Making sense of those stimulus polls

Ramesh Ponnuru:

It is easier to unify a minority party around opposition to the majority party's proposals than around alternatives. But the resulting cacophony of alternatives makes it hard for the public to hear about any of them. I'm not sure how Republicans can solve this problem. But it seems to me, first, that they should not kid themselves that their attacks on the stimulus, or for that matter Obama's nominee missteps, have brought his approval ratings down. As Karlyn Bowman of AEI puts it, it's just "the normal force of gravity" that has brought Obama's numbers slightly down since the Inaugural. Second, Republicans would probably be better off if they spent less time pointing out the Democratic plan's flaws and more time talking up their favored economic fixes.

It doesn't help when the DeMint alternative Republicans voted for is totally unserious.