Obama Rides Wave of Support After Arizona Shooting: Seven-in-Ten Americans Reject Progressives' Blame-Righty Allegations

At WSJ, "President's Ratings Climb." The president is at 53 percent approval. It's a tragedy bump, to be expected following such a horrific event, and the sensational media coverage:

The poll was conducted days after a shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., in which six people died and 14 were injured, including Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from the state.

Surges in presidential popularity are common after a galvanizing national tragedy, said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who co-directs the Journal/NBC News poll with Democrat Peter Hart. Bill Clinton saw a four-point jump after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. George W. Bush a huge surge after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

And at the raw pdf survey, 71 pecent said that the shooting was an "isolated incident by a disturbed person" (Question 35):

Thinking about the shootings of a Member of Congress, a Federal judge and others in Tucson, Arizona last weekend, do you feel the extreme political rhetoric used by some in the media and by political leaders was an important contributor to the incident or do you feel this is more of an isolated incident by a disturbed person that occurs from time to time?

That's 7-in-10 who reject the left's blame-righty campaign, although given a choice, substantial numbers say that radio and television, and blogs and the Internet, contributed "to a climate that some say encouraged the shootings" (at Question 37).

Encouraging overall, but those latter items remind me of William Jacobson's comments earlier:

The ruthless efficiency with which the left-wing blogosphere tied Palin to the shooting, and the success of their efforts in equating Palin with mass murder, is a lesson we should not forget.