I respect a politician who sticks by principles when they’re unpopular.
I understand a politician who does the popular thing even if it goes against principles.
What I don’t understand or respect are politicians who abandon their principles even when those principles have public support.
Public opinion polls show a majority of Americans would rather have government spending to create jobs than cutbacks in spending to reduce the budget deficit.
They show that a majority of Americans would be happy to allow the upper-bracket tax cuts to expire on schedule.
And they show that a majority of Americans favor tough regulation of the big banks and Wall Street investment firms.
All these are things that President Obama and the other national Democratic leaders say they want. What, then, is the problem? Why do they hesitate? Why are they so timid in what they propose?
The Gallup poll in the chart above is just one poll. Other polls show a more nearly even race, but none of them are encouraging for the Democrats. But after all, if the Democrats don’t believe in their own platform, why should anybody else?
[Update 9/8/10] Here’s a new poll with different results. It shows how volatile public opinion is, or how voters distrust both parties, or maybe what a large margin for error Gallup has. But my original argument still stands.

(more…)