"most Americans...think that he actually is in touch with them and their problems"

[babylonsister]

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2010&base_name=staying_in_touch

Staying In Touch.

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll has some predictably bad news for Obama -- falling approval ratings, particularly on the economy -- and some remarkably good news. For instance, when they asked respondents who is more responsible for the budget deficit -- which has become the rallying cry of the GOP, not to mention the teabaggers warning about our descent into socialism -- 41 percent said it was primarily the fault of the Bush administration, 24 percent said it was primarily the fault of Congress, and only 7 percent said it was the fault of the Obama administration. So that's one Republican message that isn't getting through.

But there was something else we should hope journalists in particular take note of. Despite a round of stories on Obama being "out of touch," most Americans -- including many who aren't happy with his performance -- think that he actually is in touch with them and their problems:



How can this be? After all, Obama went to good schools, and actually performed well at them! He speaks in full sentences! He comes from a big city, not the kind of small town from which all virtue emanates!

Maybe, just maybe, "real" Americans care less about that kind of thing than your average out-of-touch Washington-based journalist assumes. It would be interesting to know how many people think Sarah Palin, whose persona is built on the idea that she's jus' folks, understands their problems. I'm guessing it's a number much smaller than you'd think.

-- Paul Waldman

[avaistheone1]

1. If that is true why then doesn't Obama address and advocate for single-payer health care

given 65% of Americans prefer that approach to health care reform? 45,000 Americans die each year as a result of not having health insurance, not to mention those who are forced into bankruptcies and foreclosures because they can not afford their medical expenses.

Obama has never really allowed single payer a seat at the table during the policy making process. Instead advocates and health care professionals favoring single payer were shunned, ignored and even arrested when they attempted to take their rightful positions as stakeholders.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Because most Americans are smart enough to understand how congress works.

[CBR]

3. +1 nt

[FrenchieCat]

4. +2

[Spazito]

5. +3 n/t

[avaistheone1]

7. +2010 +2012

How do you think that is going to be working for him then, when he can't make it work now?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. I don't think he'll be able to pass single payer then either.

And that may just be the reason why it's off the table.

In fact, I'm willing to bet that most people who are smart enough to figure out how congress works have already got that figured out too.

[avaistheone1]

10. You know Obama alluded to the smart people in Europe in his state of the

union address about all they have been able to achieve. All of those smart people in Europe have pretty much already figured out high speed rail or have great mass transit system and they will be happy to sell it to us and they will, and they have figured out green technology (China too) and are selling that to us. They are years ahead in biotech. Yet all these European countries have universal health care for their people (China is on that one too). It was either at the G20 or G8 that German minister Merkel commented that the recession would be much less difficult on her people because they have a universal health care system, as opposed to the U.S. who does not.

I am tired of being last as a nation, and especially on an essential human need like health care when people are being destroyed as a result of not having health insurance. It is neither smart nor financially wise to eliminate single-payer. A report came out in the last few days that now more of us are dependent on government provided health care than private health care. So we need a cost effective system that can work like SP. Show some damn leadership and stop making excuses. Bring single payer to the table.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. The U.S. Congress is an American institution, not a European one.

Stop blaming Obama and learn how your government works.

[frazzled]

13. I think you may not want to go there with China

Besides their one-child policy, which I don't think we'd find too amenable here, there's this:

China's health-care system is in disarray, a side effect of the market reforms that have spurred private enterprise and rapid growth since 1980. Before then, state-owned companies offered cradle-to-grave care, part of a system based on danwei, or work units, that provided health, education, pensions and other benefits. But as the economy has grown more diverse, an increasing number of Chinese have had to fend for themselves, with only a porous government insurance program to help.

As U.S. lawmakers engage in a tense debate over health-care reform, Chinese authorities, too, are attempting to fix their system. Over the past five years, the government has tried to provide coverage to more of its 1.4 billion people. But even people covered by a minimal health insurance program are often left with big hospital bills and must pay for most outpatient services and medication. More than 300 million people do not have any health insurance.

In a country once committed to erasing class differences, the gap in the quality of care has been steadily growing, too. Peking University People's Hospital, for example, has computerized charts, GE scanners, top-flight doctors and a deluxe ward where the wealthy can pay extra for private suites. But community clinics in most cities or rural areas tend to be understaffed and poorly equipped.

"We go to clinics for colds, but we don't trust the doctors because they are all being paid by the drug companies and so they over-prescribe," said Helen Ye, a Beijing resident who works for a U.S. company. "So most Chinese people, if they don't feel really sick, do home treatment and try to cure themselves."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/28/AR2009102805081.html

[impik]

6. Because single payer wouldn't get 20 votes on the senate, but what do you care

It's all Obama's fault.

[avaistheone1]

9. You are probably right. Given how the admin has handled single-payer I don't expect that it would

pass. No, it definitely would not pass. I think that was the intention all along from the top down.

However, I don't think it is too much to expect better leadership on this issue given the condition the country is in on health care.

[Cha]

12. Good, and this is in spite of all the corporatemediawhore

WHINING.