Polls: Americans More Concerned With Arrogant Politicians and Bad Bills than they are with Bickering and Gridlock

From CNS News:

According to a new Zogby poll, Americans are more concerned about seeing bad bills passed than getting nothing done, and more annoyed by politicians who think they are smarter than Americans than partisan bickering.

Zogby asked adults to choose which statement on “the problem with Washington” came closer to their own view.

The first choice was between, “The problem with Washington is that nothing ever gets done” and “the problem with Washington is that it passes too many bad bills.”

For those polled, 49 percent said too many bad bills were the main concern, and 37 percent said it was that nothing ever got done.

This poll comes at a time when Democrats are trying to brand Republicans as “the party of No," because of their opposition to the health care reform and economic stimulus bills negotiated in the House and Senate....

The poll results, however, seem to suggest adults would prefer obstructionism to a bill they do not like. Among Independents, widely viewed as important swing voters in national elections, the concern for bad bills vs. no bills is more decisive at 56-33 percent.

A second set of statements was, “What bothers me most about Washington is partisan bickering” or “What bothers me most about Washington is that people there think they are smarter than the rest of us.”

This time, 50 percent said they were most bothered by people in Washington who think they are smarter than the average American versus 41 percent who were more irked by partisan bickering. Again, Independents broke more decisively toward the “smarter” option, at 56-35.

Between those choices, Democrats were far more bothered by partisan bickering -- 74 percent were troubled by that, and just 15 percent were more concerned with intellectual elitism. Those numbers perhaps reflect a frustration among Democrats and liberals who see Republicans as obstructing their legislative agenda....

Joe Biden in 2008: Obama's detractors are "just not used to somebody really smart. They're just not used to somebody who's really well-educated. They just don't know quite how to handle it, because if he's as smart as Barack is, he musn't be from my neighbothood!":