President Obama's ratings are sky-high among Democrats but have reached a Bush-esque low among Republicans, making for a 61-point gap for the president who campaigned on a "post-partisan" platform. What's causing this problem? It starts with the fact that the public is more polarized than ever, writes Clarence Page in the Chicago Tribune.
"I blame some of us in the heat-seeking media for encouraging you to think increasingly along right-left lines," Page writes. "Talk radio and cable TV in particular have become more openly partisan to boost ratings." Meanwhile, "the ravings of partisan talk-show hosts are helped along by a fog of Web messages from angry Net nuts." (More partisanship stories.)