PUBLIC SKEPTICAL ABOUT OBAMA'S BUDGET - AT 10:58 A.M. - Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times's Top of The Ticket, reports that President Obama's sales campaign has failed to build support for his sizable budget:

People who feel positively about his budget fell from 44% in late February to 39% this week. People who feel negatively about the budget increased one point to 27% in the same time frame. And after all that budget talk, people who claim to not know enough to have an opinion increased 10% from 30% to 33%.

The budget battles are far from over, of course, even with Obama's own Democratic Party controlling both houses of Congress.

But imagine what could have happened to U.S. public opinion on the president's budget if he hadn't invested all that salesmanship. Can he keep it up? And is some public caution creeping in?

COMMENT:  We hope that public caution is indeed creeping in.  This budget, and the pressure down the road to keep financing the programs it creates, can choke the country.  If the public begins to understand, the congressional elections next year might produce some stunning results.

March 28, 2009