Good news for the White House and bad news for House Speaker John Boehner and some Republicans who appear to be heading towards a replay of the whole post-2008 confrontation, gridlock scenario: the latest Gallup tracking poll gives Obama 56% approval, his highest rating since 2009.
Of course, by the time confrontation and gridlock became nonstop, Obama’s approval rating started to tumble. But I’m betting a)the White House is better prepared this time b)since Obama isn’t running for re-election he will be a lot more inclined to take his foes head on.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.