According to a newly released CNN poll, 79% of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of the transition. No numbers are available regarding home many Kossacks comprise the 18% who disapprove. Notably, Obama’s approval is 10 points higher than Bush’s disapproval (71%) and 50 points higher than his approval. Obama’s favorability ratings are at 76%. CNN’s Bill Schneider puts these numbers in perspective:
An Obama job approval rating of 79 percent -- that's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster," said Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst. "To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster."
More numbers that might make you smile include the following:
Six in 10 have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while a majority have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican party.
In other amazing news, the lame duck president makes one more startling admission on the heals of his acknowledgement that he flubbed up Iraq. In an interview for Nightline yesterday, Cynthia McFadden cornered Bush into admitting he believed in evolution:
MCFADDEN: But do you believe in it?
BUSH: That God created the world, I do, yeah.
MCFADDEN: But what about ...
BUSH: Well, I think you can have both. I think evolution can -- you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty, and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution.
Looks like Bush is coming to grips with reality eight years too late. For any other president, this remark would be innocuous. But, for Bush, it raises a palpable threat that his dwindling base will chase him out of office with pitchforks.
Sadly, though, Bush's staff is having trouble pulling out of the vacuum they've lived in the past eight years. Newly distributed White House talking points include the following bizarre delusions:
Titled "Speech Topper on the Bush Record," the talking points state that Bush "kept the American people safe" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lifted the economy after 2001 through tax cuts, curbed AIDS in Africa and maintained "the honor and the dignity of his office."
The document presents the Bush record as an unalloyed success.
Good luck peddling that revisionist history! Looks like about 18% of Americans might still buy it.