ABC News: "President Obama's Rough Week: Jobs, Wall Street, Health Care Loom Over White House"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

President Obama's Rough Week: Jobs, Wall Street, Health Care Loom Over White House

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/president-obama-discuss-jobs-unemployment-ohio-ben-bernankes/story?id=9632265

President Will Address Economy, Unemployment in Visit to Ohio Today
By JAKE TAPPER
Jan. 22, 2010

It may very well be one of the roughest weeks of the Obama presidency.

Amid disappointing jobs figures, speculation that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may not be reconfirmed and Democrats' losing Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts to Republican Scott Brown, President Obama has faced his share of bad news this week.

The president is expected to address the issue of jobs today in Lorain, Ohio, which he last visited two years ago.

Back then, Obama toured National Gypsum Co., a drywall factory that had operated seven days a week but closed indefinitely within two weeks of his visit.

Ken Sauvey, who worked there as a bulldozer operator for 34 years, has been looking for another job since then.

"There is none out there, for especially my age," Sauvey, 55, said. "And that's why the younger generation will probably get the jobs before a man my age would be able to get a job."

The president's trip is part of his White House to Main Street tour to connect with Americans.

[last1standing]

1. Poor guy.

How did he know that selling out the people who voted for him while giving trillions in give-aways to those who didn't would come back to bite him in the ass?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Well, I'm guessing that he can read...

...and while I don't have inside knowledge of how he receives his news / information, or how it is filtered before it gets to him, I can't really comment.

I know that when George W. Bush was president, Dan Bartlett claimed to have burned daily "briefing DVDs" culled from Fox News, so if it was on the DVD, that's what Bush was aware of. We have no evidence that he even watched them. When Bush left the White House, there might have been eight-year-old stacks of untouched Fox News DVDs on the Oval Office and on Air Force One.

He made quite a bit of noise about "not following the public opinion polls," which I don't believe...Bush was / is a narcissist, and I believe he was obsessed with "being acknowledged" for what he perceived as his "good work."

So when it comes to President Obama, he owns every decision he's made from inauguration to this very moment, and I believe he knows that, I just don;t know what that means to him. I've seen the TARP / Wall Street decisions defended on DU as "necessary," and I've see the outrage at the other end of the spectrum.

Obviously, a President cannot slam "fat cats" while cutting them checks. People aged 50+ who have been out of a job for a year or more will not be the most enthusiastic supporters of bank bailouts, especially when the banks went back on their promise to pump the TARP money back into the economy via loans to small business, etc...they just KEPT it. I've spoken with business owners who have "95% perfect" credit which spans DECADES who have been declined for loans because of that other 5%.

So I'm not an armchair quarterback. I just copied and pasted a news story. If I had the ability to read it, so did President Obama. People are expressing various opinions about his first year in office. He can read and listen to them, take them into consideration, or ignore them.

I don't know what he's going to do.

He knows.

Obviously, an "I care" photo op in Ohio isn't going to improve anyone's standing, especially President Obama's, if he makes the trip and the public doesn't "see" results.

A President of the United States doesn't "create jobs." Unfortunately, the public wants to see a President's fingerprints on job creation.

Right now, what some...not all...of the American people are perceiving, is President Obama's fingerprints on Wall Street bonus checks.

It doesn't matter if it's true or not.

I know DU will never agree completely on any of the major issues...that's politics, that's to be expected.

What we will agree on, I believe, is that there are issues of perception surrounding his presidency, and perception is everything.

Some people approve of what he is doing, just like some people approved of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan...

...and some don't.

The ball is in the president's court.

:patriot:

[timeforpeace]

3. No one expects the Special Election To Fill Kennedy's Seat, even Obama and Rahm.