How Barack Obama Became Mr. Unpopular

[rug]

The Barack Obama that most Hoosiers remember voting for can still be found on YouTube. He stands before a cheering Elkhart high school gymnasium in August 2008, tireless, aspirational, promising a new America of jobs and hope. "We can choose another future," says the newcomer with the funny name. "So I ask you to join me."

Today that view of Obama is harder to find in Indiana. A couple of weeks back and a dozen miles west of Elkhart, hundreds gathered in another school gym — except this time it was for a job fair. With the local unemployment rate above 12% and rising again this summer, about a third of the employer display tables stood empty. Julie Griffin, who voted for Obama in '08, sat down at the room's edge, well dressed and discouraged. After 23 years as a payroll administrator at a local RV plant, she got laid off 18 months ago. "Really, what has he been doing?" she said when I asked about Obama's efforts to help people like her. "I guess I don't know what he is doing." (See TIME's 2008 Person of the Year: Barack Obama.)

Across the gym floor, Joe Donnelly, Elkhart's pro-life, pro-gun Democratic Congressman, worked the crowd. He was part of the moderate wave that won Congress for Nancy Pelosi in '06, and he was re-elected with 67% of the vote while campaigning for Obama in '08. The President has since returned to the region three times, but Donnelly is nonetheless fighting for his political life. In a recent television ad, an unflattering photo of Obama and Pelosi flashes while Donnelly condemns "the Washington crowd." This is basically a Democratic campaign slogan now: Don't blame me for Obama and Pelosi. "I'm not one of them," Donnelly told me when I caught up with him. "I'm one of us."

This shift in perception — from Obama as political savior to Obama as creature of Washington — can be seen elsewhere. When Obama arrived in office in January '09, his Gallup approval rating stood at 68%, a high for a newly elected leader not seen since John Kennedy in 1961. Today Obama's job approval has been hovering in the mid-40s, which means that at least 1 in 4 Americans has changed his or her mind. The plunge has been particularly dramatic among independents, whites and those under age 30. With midterm elections just nine weeks off, instead of the generational transformation some Democrats predicted after 2008, the President's party teeters on the brink of a broad setback in November, including the possible loss of both houses of Congress. By a 10-point margin, people say they will vote for Republicans over Democrats in Congress, the largest such gap ever recorded by Gallup.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2015629,00.html#ixzz0yQN0wYTA

[VMI Dem]

1. VA is slipping away. If not already gone.

[Raine1967]

12. Really? I have a few questions: How do you know this?

I ask only because you seem to have some insight to this. What is your proof?

[rocktivity]

2. Operation Dead Dem Walking is up and running

Plant enough stores in the national media saying the Dems won't win the midterms, and the Dems WON'T win the midterms.

:boring:
rocktivity

[rug]

3. I see. Bad press is the cause.

[jaxx]

4. Add those who propagate the myths of the bad press to fan the flames.

Makes you wonder why, what's in it for them.

[rug]

5. Do you think that article is baseless?

[jaxx]

7. It's a hit piece.

Look at the language:

How Barack Obama Became Mr. Unpopular
Don't blame me for Obama and Pelosi. "I'm not one of them,"
from Obama as political savior to Obama as creature of Washington
independents, whites and those under age 30
sense of disappointment, bordering on betrayal

No thanks. This is the stuff that makes the unknowing public waver. It's simply the reason it was written.

[rug]

8. 12% unemployment in Elkhart is not spin.

The "unknowing public" knows this.

[jaxx]

9. It's 10.8 here and you can find some people who will trash Obama for that

if you look hard enough. Most go directly to the bushie years and the aftermath that won't be undone with the waving of a wand. That frosts the anti-Obama people, they want him blamed for it all.

Not everyone is unknowing. But the ones who are have become the prey.

[rug]

11. I don't think people care about blame, wands or Bush. People care about jobs.

If government policies and decisions do not promote jobs, that government loses support. It's that simple.

[MikeW]

14. exactly

People want jobs ... and like it or not were not doing ourselves any favors by continually blaming Bush
right or wrong the people are going to tire of hearing it and expect action.

[jaxx]

15. There is nothing simple about the job loss.

It's also not an Obama created problem. This administration has stemmed the loss and small gains are showing. Small and slow, that is the reality. Instead of promoting the propaganda that it's all Obama's fault, which the right wing excels in doing, the truth needs to be in front of the supposition. That spoils the game.

[Arkana]

16. It's certainly playing a major part.

[griffi94]

6. people were expecting meaningful changes

so far that hasn't been delivered in big enough amounts to keep support for the democrats from
slipping away.

[ProSense]

10. President Obama's approval is currently

10 points higher than Clinton's low and 12 points higher than Reagan's.

In fact, his low is 4 points and 6 points higher than Clinton and Reagan, respectively.

So I consider this article election-year spin with a GOP twist.

[rug]

13. How does he compare with Grant's approval rating?

You can consider the political consequences of high unemployment to be spin. I don't.

[DemocraticPilgrim]

17. Nothing is impossible if we work for it. As someone said a congress in gridlock is not progress.

[impik]

18. In two years, hopefully, all this will be over

And a much better president will arrive.

[denimgirly]

19. That tends to happen when you Appease the Right and Damn Your Left Supporters.

Here is hoping he will listen to his base more and not give in to Right wishes as often. Most of the base are disillusioned because lets be honest, the WH has been more for Wall Street, and special interests than any one else. Yes there have been "pocket change" but not Progressive changes th ecountry was hoping for.

[Drunken Irishman]

20. And yet, Pres. Obama's approval rating is still highest among Democrats.