Truth over Happiness [View All]

[babylonsister]

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200902u/polling-obama

by Jodie Allen and Richard Auxier
Truth over Happiness


Ok, so maybe Americans do like happy talk. That, anyway, is what the pundits and the pols (including a former president) have been telling President Obama ever since his relatively somber inaugural address—lighten up, fella, let’s hear more of that ‘yes we can’ talk!

As widely noted, President Obama responded to these concerns, including with some “made-for-applause” lines in his address to Congress. “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,” he assured his listeners. “…We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril and claimed opportunity from ordeal.” Etc.

Instant polling appeared to confirm the predicted positive response. The CBS News/Knowledge Networks poll, for a fast example, found that, among its sample of speech watchers (38 percent Democrats, 26 percent Republicans and 36 percent independents) an overwhelming 80 percent said they approved of the president’s plan for dealing with the economic crisis. Prior to the speech, 63 percent approved.

Still, unwilling to abandon the tough-minded, fact-based approach that characterized the opening weeks of his presidency, Obama administered an even larger dose of downers: “None of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy.” Etc.

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So what do Americans want from a leader if not happy talk?

As it turns out, they want honesty. According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted last summer, fully 96 percent of the public say that the requirement that a political leader be honest is either “absolutely essential” (52 percent) or “very important” (44 percent), making it the most sought-after trait in a political leader. In fact, those in Obama’s opposition party are somewhat more likely to say honesty is absolutely essential (59 percent of Republicans) than are those in his own party (50 percent of Democrats) or independents (52 percent).

Of course views of what constitutes the truth, and hence what counts as truth telling, tend to differ somewhat across party lines. Still, it is noteworthy that the Pew Research poll found that Obama is currently seen as “trustworthy” by 76 percent of Americans, including by a majority of Republicans. By comparison, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each received trustworthiness ratings in the low 60s when they took office. So whether, in future speeches, Obama opts to put the accent on the positive or on the negative, he would do well to emphasize the facts, at least as far as they are knowable.