wolfgang Blitzer wouldn’t be entirely uncommon and my own last name is German, but it still sounds almost fake. Could be worse. Could be a conservative and be called something like Tucker or Scooter. Personally I vote for Nathan Explosion and Murderface.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@New Yorker: “Nobody’s ever declared a War on Earthquakes/Tornadoes/Hurricanes…”
What I want is a War on Foreign Drivers. I heard that most American fatalities overseas are caused by traffic accidents. What we need are drones tracking every single American who is overseas and driving, armed to the teeth and ready to take out any vehicular threats to that American.
We need to do more to keep Americans safe!
EIGRP
I think the wingnuts need better poll questions. For example:
Given that President Bush responded to the shoe bomber incident in 6 days and President Obama responded to the crotch bomber in 3 days, who responded first?
Is that push polling? Would their heads explode?
-Eric
MTiffany
And the flip-side of that statistic is the most terrifying because it’s the four in ten Americans who think that arbitrarily giving the government more police powers with less oversight could prevent all terrorist attacks are the ones that scream the loudest and hence, are the ones the politicians cater to. The crazies are still driving the debate. Saner than you think? Sure, but that’s not saying too much when 4 in 10 Americans are still too nuckin’ futs by half.