That Sinking Feeling: Gallup Puts Obama Approval at 38%
For the President, the numbers are going down, down, and further down. Gallup now has his approval rating at 38%, the lowest ever, and there is no reason to suppose that it will not fall further.
What we have here is a failed Presidency – lots of promises and lots of public confidence initially, followed by a failure to make good on the most important of those promises: the claim that the three-quarters of a trillion dollar stimulus and the passage of Obamacare would usher in a dramatic decline in unemployment and a new era of prosperity.
The Rasmussen poll now shows that 19% of the likely voters strongly approve of Barack Obama’s Presidency and that 45% strongly disapprove. That is a disparity of -26% -- the worst ever for this President: with every reason to suppose that there is worse to come.
In related news, the Illinois Policy Institute reports that, in July, President Obama’s home state – the only state in the Midwest in which his supporters dictate public policy and have raised taxes dramatically in order to cover a shortfall in revenues – lost more jobs than any other state in the nation. “Since January,” the institute reports,"Illinois has dropped 89,000 people from its employment rolls.”
Since becoming President, Barack Obama has accomplished a lot. What we are witnessing, thanks to the experiment he and his supporters in places like Illinois have conducted, is the discrediting of Keynesian economics and of the entitlements state more generally. The current President is to the Democratic Party and the progressive movement what Herbert Hoover was to the Republicans in 1932.
If we can find a standard-bearer as attractive, cunning, and ruthless as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we can roll back the administrative state and cut back entitlements. For the friends of liberty, this is the chance of a lifetime.
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Apr '11
Re: That Sinking Feeling: Gallup Puts Obama Approval at 38%
There is, indeed, no reason to imagine that these numbers will improve materially over the next 15 months. Obama is ideologically incapable of taking any of the steps required to improve our dismal economy. Key economic indicators at this point in Reagan's first term were not notably better than they are now. The important difference was that the public had faith that Reagan's policies and leadership were working and would continue to do so. Whatever confidence the public at large had in President Obama is already substantially diminished and falling almost by the day.
Apr '11
Re: That Sinking Feeling: Gallup Puts Obama Approval at 38%
I have been waiting for someone to post on these polling numbers. I was certain that being on vacation (out of the limelight) would at least stop his sliding poll numbers. That seems to have been the case previously. Combine the above with Gaddafi's downfall and things should be looking up for our President. Is there a "point of no return" in political popularity where the media can no longer resuscitate a politician's image? I take it for granted that he is incapable of doing so himself and I have been wondering why ever since he took office.
Jun '10
Re: That Sinking Feeling: Gallup Puts Obama Approval at 38%
Mr. Obama is now officially a lame duck. Agreed. Now let's talk about a future Republican administration. Will we have someone in the White House and sufficient Tea Party strength in the House of Representatives to do what's necessary to rollback the administrative state? If Romney wins the election then the answer is no. If Perry wins, then we can entertain the possibility. But negotiating budget cuts and creating ten year plans for fiscal solvency simply won't be enough. You don't prune weeds; you eradicate them root and branch.
The administrative super-state has stifled our economy down to the level of a child's lemonade stand. This would sound absurd if it weren't literally true. Eliminating entire cabinet agencies and returning their regulatory power to the states would only be a start. I doubt anyone but for a few elected officials from the Tea Party wing see the necessity or have the inclination to do what's necessary. We need to apply a scorched-earth policy against the federal bureaucracy. Our freedoms depend on it.
Jun '10
Re: That Sinking Feeling: Gallup Puts Obama Approval at 38%
I asked a question yesterday on the Member Feed about how much of a bump Obama would get from the Gaddafi overthrow. I guess we have the answer. No one cares and, if they do, they know that Obama led from behind.
I agree with Professor Rahe. Now is our time to get a good candidate and begin to undo the damage.
Aug '11
Re: That Sinking Feeling: Gallup Puts Obama Approval at 38%
That's sort of what I was getting at in my post about this yesterday. I feel we've reached a tipping point. I believe there is a perception that the President is so completely disconnected and disinterested in what's happening in the country, that even if we suddenly experienced an economic upturn, we would not see that reflected in his numbers. This is just my perception, so I could be way off.
I don't think the president is capable of turning it around. Clinton's triangulation strategy was to co-opt some Republican ideas (can you imagine President Obama saying "the era of big government is over"?), which denied the GOP some formidable weaponry going into 1996. But President Obama's triangulation strategy is to point fingers at Congress and complain about obstructionism. This is not a winning strategy, and it make him look like an impotent scold.
I think the President spent all his political capital on his failed Stimulus in early 2009, and he has seemed to be shrinking ever since.
Edited on Aug 24, 2011 at 12:45pmAug '11
Re: That Sinking Feeling: Gallup Puts Obama Approval at 38%
Cont.
The fact that even among Democrats there are rumblings about how Hillary should run against the President, or that the President should simply not bother to run for a second term . . . this should be pretty alarming for the White House.
There will always be a core voting block who will support a Democrat no matter what, so there is going to be a point beyond which the approval numbers simply cannot drop, and we may be closer to it than we know.