Focus group finds Obama's image 'malleable'

TOWSON, Md. -- President Obama has seen his approval ratings slide, but a dozen independent voters who gathered here Wednesday night were still willing to give him a break.

The talk at the focus group, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, reflected deep worry about the country's direction and a sobering assessment of the problems ahead. But there was also a reservoir of hope and good feelings for a president several referred to familiarly as "Barack."

Asked what they would like to say to Obama, Scott Wood, 35, who has been looking for a job since February, advised: "Don't give up yet; we haven't."

"I think we've found out he's not Superman," said Nora Seeley, 54, when asked what she had learned about the president during his first six months on the job. Still, "as time goes on it seems like little things are working slowly but surely" — a sign, she said, "that things are starting to turn around."

Most of those around the table predicted the nation's near future would be marked by sharp ups and downs.

There were some warning signs for the president in their assessment of his tenure so far. Several expressed concern that he was spending too much and moving too fast, especially in trying to overhaul the health care system.

"Sometimes I think the speed that he's doing things — it's a little bit of a gamble," said Tim Polen, 24, a student who works parttime selling cellphones, when asked what worried him most about Obama.

"It seems like he's on a fast train," said Seeley, a dental hygienist. "I just think a lot of things are not taken into consideration" on issues including health care. "He just can't do that that quickly."

A few disagreed, saying speed was essential. "If the ship is sinking, you've got an emergency situation," said Louis Moriconi, 63, a graphic designer.

When Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who moderated the session, asked them what Obama's spine was made of, only two chose such strong substances as steel or metal.

The others' choices ranged from Teflon and plastic to bamboo and wood. "Wet cement," said Marsha Welder, 59, the account manager at a security firm, "because it's going to dry."

Afterwards, Hart said Obama's strategists might well be concerned about those choices, which he called "pretty malleable." That could reflect a sense that the new president's mettle had not yet been fully tested.

Overall, however, Hart said the hopeful assessments of Obama provided a sort of counterweight to a decline in his standing in national polls. The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll last week put his job approval rating at 55% and the NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll out Wednesday had it at 53%.

In the discussion group, there was a general consensus that Obama erred last week in weighing in on the controversy over the arrest of African American scholar Henry Louis Gates at his home in Cambridge, Mass. At a White House news conference, Obama said the police department had "acted stupidly" in arresting the Harvard professor, though he later tried to temper his words

"That was a mess-up; he knows that," Jeanne Chambers, 56, a registered nurse, said of Obama. But she went on, "I think it's really cool the way he handled inviting the two to the White House for a beer," saying she admired "his ability to admit a mistake."

Obama has invited Gates and the police officer involved, Sgt. James Crowley, to the White House for a beer this evening. Raymond Fernandez, 44, the manager of a movie theater, said he hoped Obama would take the opportunity to apologize to Crowley for his comments.

All the participants in the focus group in this suburban Baltimore community identified themselves as independent voters. Seven voted for Obama last year; four for McCain and one for third party candidate Ralph Nader.

Hart posed a series of questions, some of them offbeat, during the two-hour session:

• Asked who among a dozen prominent people they would least like to be seated next to on a plane, six said radio host Rush Limbaugh and four House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

• Asked who they would most want to be seated next to, eight said Obama. Two chose his 2008 Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

• Asked who they would like to go on vacation with, six said Bill and Hillary Clinton; three said the Obamas. "We all know that Bill knows how to have fun," said Tom Stranger, 37, an accountant. When Hart asked who would choose the Clintons if they knew the former president wasn't going to be along, however, no one raised his or her hand.

In the conversation, Michelle Obama got glowing reviews.

"In my eyes, she's improved," Welder said, saying she "didn't think that highly of her in the beginning."

"A great role model all the way around," said Jeanne Chambers.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, in contrast, had no defenders. Asked to describe her in a word or phrase, Alex Chambers,. 27,. a teacher, called her "comical" and Stranger said: "I wish she would just go away."