According to a recent article at Poll Tracker, (http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/polltracker/2009/01/most-voters-regard-obama...) 49% percent of U.S. citizens consider the new president to their political left. 38% of those polled believe him to be as liberal as themselves, while 9% consider him more conservative. The polling also points to 35% claiming the president is to the left of a majority of those in congress.
So, what does this say about the recently elected president, and more importantly, about our voters? For starters, that the skewed results of the National Journal's "Most Liberal" rating seems to have stuck in the minds of voters. What's more is that these results seem to disprove the old adage that the public will not vote for a presidential candidate which they perceive to be to the left of them. This belief dates back to the failed candidacy of George McGovern, whose campaign was sunk beneath the idea that he stood for what Bob Novak called "amnesty, abortion, and acid."
What does this poling indicate? After all, according to this, many voters apparently voted for a man whom they consider to their own political left. Perhaps what this polling indicates is that Americans wish to pursue "post-partisan" politics. Perhaps, faced with economic and foreign policy doom and gloom, voters simply wished to try something different. As President Obama said in his Inaugural Address, “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” To many left-wingers, the new president seems to be a last hope for a renewal of American Liberalism. After all, in the minds of 49% of those polled, Barack Obama represents what a liberal is. The impression he leaves in voters’ minds will be the impression they have of all left wing politicians.
