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President Barack Obama’s approval ratings continue to drop. The independent and widely-respected poll website Pollster.com (operated in part by political scientists from the University of Wisconsin, Madison) reports that Obama’s approval rating is 48.4% with 46.5% disapproving. Pollster’s data relies on a mix of results from all the leading polls. Obama’s since his election looks like viewing an obstructed intestine with the gap between approval and disapproval steadily narrowing.
Perhaps the worst news, though, is that because this compendium of polls lags in time by a few days, the polls that make it up will NOT include the public reaction to Obama’s upcoming Afghanistan war escalation. So, look for Obama’s numbers to go even farther South relatively quickly as he trys to sell an unpopular and costly war that will bleed our citizens blood and money from the public treasury.
It is clear to most (but not the clueless Obamabot crowed over at DailyKos which shows Obama up by something like 55 to 39 in their front page poll) that the bloom is off the Obama rose. Esclation of an unpopular war; ineffective half-measures on the unemployment crisis; no plans for the creation of jobs almost a year into the administration; unaccountable bailouts to Wall St. and the banks; a watered down health "insurance reform" sold as health care reform; weak and indecisive leadership; and failure to pursue the criminal wrongdoings of the Bush administration have all begun to take their toll on former supporters of Obama and his party.
It is clear some 11 months after Obama took office that he has failed to aggressively pursue the agenda he campaigned and was elected on.
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Did Obama really promise us anything? Or did we get caught up in a bunch of flowery rhetoric, signifying nothing, and imagine to ourselves in our desperation that he actually meant something?
If so, we all deserve a low approval rating.
Oh wait.. I didn’t vote for him.
He did promise to be an honest broker with Palestine, and he did promise not to lie to us. Those are the two things that won me over. Both of those promises have been broken.
Maybe low poll numbers will mean something to the man that’s pulling the strings: Axelrod.
I don’t understand the hack line that when you make a vague promise of “Change”, and everybody takes that to mean you really are going to seek radical change, and you know damn well that’s how they’re taking it, that somehow you’re not a fraud and a Big Liar when you really intend to entrench the Status Quo even further.
The same with phrases like “Yes we can” when your management style is veritably going to be: No we can’t, if I think it would be politically hard, require any kind of real fight, or otherwise rock the boat.
And as for “Audacity of Hope”, coming from this most unaudacious of conservatives that’s offensive. Especially when you compare it with the call to “L’audace, l’ audace, toujours l’audace”, of Frederick and Danton, real leaders, it’s downright painful.
As for specific promises, Obama did make many. Here’s a few of his most repulsive lies: that he’d purge lobbyists from the White House; that he’d restore transparency to government; that he’d reverse the Bush assault on civil liberties and the rule of law.
In all three of these Obama not only lied, but has aggressively seized ownership of the Bush policy and now seeks to extend it. It’s absolutely despicable.
Cassiodorus, were you on planet earth in 2008? If so, it would have been hard NOT to hear all of the promises that Candidate Obama made (some are listed below by other posters):
1. Obama: “I will bring new faces and people to Washington because change can only come about in this way.”
In reality: Obama KEPT on W’s Republican Defense Secretary, promoted most of W’s generals (including the ethically challenged McCrystal), brought in the old hack Rahm Emanuel as his CofStaff and Hillary at State. Oh, he also wanted Tom Daschle, a consummate DC insider as his head of Health & Human Services Department. Lots more old faces, too numerous to list.
2. Obama: “I will hold all health care reform meetings in public AND televise them live on C-SPAN.”
In reality: “Obama met in secret behind locked doors with the insurance industry” and talks of “health insurance reform”.
3. Obama: “My administration will be the most transparent in history.”
In reality: see above. Also, the White House was sued before it realeased its visitor lists.
4. Obama: “I will hire no lobbyists in my administration.”
In reality:
granted “waivers” so that many lobbyists, including many from Goldman Sachs, are working for him. Also wanted a big insurance, big drug lobbyists (Tom Daschle) as his Cabinet Secretary heading “health insurance” reform.
5. Obama: “I will renegotiate NAFTA…”
In reality: above was a complete lie, and pandering for union votes especially in Pa.
6. Obama: on DOMA, DADT, “I am a fierce advocate of gay rights.”
In reality: ask anyone in the gay community what he has done for them. It can be described in two words: “jack” and “shit”.
7. Obama: I will do away with the worst excesses of the Bush administration (on state secrets, closing GITMO, illegal forced renditions etc.).
In reality: ask anyone at the American Civil Liberties Union which has numerous lawsuits against Obama’s administration or look at Glenn Greenwald’s blog to see how Bush-like Obama really is on all of these issues and more.
This is only a partial list, it could go on and on. Hugh here has compiled a list of more than 100 accusations against Obama and his administration, many of them broken campaign promises.
Obama made lots of promises and has broken almost all of them. That’s why people are tired of him already.
It may well be that as people become more aware of the total failure by the Democrats to change the underlying structure of the health care system, of the shuttling of more people into a broken system, of how national health expenditures will be pushed up even further, this will also lower Obama’s rating. And if you want a very concrete area where his promises have been broken, just look at pharmaceuticals. Not that he ever favored the needed changes.
Hugh, who often posts here, has a list of more than 100 “violations” and “scandals” by Obama (most of them broken campaign promises) at his Obama’s Scandals List blog. They are extremely detailed and begin even before Obama was elected.
See them at: http://obamascandalslist.blogspot.com/
He would have made one HELL of a good Amway salesman, though…
Agreed Grumpy, with that smile he’s an excellent salesman. That’s why Goldman Sachs chose him: he could sell the bailout.
fflambeau- thanks for the Pollster link. I poked around there.
Health care plan- favor/ oppose: 39.5%/ 48.7%
http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/healthplan.php
Oh, ES, I didn’t vote for him either.
Dear Pres’s numbers are going to keep going down if He keeps listening to other people in Washington.
He clearly was convinced on Afghanistan by others, and that has, and will be His downfall.
We have no one in Washington or our Military That has the brains to come in out of the rain. Including our unintelligent intelligence agencies, state Dept, and most of the so called smart people that put out their opinions.
I am so sick of hearing what’s in our Countries interests. Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many other things have nothing to do with our interests, but are results of what some people think are our interests.
If the Taliban and al Queda took over half the world, there is little we could do to stop them. We would be better defending ourselves, and minding our own business, than trying to change the world to our way of thinking.
Obama is worse than BUSH light, and will end up leading us down all the wrong paths. He needs to think for Himself, and tell those trusted advisors where they can go, and He and WE would be better off.
Unfortunately Obama is in over his head. For some reason he thinks that change can come from nurturing the status quo and working with corporations to give the American people a square deal. What possible evidence could he cite for that? We should have known all of this before the election, with FISA and telecom immunity. But, there probably was a factor of wishful thinking. However, those wishes were fueled by Obama’s misleading phraseology and some out and out lies. I’m sure the Democratic establishment will view Obama’s tanking approval curve as evidence that they need to be even more Republican-like and blame the whole thing on those whining liberals that they try so hard to pulverize every chance they get. My guess is that unemployment will not be getting better anytime soon and I find it hard to believe that his approval will stay above 45 percent during the 2010 elections. That will be a death sentence to many congressional Democrats, but it may wise the survivors up a bit. But don’t get your hopes up, they are Democrats afterrall.