what they sa about obama's qualities in terms of being easy going, likable. 44% positive on achieving his goal, and it goes all the way down to 28% is his lowest on changing washington. alex, your colleague wrote that he's betting that his brand will transcend politics. how does that work? >> well, i think what he's trying to say is he's telling these individual members that, hey, look, i know you're nervous about supporting something like gun control, but you have me on your side, you know, i'm the most popular politician in washington right now. and my popularity can help you. i think sometimes the problems come in. for some of these congressmen and senators particularly those up for reelection in 2014, you know, they're representing states like arkansas or alaska where the president isn't necessarily that popular. so those sort of assurances don't mean as much as you might think. particularly if it was someone up for re-election in se new york. so, you know, we're going to have to see whether or not anything actually changes from his first term. i agree, i mean, the president has been -- you saw it in his press conference earlier this week. you know, he's incredibly co