Looks like the elections might not be over after all, despite all the inside-the-beltway consensus that this year will be a bloodbath for Democrats and a triumph for Republicans.
A Newsweek poll shows Dems closing the much-ballyhooed "enthusiasm gap" with Republicans, and a jump in the approval rate for President Barack Obama. Here's what Newsweek has to say:
The poll finds that 48 percent of registered voters would be more likely to vote for Democrats, compared with 42 percent who lean Republican.President Obama’s approval ratings have jumped substantially, crossing the magic halfway threshold to 54 percent, up from 48 percent in late September, while the portion of respondents who disapprove of the president dropped to 40 percent, the lowest disapproval rating in a NEWSWEEK Poll since February 2010.
Newsweek cautions that Bill Clinton experienced a similar surge in 1994, and Democrats still took a trouncing.
But maybe, just maybe, all the talking the president's been doing about his agenda and Republicans' lack of one is having an effect.
Meanwhile, most prognosticators still predict a Republican takeover of at least one house of Congress. So the Republican leadership, at least, better be thinking seriously about what they'll really do to work with the president if they gain a majority in one or both Houses of Congress. The public won't stand for more out-and-out obstructionism in the face of two wars and an economy in the tank.
And we do have the recent history of the Clinton and Reagan presidencies to show that the country, at least, can prosper under a divided government--if politicians on both sides of the aisle walk a little bit away from partisanship and toward cooperation.
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