Are Obama's positions those of most Americans?

I was flipping through a new book on Obama entitled The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values, and read an interesting chapter entitled, "The Barack Obama Test."

The author used questions gathered from The Associated Television News/Zogby America poll of 1005 voters to find out if people agreed or disagreed with the positions of Obama. Some questions were posed to all Americans and other questions were posed to the 70% of Americans who paid taxes and then to the 30% who do not pay taxes (isn't it amazing that almost 30% of Americans do not pay federal taxes! Personally, I think that if we have a federal tax, then all Americans should be required to pay taxes of some sort--but that's a whole other topic).

Here are a few examples of questions that were asked: "Should a doctor give medical care to a fetus that survives an abortion, or should medical care not be given?" Obama's position (according to the book) is that care should not be given; only 17.7%of Americans agreed. A full 67.8% believed that medical care should be given and 14.5 % are not sure.

On a Second Amendment question, "Would you favor or oppose a law that banned the sale of handguns?" 36% of Americans agree with Obama and would favor such a law but 59% of Americans opposed it and 5% aren't sure.

Let's turn to taxes. "How much should Americans who earn $1 million per year pay in federal income taxes?" 50.1 % of those who paid taxes said that Americans who earn that much should pay 35% or less and 52.3% of those who do not pay taxes thought that 35% or less was fair. Not bad--almost even--but Obama's position (again, according to the book, his positions seem to be changing) is that the taxpayer should pay 35% or more and only 33.2% of all Americans agree with him, 33.1% of taxpayers and 33.4% of those who do not pay.

Healthcare is another area where most Americans have a different take than Obama, unless they pay no federal taxes. The question posed was, "Do you agree or disagree with Barack Obama's $65 billion dollar plan to institute taxpayer-funded universal health coverage, which would provide health insurance for those currently uninsured, including illegal immigrants?" 31% of those who paid taxes agreed with the plan and 65.1% disagreed, with 3.9% unsure. Those who did not pay taxes were split with 46.5% agreeing with such a plan and 45.5% disagreeing; 8% were unsure.

The author correctly points out that many Americans who say they are for the change that Obama has in mind have different positions than those taken by Obama but don't seem to realize it. Maybe after reading this book, they will.