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Title: Obama, the god that failed
Source:
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
URL Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news ... iled-the-decline-and-fall-of-/
Published: Jan 27, 2010
Author: THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Post Date: 2010-01-27 12:25:37 by Badeye
Keywords: None
Views: 1160
Comments: 20
EDITORIAL: Obama, the god that failed
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES
President Obama said Monday that he would "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." He will be lucky if he's not an abject failure. There's usually a reason for a presidency lasting a single term, as Mr. Obama's slow-motion train wreck is demonstrating.
Mr. Obama took office with historically high approval ratings based on a combination of hope for his administration, reaction against President George W. Bush's second-term unpopularity and a degree of irrational exuberance, best illustrated by Newsweek editor Evan Thomas' cultish imageof Mr. Obama "standing above the country, above - above the world, he's sort of God." For his first 100 days, Mr. Obama's approval rating remained relatively high, and the percentage of Americans thinking the country was on the right track grew from about 10 percent the previous October to more than 40 percent.
By May 2009, Americans began to lose confidence in Mr. Obama, and the god began to bleed. The numbers saying the country was on the wrong track crept back upward. Mr. Obama' public approval rating began its great decline, the most rapid of any first-year president, according to Gallup. The decline has been broad and deep; Mr. Obama has lost support nearly uniformly from men and women across all age groups and all incomes.
The most striking slump occurred with the white middle class, which bears the brunt of Mr. Obama's wildly irresponsible fiscal policies. White approval dropped from 60 percent to 39 percent, and among middle-income Americans, support declined from 65 percent to 46 percent. Independent voter support declined from 66 percent to 45 percent. Among those who attend church weekly, approval dropped from 60 percent to 42 percent, and there was an almost identical decline among married couples and those older than 65. This explains why Mr. Obama is attempting to pander to the middle class, without whose support he cannot be re-elected.
It's not hard to understand Mr. Obama's historic descent. After 100 days, Americans took the measure of the man in office and found him wanting. They saw his inexperience, his penchant for liberal ideology over common sense and his unprecedented drive to expand government controls over every aspect of American life. He pressed for more taxes, more regulations, greater federal control over the economy and increased dependence on Washington. He rammed through a $787 billion stimulus bill that was an off-budget wish list of congressional pork. He ran up more debt in the first month of his first budget than the federal government accrued in all of 2007. He promised the stimulus bill would limit unemployment to 8 percent; unemployment is now in double digits.
Mr. Obama promised to renew America's relations with the world, but his reach has exceeded his grasp. His grand designs for peace in the Middle East and South Asia have collapsed. His outreach to the Muslim world has not stemmed the tide of terrorism. America's adversaries mock the president, and our friends watch the decline of U.S. power in wonder and disappointment.
Mr. Obama came to Washington promising a new tone, an end to bitter partisanship, a new openness and frankness with the American people. But transparency was obscured, partisan lines hardened, and the White House became an ivory tower of arrogance. As Mr. Obama steps to the podium to give his State of the Union address tonight after a year in office, the man who stood above the world has crashed back down to Earth.
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He ran up more debt in the first month of his first budget than the federal government accrued in all of 2007.
Lets see how Obama blames Bush tonight....
#2. To: All (#0)
He promised the stimulus bill would limit unemployment to 8 percent; unemployment is now in double digits.
Lets see how Obama blames Bush tonight....
#3. To: All (#0)
They saw his inexperience, his penchant for liberal ideology over common sense and his unprecedented drive to expand government controls over every aspect of American life.
Lets see how Obama blames Bush tonight....
#4. To: Badeye (#0)
Evan Thomas' cultish imageof Mr. Obama "standing above the country, above - above the world, he's sort of God."
Sounds like Evan Thomas watched too much "Star Trek" as a kid . . .
The science is settled, peer-reviews are complete, and the debate is over: Al Gore IS a fraud and an idiot.
#5. To: Barack H W Bush (#4)
I don't take Evan Thomas any more seriously than I do Lawrence ODonnell.
Lets see how Obama blames Bush tonight....
#6. To: Barack H W Bush (#4) (Edited)
I've never seen a group of people who couldn't wait to declare failure before failure actually occurred even if the failure that COULD occur was attempting to undo the failure that they had cheered on every step of the way...
#7. To: war (#6)
I've never seen a group of people who couldn't wait to declare failure before failure actually occurred . . .
If the speedo is pegged at 180, the steering wheel is locked straight, and the sign says BRIDGE OUT, 1/2 MILE, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to declare that the car is going in the drink.
And it makes no difference that the previous driver (who is no longer driving) was merely going 100
The science is settled, peer-reviews are complete, and the debate is over: Al Gore IS a fraud and an idiot.
#8. To: Barack H W Bush (#7)
Well said.
Lets see how Obama blames Bush tonight....
#9. To: Badeye (#0)
I wonder if folks wrote off Reagan at this point in his presidency too?
#10. To: Barack H W Bush (#7)
The problem with your analogy is that as the driver is watching the road the people in his ear telling him that the bridge is out have no idea if it actually is...and it dawns on the driver that these are the same people who 8 miles back told him that the road was smooth for the next 10 miles but he's now driving on the rims because he used his last spare on the last pothole 2 miles back...
#11. To: go65 (#9)
wonder if folks wrote off Reagan at this point in his presidency too?
Good point, but that was a different era. No internet, talk radio, and only 3 major broadcast over the air networks.
The science is settled, peer-reviews are complete, and the debate is over: Al Gore IS a fraud and an idiot.
#12. To: war (#10)
the people in his ear telling him that the bridge is out have no idea if it actually is
The hell with the people in his ear. Real leaders . . . lead. THE SIGN says the bridge is out.
Just like the signs that say you cannot keep pouring trillions of dollar down a rathole and piling up debt without serious repercussions.
The science is settled, peer-reviews are complete, and the debate is over: Al Gore IS a fraud and an idiot.
#13. To: Barack H W Bush (#12)
Just like the signs that say you cannot keep pouring trillions of dollar down a rathole and piling up debt without serious repercussions.
We are prisoners of our own economy...revenues are fine during booms and they suck during busts. I'm alll for transforming government...start with the DoD...empire building and NWO is 90% of our problem...
#14. To: Barack H W Bush (#12)
Real leaders . . . lead.
He's still driving the car...
#15. To: go65 (#9)
Something else interesting about your chart - how were these administrations rated AFTER they concluded. Here's my take:
GW Bush - mostly failure
GHW Bush - failure
Kennedy - ended by assassin
Eisenhower - success
Nixon - failure
Carter - failure
Clinton - success
Obama - N/A
Reagan - success
The science is settled, peer-reviews are complete, and the debate is over: Al Gore IS a fraud and an idiot.
#16. To: go65 (#9)
His numbers dropped, but not by this much, this soon. But you already know that.
Meanwhile, back here in the 21st century, unemployment is getting worse, the nation is pissed off, and this administration has yet to allow for an effective remedy. Thats the problem with Liberals with no real world experience with economic matters, they won't let go of the dogma and do whats necessary.
Lets see how Obama blames Bush tonight....
#17. To: Barack H W Bush (#15)
Curious as to why you left out Ford.
#18. To: war, go65 (#17)
Curious as to why you left out Ford.
I just cut and pasted go65's chart - so whoever created it left him out.
Good point, tho. I guess he was pretty forgettable.
The science is settled, peer-reviews are complete, and the debate is over: Al Gore IS a fraud and an idiot.
#19. To: Barack H W Bush (#18)
IN retrospect, he managed the office as it should have been managed...he had his budget and, for the most part, stuck to it and veto'd anything extra...
#20. To: Barack H W Bush (#18)
I just cut and pasted go65's chart
Aha...Destro's Websense filters some pictures/charts/tables/videos out...
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