Turns out wild conservative accusations of Obama being “weak on terror” were greeted with a disinterested sigh by the majority of the American public. A new CNN/Opinion Research poll finds 57 percent of Americans approving of President Obama’s handling of the Christmas Day terror attempt. Furthermore, fully 66 percent have modest-to-great confidence that the Obama administration can protect the country from future acts of terrorism. That’s a three-percent increase since August.
Notably, only 37 percent opposed Obama’s handling of the situation, which is actually less than the 42 percent of Americans in Gallup’s tracking poll who identified themselves as Republican this past September. In other words, Republican tactics aren’t moving the public perception of Obama’s security credentials, and an argument could be made that Obama’s cool headed resolve has even won over a handful of conservatives. If Republicans run with the “weak” argument for mid-term elections, as my erstwhile “debate” foil did on a certain 24 hour cable news channel, it doesn’t look like the winner they thought it was.
