At a certain level, it may seem surprising that President Obama's standing is as strong as it is. After all, the economic recovery is weak and fragile; partisan divisions are intense; and much of the public is feeling discouraged and pessimistic.
So why is the president's support holding steady while he remains a (slight) favorite for re-election? Some of this is the result of progress -- the nation is far better off than it was when Obama took office -- and some of it has to do with lingering memories of the president's predecessor.
Campaigning in Iowa last week, Mitt Romney said of Obama, "He's trying to find someone to blame. He tries to blame President George W. Bush; that happened so long ago, people have forgotten that." They really haven't.
The number of Americans who continue to hold Bush responsible for economic conditions is not only steady, it's broad -- 49% of self-identified Republicans blame Bush, as do 67% of independents, and 90% of Democrats.
This comes a week after a CNN poll found that George W. Bush is "the only living president with an under 50 percent approval rating."
Now, this won't necessarily translate into votes for Obama in 2012. Americans may blame Bush, but they may still hold the current president responsible for not doing more to clean up Bush's mess. Bush given that so much of the public still smells the stench of Bush's failures, the fact that (a) Romney has surrounded himself with Bush staffers, (b) Romney wants a VP like Dick Cheney; and (c) the Republican National Committee believes a Romney presidency would be the same as Bush's presidency, "just updated," makes poll results like these quite relevant.
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I think if most people are like me they realize that the media and the polls are all rigged. They want to project how close the race is. It looks close because the polls are so corrupt , the media has been tainted and you really can't rely on anything but a deep feeling in your gutt and your heart. People are progressing, we are marching and trudging along, we are voting for President Obama. We are looking straight ahead at the prize. We are not paying attention to the man behind the iron curtain or the opinions of a few who want to raise audience participation.We have a greater source of power in which rely, the truth. When MSNBC starts projecting I turn the TV off. We need to stay positive and not let the media rain on our parade. We know that probably all the voting places that are in Red states are rigged and they are trying to devise more ways in which to commit fraudulent voter supprression, if MSNBC keeps relying on faulty polls they are then in the business of trying to suppress the vote also by discouraging people from going to the polls by already admitting defeat and thereby influencing people in a negative manner , people will start to think it's too close anyway, I'm not going to vote. They should avoid these fictitious polls and encourage positive participation. In the long run they'll be happy. Not everybody can be filthy rich.
Angle, I wish that was true, but I am surrounded every day by people who think the economic troubles started the day President Obama took office, that if only the government would do more of what Bush started we'd be fine. The polls are pretty close the sad reality I'm seeing.
I don't think we can count on most people being able to see through the smokescreen that is thrown out to pblic. But we should not let that stop us from trying to clear the air and show the truth. The worst challenge will be convincing people they have been duped. Not by Obama and liberals, but the agenda that is aimed at undoing middle class America and the path toward the middle class having road blocks put there.
We have a huge challenge if we want to get the jobs back because there has been a bait and switch going on, but people don't see it. Blame unions, but don't look behind that curtain. People need to seriously look behind the curtain, but they just want to be rescued by kissing up to corporations instead of regulating. It's like begging your kidnapper for some humanity. Most likely they will just throw some gruel in your face. Please sir, may I have some more?
That is where we need to view this. Not anti business, but return to a more equitable arrangement that worked well when all were seen as assets instead of enemies. Partnership with all looking at the agreed upon results instead of stacking the deck toward the top.
The old media days, this was reported. You don't see the in depth reporting about what CEOs and board members are doing.
We don't want to be enemies with business, but they treat American workers as problems instead of part of the economy.
The only thing Republicans can do to win the election is to lie.
That seems to be working because nobody has explained why the economy collapsed and why Obama's plan is working.
Republicans have openly stated they want to reduce the population by eliminating immigration to "save american jobs for americans". That strategy caused housing abandonment in 1929 and again in 2007 that collapsed the banking system.
The fastest way to create jobs is to increase the US population. That created wealth during the Baby Boom. The only way to do increase immigration, and republicans won't let that happen.
Obama did these things to drop unemployment. Romney wants to do the opposite.
OK.
None of these provide a stunning difference, but each one has a slow small positive contribution in the form of increased consumer demand that creates jobs.
Number 1 is a no brainer. Bachelors degree increases consumer demand by doubling income. Taxpayer costs are repaid at a rate of about 10 to 1 in the form of increased tax revenue and 50% lower unemployment.
Number 2 is a no brainer. Lower interest rates increase consumer demand. More jobs.
Number 3 becomes a no brainer after you realize housing abandonment that caused the real estate collapse did not happen because people were raptured to heaven.
Number 4 and 5 saves $billions$ and reduce unemployment by increasing consumer demand. Dead people and prisoners tend to stop shopping. US incarceration rate dwarfed the rest of the world under Bush, and the US is the only developed country without socialized medicine.
Romney's plan is to rely on wealthy people to create jobs.
$1 billion sitting in a bank vault creates zero jobs.
The economy is growing, despite the worst attempts at sabotage by the likes of Romney. Despite the best attempts by House Republicans and the most intransigent do-nothing Congress in modern American history, our economy is moving forward once again and on its way to making up for the Bush recession that very nearly destroyed this country. Republicans are flummoxed because they bet on a bad economy, and they have tried everything in their power to make it happen. The GOP is against America and against Americans. No wonder the polls are nothing but bad news for Romney and the GOP gang. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
He can't run against Bush anymore; he's gone. He can and run against Bush's policies, their effect on the economy and cite specific links between those policies and results. More importantly, he needs to show the links between Romney's proposals and the failed policies Bush implemented.
Obama can run against Bush all over again if he compares Romney's policies with Bush.
Some disassembly is required.
Obama did these things. Romney stated he wants to do the opposite.
OK.
None of these provide a stunning difference, but each one has a slow small positive contribution in the form of increased consumer demand that creates jobs.
Number 1 is a no brainer. Bachelors degree increases consumer demand by doubling income. Taxpayer costs are repaid at a rate of about 10 to 1 in the form of increased tax revenue and 50% lower unemployment.
Number 2 is a no brainer. Lower interest rates increase consumer demand. More jobs.
Number 3 becomes obvious only after you realize housing abandonment that caused the real estate collapse did not happen because people were raptured to heaven ;)
Number 4 and 5 saves $billions$ and reduce unemployment by increasing consumer demand. Dead people and prisoners tend to stop shopping. US incarceration rate dwarfed the rest of the world under Bush, and the US is the only developed country without socialized medicine.
Romney's plan is to rely on wealthy people to create jobs.
$1 billion sitting in a bank vault creates zero jobs.
The fastest way to create jobs is to increase the US population. That created wealth during the Baby Boom. The only way to do increase immigration.
Republicans have openly stated they want to reduce the population by eliminating immigration.
He needs to highlight Bush's policies and show how HIS policy corrections have created positive results.
I think the Country will be stunned come election day and they see the actual landslide. Then, we can sit back and say all was not in vain.
The President needs to make the argument that while he did inherit a broken economy, the fact is that what legislation that did pass has helped the economy from becoming worse. The other truth is that he needs to remind people that the current obstructionist Congress hasn't passed anything but abortion bills since they've been in office. The real choice going forward is as a society is do we want to go backward to the same reckless irresponsible policies and tax cuts that got US into this mess, or are we going to stay with the President and kick out the obstructionist Congress that would rather see US fail with their inaction and bullying tendencies!
Since compromise is off the table, much of Obama's policies haven't been implemented. Does anyone else see that we are effectively still suffering from the Bush economy?
I have a hard time understanding the criticisms against Obama, as someone said, "from day one." I think Democrats are frustrated because Obama went to the middle (and the middle has moved), and I think he's wasted the bully pulpit. Do we criticize Obama for not finding cracks in the GOP obstruction plan? Was Obama supposed to fix the gridlock? I don't get it. No Democrat is going to throw the middle class under the bus the way the Rs will.
Romney's plans aren't just a retread of Bush - they're worse. I just hope the 50 million people who will lose health insurance (1) realize it and (2) can actually vote.
We need one of those ads that say to the effect that the Romney economy will be like Bush on steroids.
Which President to blame, Obama or Bush, for our current economy is an incomplete comparison. "Remembering" does not go back far enough. The surplus Clinton built was given away in his 1999 Tax Act, which repealed most of Glass-Steagall and installed greatly liberalized regulation. Assistance to those most in need was cut back greatly with the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. Bush simply ran his administrative act on a stage set by Clinton and with that surplus gone all that's left to transfer are the social programs we have been paying into all our lives. Plenty of corporate welfare, though.
"He's trying to find someone to blame. He tries to blame President George W. Bush; that happened so long ago, people have forgotten that." Thank god they haven't forgotten. The Repugs keep telling us that we can't keep blaming Bush, but I say 'Why not?' If your neighbor drives home drunk one night and crashes his car into your house causing major damage, it remains his fault, right? He was the negligent one: he drove drunk; he crashed his car. Regardless of whether your insurance company won't pay up, or is fighting your claim in court, or withholding payment until your neighbor's insurance pays them -- whatever reason the might be that prevents the repairs from being completed -- the CRASH is STILL your neighbor's fault, right? Romney would like people to forget that Bush2's policies were the cause of the economy collapsing, and the major contributor to years of deficits and our huge national debt, because Romney's policies are no different from Bush: privatize profit and socialize debt. Load the cost of government onto the backs of wage-earners. Protect Wall Street, Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Big Oil. It simply amazes me is that so many in the middle-class, even those who have lost their jobs, their homes, their businesses, their investments, their retirement funds, etc. keep buying what these guys are selling! It's insane ...
I wish people would see we have two seperate problems, the deficit and the economic downturn and both were caused by President Bush but only one was caused on purpose.
President Bush caused the economic downturn by incompetence following the "Free Market Capitalism" philosophy of types like Ayn Rand and her disciple Alan Greenspan. He did this by stopping federal regulation of the economic sector by appointing regulators that believed regulation is wrong and so they sat on there hands and cut back the budgets of the regulatory agencies like the S.E.C., C.F.T.C., etc. So when the bankers and mortgage brokers started their fraud with securitized mortgage bonds, and liar loans there the regulatory agencies just sat back and watched. They all thought it would be alright the market would make it right. They were wrong and we got the worst depression since the 1929 crash.
But the deficit which is the amount of our national debt was not out of a misguided philosophy. The debt problem was done on purpose by George Bush and the Neo-cons. Bush wanted to kill Social Security and the medicaid/medicare entitlements. He tried to get the American people to agree but when they wouldn't he decided to use the "reagan philosophy". President Reagan's plan to end the Soviet Union was to start an arms race and force the Soviet's into bankruptcy so their country would fail. When President Bush couldn't get the Americans to end the entitlements he decided to do it by running the American economy into bankruptcy so that the only choice would be to so cut back the entitlement programs until they would be non existent. Whenever President Bush was asked if he would be considered a good President he said it would take 25 years to make that decision. His plan was to have the entitlements collapse and then people would look back and ask who was it that ended the entitlement programs and they would point to George Bush and consider him a Great president for "saving the country from the entitlement programs"
I wish people would understand that a great part of what happened wasn't from accident or a bad philosophy but occured purposefully and those that have to suffer through it are the victims of the George Bush/Neo-con/Republican Tea Party vision of America.
I agree with you. They are trying to erase FDR programs, nothing less.
It was great to see a right-winger (Nicholle Wallace) on your show, making sensible points without FUD or spin. Please bring her back.