Pass the Smelling Salts: A Racial Divide Exists in the USA

Despite the incessant post-racial discourse of the last year, a recent poll by the New York Times suggests that a strong racial divide persists concerning social and political issues. For example, Obama's approval rating among blacks is 80%, while it is 49% among whites. 21% of whites have an unfavorable view of Obama; the unfavorable number among blacks is too tiny to measure. The Washington Examiner has more analysis and details.

A few comments
First, these numbers are somewhat misleading because they do not control for party affiliation. Most blacks are Democrats, and Obama's support among Democrats who are not black is very strong as well. Some liberal bloggers are using this fact to ridicule the Washington Examiner article, but this criticism does not change that fact that on many important social and political issues, a true racial divide exists. A similar pattern exists with gender as well.

Second, blacks are typically very cynical about politics and politicians, but Obama has certainly changed that. I am concerned, however, that blacks seem unwilling to accept a nuanced view of Obama. Any criticism seems to result in a smackdown (ask Tavis Smiley). I passionately believe that "approving" everything a president does will not advance racial justice, even if the president is black. Apparently, people have not learned to distinguish race from political ideology. While the two concepts are related, they are not the same.

Yikes! Congress' Approval Ratings Lower Than President Bush's

Bush's historically low approval ratings have received much attention in the media. Real Clear Politics, an excellent, truly nonpartisan political blog, keeps a tally of all major opinion polls related to the presidential election and congressional races. It also collects surveys of job-performance ratings for the president and Congress as a whole.

According to the latest results, Bush's approval ratings range across pollsters from a low of 26% approve and a high of 70% disapprove. As if things could not get worse, approval ratings for Congress range from a low of 15% approve and high of 78% disapprove. Although RCP also provides a rolling average of all the polls, this can distort results because pollsters employ different methodologies. Nevertheless, job-performance numbers for Congress and Bush are extremely close across all pollsters. The range is very tight. So, basically, people do not like Bush's performance, but they dislike Congress' even more. Why do you think the current Congress has even lower numbers than the president with the lowest approval ratings in modern history?