President Obama to FBI: "We Must Think Anew and Act Anew" in 21st Century; Two Views of Obama: His Personality vs. His Policies
HARRIS: Assessing the president at his first 100 days in office. For President Obama, most of the controversy is over the issues rather than the individual. CNN political analyst Bill Schneider explains.</s>WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Americans have two assessments of President Obama: one personal, the other policy. President Obama's overall job approval as he nears his 100th day in office? Sixty-three percent. But 75 percent, a noticeably higher figure, admire Mr. Obama's personality and leadership qualities. Do they agree with the president on the issues? Fifty-seven percent say, yes. That's high, but it's nearly 20 points lower than Mr. Obama's personal appeal. A lot of Americans, more than 40 percent, say they disagree with President Obama on the issues.</s>NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I've listened carefully to the president's speech that night. I think it is the boldest effort to create a European socialist model we have seen.</s>SCHNEIDER: President Obama is the mirror image of President Clinton. Clinton was personally a very polarizing figure. Remember the so-called "morphing" ads? (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT) ADVERTISEMENT ANNOUNCER: If you like Bill Clinton, you'll love Joe Prather.</s>SCHNEIDER: But President Clinton's policies, after the first two years, were more moderate and consensus driven; he triangulated.</s>WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The era of big government is over.</s>SCHNEIDER: President Clinton engendered huge controversy over his stand on social issues like guns, gays in the military, and abortion. President Obama has treated the deeply divisive issues with caution.</s>OBAMA: I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment rights in our Constitution. The rights of sportsman and hunters and homeowners who want to keep their homes safe to lawfully bear arms.</s>SCHNEIDER: Republicans hated Bill Clinton. How do they feel about President Obama? Two-thirds disapprove of the job he's doing. But they're split over the president's personal qualities. Republicans disagree with him on the issues, overwhelmingly.</s>HARRIS: Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider is live with us from Washington. And Bill, you know, I guess we all know that the partisan divide is going be difficult to bridge in this country. But, is the president viewed as a uniter or divider?</s>SCHNEIDER: Well, actually, Tony, both. He himself a leader, as personal figure, is a very unifying figure. And as we saw there, his personal popularity is very high. It's his policies that are more divisive. The president is more popular than his policies. Bill Clinton, as I just said in the piece, the controversy was more over the individual than the issues.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>SCHNEIDER: In fact, after 1994, Clinton's signature issues - welfare reform, free trade, a balanced budget - they were all passed with significant republican support, but they still didn't like Bill Clinton himself.</s>HARRIS: That's true. All right, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, for us. Bill, appreciate it. Thank you.</s>SCHNEIDER: Sure.</s>HARRIS: And once again, don't miss our special primetime event tomorrow night, "100 DAYS OF THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY." We are grading the president and Congress on the job they've done so far. That's at 7:00. And then at 8:00, President Obama holds a news conference. It is all right here on CNN, with the best political team on television. Lots of great swine flu questions from you out there blogging on our blog page. Our medical reporter, Elizabeth Cohen, will have the answers you need.