Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

September 24, 2009

Obama in Strong Position on Health Care

A just-released New York Times poll finds President Obama "is going into the fall having retained considerable political strength. At 56%, his job approval rating is down from earlier in the year but still reasonably strong at this point compared with recent presidents."

However, "an intense campaign" by the president to rally support behind his health care plan "appears to have done little to allay concerns about the proposal."

Nonetheless the poll suggests that Obama "is in a decidedly more commanding position than Republicans on this issue as Congressional negotiations move into their final stages. Most Americans trust Mr. Obama more than Republicans to make the right decisions on the issue; 76 percent said Republicans had not even laid out a clear health care plan."

"And by a lopsided margin, respondents said that Mr. Obama and not Republicans had made an effort to cross party lines and strike a deal that has the support of both parties. Two-thirds of respondents said they wanted Congress to come up with a bill supported by both sides."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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