Public Opinion

On a recent rainy day, dozens of dogs ran, jumped and occasionally relieved themselves on the grassy expanse of Cemetery Memorial Park, one of downtown Ventura's most scenic vistas. It's a common sort of scene in any city, except that in this seaside town the seven-acre knoll is the final resting place of more than 3,000 of the city's most influential pioneers.

President Obama has tried to shape the nation's view of what would happen if Congress failed to pass his economic stimulus plan, arguing that crisis could turn into catastrophe. Now, as Obama looks not only to the recovery plan but to the tougher task of securing a second bailout for banks and other financial institutions, he is working harder to shape the public's view of the Republicans who have formed a near-uniform wall of opposition in Congress.

At Terry's Coffee Trader in Old Town Murrieta on Friday, the drinks arrived in sturdy glass mugs while the outrage poured out by the bucketful. Fueled by passage of a state budget with billions in new taxes, the anger in this caffeinated salon of conservatism had reached fever pitch. "The Republicans should have stood their ground," fumed 70-year-old Tony Dragonetti. "Abel Maldonado is sick, and so are the other Republicans who voted for this.

A heightened demand for teddy bears at a California toy store, night lights blinking off across the Texas oil fields, high school students in suburban Detroit walking the halls in last year's clothes, a sudden abundance of available parking spaces on what had been a crowded San Francisco street -- these were the sorts of ground-level economic indicators that came up Wednesday in conversations with Americans a day after President Obama's address to Congress.

American International Group Inc. bowed to increasing pressure in Congress on Sunday and disclosed the names of dozens of banks and other institutions that benefited from the first chunk of $180 billion in bailout funds it received. The concession came as public officials expressed outrage at the giant insurer's decision to pay $165 million in bonuses to key employees.

Illustrating Sen. Arlen Specter's uncertain political future, two new surveys suggest that Pennsylvania voters are ready to reject him, with a majority of Republicans saying he doesn't deserve reelection. The polls by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and by Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania show conflicting head-to-head results in hypothetical matchups between Specter and possible GOP challenger Pat Toomey -- with each holding a double-digit lead over the other.

From the sprawling General Motors transmission plant in Ypsilanti Township, Dave Tatman said that when he heard the bad news about his company and the departure Monday of its chief executive, Rick Wagoner, it came "like a hammer blow to the stomach." Tatman has been a General Motors man all his life. When he got out of college, he dreamed about one day being a plant manager for GM.

When President Bush visited London in 2003, protests were so furious and safeguards so tight that he was kept deep inside his security bubble, far from the madding crowd. By contrast, an admired President Obama touched down Tuesday and paid a placid visit to U.S. Embassy staffers at a school in the heart of residential London before this week's economic summit.

When Americans learned that unemployment had reached its highest level in a quarter of a century last week, President Obama was midway through a star turn in Europe. And next week, with barely time to pack fresh shirts and refuel Air Force One, he's off again -- first to Mexico, then to a summit meeting in the Caribbean. It's the sort of thing that can get a political leader into trouble, jetting out of town while the home front suffers.

Islamic militants who burn schools and threaten women in the name of religious purity. A righteous force battling corrupt and venal officials. Or gun-waving gangsters who conceal their crimes under a banner of spiritual renewal. Weeks of turmoil have made it appear as though a unified Taliban is on the march out of the wild northwest, staking out strategic ground for an assault on Pakistan's heartland. But who exactly the Taliban is may rest in the eye of the beholder.