Elected 2008, President 2011?

New polls are showing a surge in President Obama's favorability rating, above 50% for the first time in awhile. The difference seems to be from those who identify themselves as Independents. Part of this is likely coming from a more positive mood about economic improvement. But the energy behind it may also be from the overwhelming approval across party lines for President Obama's speech at the Tucson memorial, and his general handling of that situation.

I think it may be even more significant than that. A sort of delayed racism seemed to add to the calculated politics and Rabid Right resentment over President Obama's electoral victory (some of it payback for the left's treatment of GW Bush.) But its general tenor was to deny legitimacy to Barack Obama as President of the United States.

The major mouths of the Rabid Right won't back down on this, but it seems that after Tucson most Americans are ready, however reluctantly, to acknowledge that Barack Obama is indeed the elected President of their United States, and due the respect of his office. That's my intuition and we'll see how true it might be. But if it is true, politics will become at least a bit different than it has been for the past two years.