Obama's not much of a salesman for his policies, is he?

He has been trying to sell the success of his stimulus legislation for months in speeches, interviews, and events all over the country. In the CBS poll, only 23 percent think it has helped the economy. Only 13 percent think it has helped them personally. Despite all of his efforts, people are either ignoring him or tuning him out—or they can’t hear him over the bad economic news. Whatever the reason, the best argument Obama has for how he and Democrats have addressed the issue people care the most about is one that people aren’t buying…

The president has worked hard to improve the political fortunes of health care, but it hasn’t worked. He might not want to try any more. It’s not just that he’s ineffective. In the CBS poll, the only issue Obama was faulted for spending too much time on was health care. If the spends more time trying to convince people of the merits of health care (which only 6 percent told CBS was the country’s most important problem) he risks being criticized for not spending enough time on the economy, which 39 percent of the country thinks is the most important problem. Fifty-two percent already think he’s not spending enough time addressing economic problems.