A Rasmussen poll released today caught my eye: 47% say Mr. Obama is a good or excellent leader, 39% say he is a poor one. As I looked into the questions further, it became clear that most respondents were not connecting the president’s performance and results to leadership. While they rate him as a good or excellent leader, they rate his performance “poor” on most issues that are extremely important to the country.  Continue reading…

The public has a solid record of making “the right calls” when it comes to assessing a variety of policy issues. In contrast, conclusions from Washington are often very different from the public’s view, heavily influenced by political trade-offs or myopic thinking.  It’s unfortunate that flawed logic and untested ideas generate bad results.

Here’s a great example described in a New York Times article on January 1, 2010 – U.S. Loan Effort Is Seen as Adding to Housing Woes. Some experts are now saying that the $75 billion program to protect homeowners has done more harm than good. Continue reading…