If 50%+ of America voted with the rich-worshipping neocons 3 mo ago, but 92% of America approved...

[newtothegame]

of last night's speech, that has me worried, not celebrating.

Am I missing something here? How is it good for progressive America that apparently virtually all repuglicans approved of the policies and agenda set forth last night?

[MineralMan]

1. Well, it gives some idea of how many of these "progressives"

there really are, I guess. If "progressives" unanimously disapprove of President Obama's SOTU address, then it doesn't look there are many of them around, once you consider that folks on the far right also disapprove of the speech.

It's a telling number, I think. 8% disapprove of the speech. Hmmm....

[newtothegame]

2. Good point. I think we are much smaller in numbers than we typically like to think. nt

[MineralMan]

4. Oh, I'm very sure that's true. Places like DU and others can

give the impression that the numbers are much larger than they are. Such places self-select for people with political viewpoints that aren't the same as in the general population. It's an important thing to remember when you're living in a representative republic.

[enlightenment]

5. I don't think his response meant what you think it did.

Really.

[rurallib]

10. I disagree - just that most people want to be left alone

and they tend to go with the wind.
The media is a great wind maker.

[emulatorloo]

3. It is called BUYERS REMORSE.

f you looked at exit polling, most voters did not expect the Republicans to do anything anyway. Most of them were "protest voters"

Then people liked the lame duck session, shit got done by Harry Reid. While the Republican Senators acted like whiny crybabies complaining about having to actually work.

Additionally if you have been watching Boehner's house, they haven't delivered anything but TeaParty talking points. Most voters don't want HCR repealed for example.

or to put it another way BUYERS REMORSE.

[provis99]

8. you mean Ignorant Idiot's Remorse.

[leftstreet]

6. We'd need to know how many people actually watched the speech n/t

[louis-t]

7. When a Democratic president gives SOTU

they poll more Democrats because more Democrats than repugs will watch the speech. I just learned that last night.

[emulatorloo]

11. Curious, where did you hear that?

[louis-t]

12. Mmmm, it was one of the news shows. Can't remember.

[frazzled]

9. My guess is ...

You would think it better if the American people hated or dismissed everyone in the current political realm. Because they are all wrong. And all part of the same corporate cabal. Am I getting warm? Nihilism is something you can grow out of, with not much effort.

My other guess: Americans like divided government. They have no particular political philosophy, but they somehow believe that one party rule needs some checks, whichever party it is. (Not me, but this is pretty much a given in American politics.) That is what November was about. They also like to see a grownup in the room, and one who will inspire and give confidence about the future, and who does not base every move on partisanship, who tries to get something done, even with the divided government the people have handed him/her. That is what last night was about. No big mystery.

Last night on Charlie Rose, California's new Attorney General Kamala Harris was one of the respondents. Since she was the only panelist who had been through an election recently, she was asked about the moving to the middle thing. It's not the middle, she said. What she'd learned from campaigning around California was that a growing number of people don't really care about party affiliation (not me again, but I've never been in the mainstream): they just want to know if their job is secure, if their kids are going to get a good education, if things are working. They don't care about ideology. Again, none of us here at DU are that kind of person probably: we're political animals and attuned to larger, often ideological, arguments. But most of the country is not. We fail to recognize this at our own peril.

[Orsino]

13. The only agendas that make it through the 112th will have to earn at least grudging GOP support.

The only things we can be optimistic about achieving will therefore kinda suck.