Recent public opinion polls are being used to marry the Obama administration to the failure of government.  For example, a recent CNN poll (Feb 12-15) expresses the sentiment of 86% of those polled that �government is broken.�  It should go without saying that CNN has been pushing this slogan for several weeks and now, a poll they take shows up confirming their foregone conclusion.  Actually, they have been using this slogan for a few years and the most recent figure is only 8% more than it was in 2006, despite the alarmist attitudes about this poll. Moreover, those holding this view are primarily upper class whites and rural Americans and are the same demographic as the Tea Party folks.  Dissatisfaction with government has existed since the public soured on the War in Iraq, through the economic crash of 2008 and the failure of the first year of the Obama administration to resolve those prior problems. 

But although many have tried, perhaps the fact that these problems existed prior to the current administration is why Americans don�t hold President Obama responsible for the mess.  Despite the sirens blasting that �government is broken,� the most recent Washington Post, ABC News poll (Feb 8) finds that Obama�s approval rating is 51% and although the media has pressured him about his campaign pledge of bi-partisanship, those responding to the poll hold Republicans responsible (58%) for doing too little to compromise on important issues.  Moreover, when asked whether they trust Obama or the Republicans to handle several important public issues, they trust Obama on all of them by significant amounts.  So, it helps to read into the surveys beyond the sirens.

The point, however is that we shouldn�t have to go scurrying around into the bowels of surveys to pull out the truth if the media were fair to this President.  But they seem to want to keep him on the edge of legitimacy and to do that they have to create the inference that his approval ratings are low in American public opinion.  Why else would they not report the polls fairly?

In most recent surveys those responding hold the Republicans responsible for the obstructive actions that are the foundation of a so-called �broken government�; so if it is broken, they have done it.   How can you come to any other conclusion when the Republican party votes �no� consistently for bills proposing something as basically humanitarian as health care for ideological reasons, ending up supporting insurance companies and their profits? How can you conclude otherwise when one Senator holds up 47 of the President�s appointments because of an ideological conflict with the White House, or when 279 bills have been passed by the House that have seen no action in the Senate because of their threat of filibuster, or when Senator Jim Bunning (KY) places a hold on the passage of the extension of unemployment benefits for thousands of unemployed because of an ideological difference with the White House over how it would be paid for?  The major media should not be just referees.

Rather than telling the American people the truth about Republican obstructionism, the media has engaged in a �both sides� type of analysis, pretending that the Democrats are just as guilty for holding up action on government programs as the Republicans.  There is much blame to go around in the Democratic camp, largely because the President hasn�t been breeding some discipline into his own party unless they fall in line.  In other words, one member of the House said it right, they don�t fear the President.  Nevertheless, blaming that the Democratic party as the main problem is giving Republicans a pass that they don�t deserve.

In the final analysis I don�t think that these polls are all that decisive about electoral outcomes in 2010.  If Democrats push through jobs bills and especially the health care bill that is on the table, things could change dramatically because people really don�t know what is in it.  They know what they have been told by conservative politicians and talk radio hosts who have effectively controlled the debate.  So, the President and his people will have to do a much better job of controlling their messages if they want the polls to change.

A great deal is at stake in the President having some success.  Trust in government is at an all time low and the CNN poll referenced above found that 56% of people think that the federal government poses a �threat to their rights.�  That is the stuff that builds militias and Tea Party crazies and could eventually make our social crisis more important than the economic crisis.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Dr. Ron Walters,PhD is a Political Analyst, Author and Professor Emeritus of the University of Maryland, College Park. His latest book is: The Price of Racial Reconciliation (The Politics of Race and Ethnicity) (University of Michigan Press). Click here to contact Dr. Walters.