him. i don t think i don t believe they think he has a plan to turn around the economy. why the numbers haven t improved, it s not that he s out and campaigning that s hurting him, it s that he hasn t moved the needle. well, that s what i m saying. it s results, but it s also the payroll tax, right? the democrats make a big push on that. that helps at the margins. that s not going to fundamentally cause a shift. and dan, the fact that you ve got a president that doesn t compromise, doesn t want to work with anyone, bills pass the hours, over 15, maybe 17 bills, harry reid doesn t bring it up in the senate. the president said i m going to veto it. when americans hear that a president is not willing to sit down and work in their best interest, regardless of party, they re going to look at that man and say he s not interested in but right now alisyn: obviously the president would say he tried to work with john boehner, there were those meetings they had. he has the house and
former white house staffer and dan gersten, democratic strategist and president of gothham ghost writers. so independents leaving the president. aren t they the key group that the president needs to begin reelection in 2012, and what does he do to get them back? absolutely. and in manors it s a reflection of two things. one is the state of the economy is horrible, things haven t gotten better and people blame the president when that happens. doesn t matter who the president is, he s going to get the lion s share of the blame. i think the second thing is they still believe that washington is broken, right, fundamentally. independents got hopes raised when president obama got elected it marked a new era, that he was going to at least marginally make things better and with the debt ceiling debacle his numbers with independents got much, much worse, and i think that this frustration is not going to go away. but we got to realize, the frustration is with washington as a whole. he bears it
have concerns about the republican alternatives. fox news digital politics editor cries stierwalt, host of the power play on foxnews.com live, joins me now. hi chris. greetings from sue city, how we doing? alisyn: doing well. looks chilly there but you guys did a great job last night. let s talk about this new poll, because it s interesting, it measures how independents feel. as we said, 59 percent of them say they disapprove. what better calculus is there, frankly, as to what s going to happen in 2012, since aren t they the decision makers? let s put it into an even larger context. remember that the president has been getting a jump on his republican rivals, whoever that ends up being, since labor day. he has been essentially in a full-time campaign since labor day, and the historic unprecedented kickoff speech to joint session of congress. he s been railing against republican intransigence in the house over and over again, impede blips, and his numbers are worse than
have concerns about the republican alternatives. fox news digital politics editor cries stierwalt, host of the power play on foxnews.com live, joins me now. hi chris. greetings from sue city, how we doing? alisyn: doing well. looks chilly there but you guys did a great job last night. let s talk about this new poll, because it s interesting, it measures how independents feel. as we said, 59 percent of them say they disapprove. what better calculus is there, frankly, as to what s going to happen in 2012, since aren t they the decision makers? let s put it into an even larger context. remember that the president has been getting a jump on his republican rivals, whoever that ends up being, since labor day. he has been essentially in a full-time campaign since labor day, and the historic unprecedented kickoff speech to joint session of congress. he s been railing against republican intransigence in the house over and over again, impede blips, and his numbers are worse than