President Obama
talks about the strike
against bin Laden on 60 Minutes
A
new Washington Post poll of Virginia voters shows a significant bump in President Obama's job approval and re-elect numbers since the death of Osama bin Laden. The post surveyed 677 voters before the announcement of the death and 503 afterwards.
Before the announcement of bin Laden's death, Obama's job approval stood at 48% approve, 49% disapprove. After the announcement, it was at 57% approve, 40% disapprove.
Before the announcement, 55% said they would at least consider voting for Obama in 2012, while 43% said they definitely would not. After, 63% said they would consider voting for him and 35% said they definitely would not.
Against actual candidates, Obama's lead over Mitt Romney grew from +2 to +7 and his lead over Mike Huckabee grew from +4 to +9. Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin, and Donald Trump were all in the thirties both before and after, but they each fell even further behind.
Obviously, we're a long way from 2012, so it would be foolish to assume that this polling bump will be permanent—but it's not irrelevant. This wasn't a war against Iraq. This was a military strike against someone who led an attack on the United States, and its success makes conservative claims that President Obama is an anti-American leftist seem more absurd than ever. Overnight, they've gone from arguing Obama is a radical to claiming that Obama is basically no different than Bush.
Yeah, he's no different than Bush. Except for the part about where he actually ended combat operations in Iraq (a war he opposed from the start), and except for the part about where he's going to end the war in Afghanistan, and except for the part about where he got bin Laden. Other than that, he's exactly the same.