Financial Times (found via Drudge Report)
[release]Robert Gibbs, Barack Obama’s chief spokesman, got into hot water this week for daring to speak the truth – that the Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives in November. But it could be even worse than that.
Contrary to pretty much every projection until now, Democratic control of the Senate is also starting to coming into question. While Mr Obama’s approval ratings have continued to fall, and now hover at dangerously close to 40 per cent according an ABC-Washington Post poll published on Tuesday, the fate of his former colleagues in the Senate looks even worse.
In the past few days polls have shown Republican challengers taking the lead over previously safe Democratic incumbents, such as Barbara Boxer in California and Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. Indeed, given the uniformly negative direction in the numbers, it is now quite possible the Republicans could win the Senate seats formerly held by both President Obama in Illinois, and Joe Biden, vice-president, in Delaware.
Add to that the continuing woes of Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic majority leader, in Nevada, where the Republican party’s recent nomination of Sharron Angle, a far-right and highly eccentric Tea Party supporter, appear to have had no positive effect on Mr Reid’s prospects, and the Grand Old party has a good shot at taking control of both houses of Congress. Worse for Mr Obama, political scientists say that at this stage in the calendar, there is almost nothing he can do about it.
“If you ask me where the silver lining is for President Obama, I have to say I cannot see one,” says Bill Galston, a former Clinton official, who has been predicting for months the Democrats could lose the House. “Just as BP’s failure to cap the well has been so damaging, Obama’s failure to cap unemployment will be his undoing. There is nothing he can do to affect the jobless rate before November.”
The direction of the data could hardly be worse. According to Democracy Corps, a group headed by Stanley Greenberg, a liberal pollster who is a close friend of Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s chief of staff, a majority of US citizens see Mr Obama as “too liberal”.
Astonishingly, 55 per cent of citizens think Mr Obama is a “socialist” against only 39 per cent who do not share that diagnosis. The same poll shows 48 per cent support for Republicans against just 42 per cent for Democrats. The numbers are eerily similar to 2006, except that it was George W. Bush’s Republicans who were on the receiving end four years ago.
“The bottom line here is that Americans don’t believe in President Obama’s leadership,” says Rob Shapiro, another former Clinton official and a supporter of Mr Obama. “He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that.”
In private, informal advisors to Mr Obama are almost as negative. According to one, the US public’s loss of confidence in Mr Obama’s leadership is a factor above and beyond their dissatisfaction over the state of the real economy, which continues to slow as last year’s $787bn stimulus starts to run dry. The adviser, who asked to remain anonymous, said the public did not know what Mr Obama really believed. Examples include his lukewarm support last year for a public option in the healthcare bill and his equally lukewarm support today for a Senate bill that would extend unemployment insurance and aid state governments to keep teachers in their jobs.
In both cases, Mr Obama has offered only token, negotiable, support. “I never thought I would say this, but even I’m unsure what President Obama really believes,” says the adviser. “Instead of outsourcing decisions to Congress, he should spell out his bottom line. That is what leaders are for.”
Next week, Mr Obama is likely to sign a historic Wall Street re-regulation bill into law. Earlier this year he did the same for healthcare. But polls show the public either does not care, or even opposes these otherwise big reforms. “The longer this goes on, the more it looks like Obama wasted his first year on healthcare,” said the outside adviser. “It’s still the economy, stupid.”[/release]
[url]http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/434315b2-8ea6-11df-8a67-00144feab49a.html[/url]
So basically, Obama's losing popularity with the senate and such?
The economic crisis has ruined his whole presidency.
[QUOTE=dutchah;23365536]So basically, Obama's losing popularity with the senate and such?[/QUOTE]
He's losing popularity with the country as a whole, as are the Democrats in Congress.
I'm wondering if he actually could have done anything differently that would have resulted in a better outcome at this point? I really doubt he could have done much more. Anyone got quotes from economists or similar?
Oh well, they can just vote in the Republicans and it will all be fine and dandy for 6 years and then economic meltdown again, and then the Democrats will come in and try to fix what the Republicans fucked up, then the Republicans get put into power after the Democrats get called communists by stupid people and then the Republicans run fine and dandy for another 6 years and then yet another economic meltdown. And it goes on and on and on and on.
American politics is fairly stupid.
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23365824]I'm wondering if he actually could have done anything differently that would have resulted in a better outcome at this point? I really doubt he could have done much more. Anyone got quotes from economists or similar?[/QUOTE]
Not really, he got tossed the hot potato just in time for it to blow up in his face.
[url=http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/]He's doing a pretty good job given the time and circumstances.[/url]
[QUOTE=Athena;23365923]Not really, he got tossed the hot potato just in time for it to blow up in his face.
[url=http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/]He's doing a pretty good job given the time and circumstances.[/url][/QUOTE]
Yeah I've read through politifact's ObamaMeter before, I was just wondering if there was something a bit more general as to the economy as a whole.
[QUOTE=Athena;23365923]Not really, he got tossed the hot potato just in time for it to blow up in his face.
[url=http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/]He's doing a pretty good job given the time and circumstances.[/url][/QUOTE]
Quote for truth
[QUOTE=dogmachines;23365608]He's losing popularity with the country as a whole, as are the Democrats in Congress.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't surprise me.
Not surprised, he's way out of touch with everyone.
[QUOTE=Insulator;23366195]Not surprised, he's way out of touch with everyone.[/QUOTE]
How is he out of touch? Just wondering.
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23366205]How is he out of touch? Just wondering.[/QUOTE]
He does everything behind closed doors which in his campaign said he would never do. He's a liar.
[QUOTE=Ragy;23366214]He does everything behind closed doors[/quote]
What the fuck does this even mean, and if it means what I guess it does, how would that make it any different from historical precedent?
[QUOTE=Ragy;23366214]He does everything behind closed doors which in his campaign said he would never do. He's a liar.[/QUOTE]
He does some things occasionally behind closed doors, hardly everything, you just have to look. It's the same as any administration, yes he should have done what he said, but he's done most of what he's said. He probably ran into internal difficulties.
[url]http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/517/health-care-reform-public-sessions-C-SPAN/[/url]
Like that, but not much else, honestly. That also doesn't make him out of touch.
Look at the main statistics:
[url]http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/[/url]
72% of his promises are either in the works or kept, I'd say that's quite good.
[QUOTE=Athena;23366244]What the fuck does this even mean[/QUOTE]
Have you seriously never heard of making decisions behind closed doors? And you say you know politics.
[QUOTE=Athena;23366244]and if it means what I guess it does, how would that make it any different from historical precedent?[/QUOTE]
It's not much different, it's just that the public is mad that during his campaign, he lied.
[QUOTE=Ragy;23366291]Have you seriously never heard of making decisions behind closed doors? And you say you know politics.[/quote]
Ignoring that I never said "I know politics", ever, it's [b]his job[/b] to make decisions as he's [i]the president[/i].
I saw "Obama faces growing..."
I was disappointed. But this concerns me. I support Obama and all my friends don't :( so they all call me out on it. I know enough about politics to know he's been keeping his promises though.
Oh yay Kragenak and Ragy will probably go at it again and fill up like 5 fucking pages of shit
Well can't say this was unexpected. He hasn't filled many of his expectations.
[QUOTE=Athena;23366326]Ignoring that I never said "I know politics", ever, it's [b]his job[/b] to make decisions as he's [i]the president[/i].[/QUOTE]
Of course it's his job to make decisions, it's just the public kinda doesn't like it when the president makes closed door decisions. A fine example is the health bill.
[QUOTE=Akasolidus;23366401]Well can't say this was unexpected. He hasn't filled many of his expectations.[/QUOTE]
72% of his 505 campaign promises are kept or in the works.
7.3% are compromises
16% are stalled.
Only 3.7% of them are broken.
[editline]07:19PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Ragy;23366407]Of course it's his job to make decisions, it's just the public kinda doesn't like it when the president makes closed door decisions. A fine example is the health bill.[/QUOTE]
Which was still in the end watered down to a piece of shit bill that doesn't really do much of anything because of Congress and the Senate.
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23366448]Which was still in the end watered down to a piece of shit bill that doesn't really do much of anything.[/QUOTE]
It never was gonna do anything except cost us more and dig us deeper. If it was done more properly, it could have worked.
I'm O.K. with health reform, but putting out a crappy reform in a few months wont work.
[QUOTE=Ragy;23366495]It never was gonna do anything except cost us more and dig us deeper. If it was done more properly, it could have worked.[/QUOTE]
I do agree with you here, it needed to be much more than its original form, it should have instituted a Nationalized Health-care system, and the liquidation of privatized insurance.
[QUOTE=Ragy;23366407]Of course it's his job to make decisions, it's just the public kinda doesn't like it when the president makes closed door decisions. A fine example is the health bill.[/QUOTE]
[b]What decisions[/b]
Both PPACA/HCERA were transparently passed by the Senate and HoR. The bill was drafted/amended multiple times. The only involvement Obama had was saying he was going to introduce affordable healthcare and signing it into law. Like every other bill drafts of PPACA/HCERA were posted online for the public to see. It was arguably the most transparent bill ever debated, due to its gravitas.
I honestly don't know what the fuck you're talking about, which is why I'm asking.
I wish someone like J.F.K. was still around
:sigh:
[QUOTE=Athena;23366562][b]What decisions[/b]
Both PPACA/HCERA were transparently passed by the Senate and HoR. The bill was drafted/amended multiple times. Like every other bill drafts of PPACA/HCERA were posted online for the public to see. It was arguably the most transparent bill ever debated, due to its gravitas.
I honestly don't know what the fuck you're talking about, which is why I'm asking[/QUOTE]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5To[/media]
[QUOTE=Ragy;23366581][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5To[/media][/QUOTE]
Come on, be fair, the full text was online before that video was around, and that's an out of context quote and you know it.
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23366606]Come on, be fair, the full text was online before that video was around, and that's an out of context quote and you know it.[/QUOTE]
There's not much to take out of context, that's exactly what she said. The public had absolutely no control over what went in the bill. It was all Obama's big plan and hope.
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