Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Approval Ratings Panic!

I’m beginning to see that being in power is not something we liberals on the blogsphere are used to.

At the first sign of Obama’s approval rating dropping below 60%…panic ensues.

I can only name one President in history who has gone through an entire term with positive approval ratings; Eisenhower, and even he dipped lower than Obama at some point…Obama will be unpopular at some point during this presidency…can we deal with that? Or are we going to panic and delcare the end imminent.

I was struck today was by this comment by notorious DKos panic machine UpstateDem;

We need to write off Obama (0+ / 20-)

Hidden by:

  LeftHandedMan, theran, blueyedace2, frandor55, Whimsical, Bush Bites, FishOutofWater, yg17, dlh77489, Stroszek, sulthernao, ArtSchmart, BFSkinner, MiscastDice, LeanneB, cishart, the3Cs, FreeStateDem, COkdub, JL

This guy is going to bring the Democratic party right back into the minority.  He was expected to turn around the economy quickly and obviously wont be able to do it.  The Democrats need to right off Obama before they all get dragged down with him.  He should have never won this election.  2010 is going to destroy us unless we get rid of him now.  

by UpstateDem on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 06:20:18 PM PDT

Most attribute Obama’s slight fall in approval to the economy…in the wake of the bad June unemployment numbers. His critics on the left on blogs like OpenLeft and Crooks and Liars seem to be taking some glee in the numbers…one of those “He deserves it for not listening to me” situations. The PUMAs respond with glee. The Naderist clearing their throats for a resounding version of “I Told you so”

In the two weeks I’ve been back in America, I’ve heard nothing but positive thoughts about the President…although that could be because I’ve spent those times in Iowa (where he won his first victory), Chicago (his hometown), and New York (where, I have to say, the economy is not nearly as bad as elsewhere)

Earlier today, I sat with my mother while she listened to 70’s music on her Satellite radio…they played “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” and mom joked that Obama should sing this on live television.

I loved the second line of the song; “Along with sunshine, there’s got to be a little rain sometimes”

Ok, so right now it’s drizzling a bit.

There are people who are still patient with him and who don’t expect the economy to turn around overnight. If it does, we win, if it doesn’t…well, we have more important things to worry about in the situation than winning reelection.

But for those of us who thinks the end is upon us when the President becomes unpopular need to remember that St. Ronnie saw his approval ratings plumment to 40% in January, 1983 because of high unemployment…I was born four months later 🙂

Less than two years later, Reagan was reelected winning 49 states.  


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 36 Comments

36 comments

  2. Chris Blask

    bursting from his cheeks.

    Approval ratings are an emotional metric, and you just can’t smile and chuckle 24 hours a day for months on end.  It’s like living on refined sugar – the longer you do it the worse the crash will be.

    Besides, continuously pegging high approval ratings during hard times probably means you aren’t doing anything controversial, which imho is tantamount to abdicating responsibility.

  3. John Allen

    matches up with the drop in Obama’s support among independents.

    Consumers’ rising concerns about a protracted economic downturn, job security and erosion of wealth were the main factors depressing sentiment, the survey said.

    Its preliminary index of confidence for July fell to a reading of 64.6 from the final reading for June of 70.8.

    July’s preliminary reading was well below economists’ median forecast for 70.5 and the first fall in the index since February.

  4. rfahey22

    Ultimately, we need healthcare reform and some sort of climate change legislation. The situation with detainees is largely under Obama’s control, yet things have not moved in a positive direction on that front.  And, of course, he has not accomplished much with respect to gay rights as of yet.  So, there is reason for restlessness on our side, and perhaps even some exasperation/alarm, depending on a person’s pet issues.

    That said, Bush was very unpopular and still managed to defeat Kerry, so I don’t think that we have reason to worry about his reelection prospects, barring some unforeseeable disaster.  The Republicans have nothing but clowns to choose from as their 2012 nominee.

  5. anna shane

    I’m still glad about Barack, and don’t see that changing, but depending on the questions there are things he’s doing I’d want done differently to some degree or another. Given how many people are out of jobs with no light visible, and how many more families are now homeless, I’d say that he isn’t being blamed, but that our economy still needs fixing.  

  6. semiquaver

    below 60% you say?  At this rate of decline he will be at -7% approval ratings by his next election.  Looks like we are doomed to Palin/Sanford ’12.

Comments are closed.