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Subscribe to RSSAs we wrote in First Thoughts, a new Washington Post/ABC poll shows President Obama trailing Mitt Romney by three points among registered voters, 49%-46%, and tied among all respondents, with President Obama’s low economic ratings a significant factor in his overall weakness.
Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan noted that the poll “might be the leader of a trend’ that the Osama bin Laden bounce President Obama received last month is over. But he also cited a National Journal poll conducted at the end of May which suggested “resilient Obama strength,” as he posted much higher numbers among college-educated white women, independents and Hispanics, as well as improvements among “groups more dubious of him” including white men without a college education and whites aged 30-44.
At the very least, Sullivan concluded, “I think we can safely say that the political climate is volatile.”
Liberal blogger John Aravosis at AMERICAblog blamed the president for following, as he sees it, a Republican agenda focused more on deficit reduction than job creation.
The President decided a little over a year ago to join the Republicans in making the deficit a priority, and worse, a larger priority than job creation… if you still believe that the economy is on its way back, any day now, you might choose to focus on the deficit instead. Sadly, the only people who believe that are Republicans and quite possibly the President himself.
The conservative blogosphere pounced on President Obama’s low economic ratings almost unanimously.
“It’s the Economy, Stupid,” was NRO’s Robert Costa's headline as he grouped together graphs showing pessimistic views of the economic recovery and the direction of the country with President Obama’s approval ratings.
“What's happening? The bad economy is what's happening,” wrote GOP12’s Christian Heinze. His takeaway from those figures:
The GOP nomination is definitely worth having. Don't buy the hype that Obama's reelection is a fait accompli.
Those numbers on the economy are simply awful, and there's nothing to indicate they'll turn around. And even if things start moving grudgingly in the right direction, there's always a lag period between reality and perception, and the electorate might not have caught up by the time the election rolls around.
Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey wrote that the dismal economic figures across the board “are not re-elect numbers by any stretch of the imagination.”
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The insant gratification crowd STRIKES AGAIN!
This President inherited a steaming pile of crap from his predecessor, and is expected to make in ALL vanish with one swoop of his magic wand!
If a day is a lifetime in politics, then what the hell is a year & a half?
Is this why the Republicans have been battling the Recovery since the President was inaugurated? Is this why they wanted the American Automobile Industry to fail and teachers and other public servants to be laid off? So they could win back the White House in 2012 and finish transferring control to the 2% who own 3/4 of the entire wealth of this country? Seem like it.
Amy- yes.
They consider it unfinished business, Amy.
they're trying to steer the pot, but we keep seeing ryan's budget their best accomplishment which is an albatross.
You hit the nail on the head Amy. How about that Bush and the republicans cut a hole so deep in this economy that it is on their watch that caused this disastrous economic recession. Those facts hold up for me they are not theory or speculation, these are facts. Obama is doing all he can to right the ship but with all the Bush torpedos the fires are intense and many.
By 2012, the President will have to say a lot more than we've turned the corner on the economy cause that's just not going to fly. After 4 full years in office, the voters have a right to expect a significant improvement in the economic indicators especially manufacturing and GNP growth, unemployment numbers at least back in the 7's where they were when he came into office, a stable housing market and foreclosure rates diminished. You can blame the problems he inherited on others but after 4 years you need to show results. The American people are impatient and I don't know how long their patience is going to last.
It is and always will be peoples pocketbooks.
I believe to get the unemployment numbers back into the 7's by next year, a growth rate for jobs needs to be in the 300,000-350,000 range per month. Obama's own projections, which have been very rosey in the past, project a 8.2% unemployment rate for 2012.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/business/economy/12usecon.html
How you propose to cause that (300,000 jobs a month), JAS?
What makes you think the government controls housing prices? That's market {people} driven and they are still too high. The job market won't change until the American worker can compete with Chinese workers...THAT'S capitalism.
Hey Groucho, the people are inpatient but they certainly aided and abetted this recession with reckless over spending and credit charging, living beyond their means, remortgaging their overvalued homes again recklessly. Now they want a magician to bail them out. We all helped to get ourselves in this mess and we are all going to have to pay the price to get ourselves out of it and I feel OBAMA is doing his best to speed the recovery but we all must adjust and sacrifice.
So the Liberal answer is that we haven't spent enough. Obama lied to Americans when he said he spent $787 billion dollars on 'Shovel ready' jobs, but instead gave the money to the unions in all of the states. Now the country has figured out that Obama, who has spent $4 trillion in deficit spending in 2.5 years, has done nothing to eliminate the economic problems, and in fact has made them miuch worse. Now the Liberals want to double down on their failed policies and spend more. Forget that. Not happening.
I can't wait 2 C what kind of rabbit Obama pulls out of his hat for the 2012 election... its all in the timing people... trust me something "BIG" is going to happen @ just the right time to give him the favor of the people .... then those same ones who said that they would never vote for him again are going to wonder ... How the Hell ??? God uses the FOOLISH things to confound the WISE... Pay attention people because HE'S coming back... and I don't mean OBAMA!!!
OK mr camping.
It is the economy - stupid! The doom sayers will attempt to nullify all positive comments to the point of discredit. America and Americans will push them selves up from Bush's recession. The GOP/TEA party will toil endlessly to tear down the previous Congress's great legislation. Paul Ryan and the Republican(GOP/TEA) agenda of completely dismantling Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as we know it along with Tim Pawlenty proposed Reaganesque Economic proposals accurately color the GOP/TEA party as Social Conservatives. Who are these self appointed politicians to force their Social conservative values on the American public? Who do these people think they are, shoving their agenda down the throat of the American public? This is going to be a Great GOP primary!
They don't care! The first month in office the "new" tea party Congress went to work on abortion and Planned Parenthood. Then they gave oil companys tax breaks paid by ME. Then last month these same tea party Congressmen gave the DOD a HUGE budget increase AND increased FEMA funding to help THEIR district. Spend...spend...spend...
..there is no way a Republican will beat Obama in 2012. America will always accept "change" towards the "left", but seldom to the "right"...I've always maintained that America would vote for Lenin had he a (D) after his name....don't get me wrong, not saying he would be re-elected, but certainly elected....