more guarded optimism than they had last time. so, doug, what do you see as the president s biggest obstacles he faces looking ahead to this term that he didn t necessarily have in the first? are there different ones? the most glaring is is the republican-controlled house of representatives, which he didn t have when he first stepped into washington. thus health care passed. yeah. and they re not inclined to cooperate with him and put ideology and politics aside in my opinion. another thing going on is deficit politics. i m not saying just the deficit itself, which with a balanced approach we can take care of like we did in the 90s after bush one. i think deficit politics, there s a fear of it, it s ginned up, becomes a big obstacle to doing things he wants to do and that the country needs like investing in our economic infrastructure, improving public education, jump-starting new industries to keep us competitive, that sort of thing. i think that s going to be a big obstacle
shrinking as people look for answers, simple answers. they are clinging to what they think they know. the world is almost too complicated for them to deal with, especially when it s not producing jobs and $4.50 gasoline. two interesting findings on the poll. the number one issue that the respondents want the president to focus on is jobs, 21% want jobs. the third one is deficit. another item, only 29% say the deficit reduction would create jobs. so the republican argument that it would create jobs is only believed by 29%. the deficit itself, as an issue for the president comes in third. has the white house made a mistake in adopting the republican frame that the deficit is our number one issue?