Specter Party Switch A Boost To Obama

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

We asked some Pennsylvania voters for their take on Senator Specter's announcement. For Democrat Laurie Sinclair(ph) of Harrisburg, the move was a surprise.

Ms. LAURIE SINCLAIR: I am shocked by it, but I think with this administration coming in, he sees that he can play a vital role.

MONTAGNE: Bill Schaeffer(ph) of Tower City is a registered independent.

Mr. BILL SCHAEFFER: I always thought him as a Democrat, anyway. So, I think his ideology and his - just his voting record, I think, has been more along the lines of a - as a Democrat.

MONTAGNE: Emily Bennett(ph) of Hershey describes herself as a moderate Republican.

Ms. EMILY BENNETT: I don't think anyone is going to voice the Republican side anymore. I think it's just all going to be Democratic, and I don't want it to be like that.

MONTAGNE: Now let's bring in another voice from Washington. Mara Liasson is NPR's national political correspondent, and she joins us now. Good morning.

MARA LIASSON: Good morning, Renee.

MONTAGNE: A nice surprise for the president this week.

LIASSON: It certainly is. What a gift on his 100th day in office. President Obama is pretty close to getting a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Now, once Specter becomes a Democrat and if Al Franken from Minnesota is seated, once Norm Coleman finishes all his legal challenges to that election, the Democrats will have what they need to choke off a filibuster. And so, at least on level of measurement politically, President Obama ends his 100 days with a lot more clout than he started with.

MONTAGNE: How does the president intend to mark this 100th day?

LIASSON: Well, he's going to do everything he can to control his own 100-day report card. This morning, he's going to be flying off to give a - to attend a town hall meeting in Missouri. That's a nice swing state. And then he's flying back to Washington for a primetime news conference, which will be carried live on most NPR stations.

And, you know, just remember, 100 days is an arbitrary and pretty meaningless deadline. But there are a lot of things that the president can and will point to as accomplishments. He's passed the biggest spending bill in history. He's started bailouts for banks, the housing industry, the auto industry. He's made two successful foreign trips. He's laid out an extremely ambitious comprehensive agenda on health care, energy, education.

So, certainly, he's had the most active 100 days since Franklin Roosevelt. And on that level, he can claim a lot of success.

MONTAGNE: And though this may be an arbitrary day, pollsters have taken note, how do Americans think he's doing?

LIASSON: Well, Americans are pretty happy with him. The Wall Street Journal is coming out with a poll today that shows he has an 81 percent personal approval rating. His average job approval rating is lower, 62 percent, but that's still right on par with other presidents at this time in their term, whether it's Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. Jimmy Carter actually had 70 percent job approval ratings right about now.

So he's got some political capital. Americans like the president personally a lot. They like his policies a little bit less and his opponents a lot less. So, he's in pretty good shape at this 100th day.

He also - one other thing that's changed in the polls is that right track/wrong track number - Americans are asked whether they think the country's going in the right direction or the wrong direction - has flip-flopped. It was 80/20. Eighty percent thought the country was on the wrong track before he was elected. Now it's 60/40. Still, in the face of a terrible economic situation, the right track/wrong track numbers have improved tremendously.

MONTAGNE: And a lot of attention, of course, going into this and getting to this 100th day today. But how about what's in store for the next couple of hundred days?

LIASSON: Well, it's true, the next couple of hundred days are going to be the real hard part. He has to actually get Congress to pass his agenda, and he has to get other countries to do what he's asking them to do. He has to try to figure out how to turn his popularity into real political leverage.

And I think the real measure for him is going to be at the end of this Congressional term. He has to get his health care bill passed - some kind of health care bill passed before the 2010 election year begins and starts to complicate things. He's going to have to make a lot of hard choices that he hasn't had to make so far, figuring out with Congress how to pay for the health care bill.

He has a very different idea about how to pay for it than the Democratic Congressional leaders do. And we don't know yet how hard he is willing to fight his fellow Democrats to pass his initiatives. How hard will he fight to really get rid of the private student loan industry - something he proposed, Congress doesn't really like. How hard will he fight to get rid of subsidies to private insurers for Medicare - something else that he proposed, and Congress doesn't necessarily like.

So, there's a lot ahead.

MONTAGNE: NPR's Mara Liasson. Thanks very much.

LIASSON: Thank you.

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