I suspect that one of the reasons Obama’s approval rating is in free fall is because of his obvious surprise and petulance in his public encounters over the disaster of Obamacare. He has made some grudging half apologies, but it is clear that the only thing he is sorry about is that he cannot — not yet, anyway — simply decree what happens with health care in this country. He believes himself above the law and is impatient about finding a means of achieving that discretion. For our own good, of course. Many observers on the Right have long known this about Obama. Suddenly, though, it is out there for all to see. The American people don’t like tyrants, even smooth-talking, Harvard-educated ones. The great trek away from Obama and what he stands for — above all, government unlimited — has begun. The journey will not be pretty, but I think it is all but certain to continue.
Let’s hope.
“The great trek away from Obama and what he stands for — above all, government unlimited . . . ”
“You say ‘government unlimited’ like it’s a bad thing.”–Baghdad Jim
“And oh yeah . . . SOMALIA!!! BOOOSHH!!”–dn-guy
Well, hopefully we’ll get current Obama supporters to agree that he was a terrible president – once he’s out of office. I think it’s too much to ask that they see reason now. And Romney and McCain would somehow have been worse choices even when they’ll grudgingly agree with the terribleness of Obama.
hopefully we’ll get current Obama supporters to agree that he was a terrible president – once he’s out of office
That seems unlikely. If he’s followed by a Republican, Democrats will look back at his administration as the good old days (Clinton only got more popular with his base once Bush was in office). If he’s followed by a Democrat his supporters will see him as the guy who built a lasting Democratic majority.
It isn’t very common for presidents to lose popularity after leaving office; in general they get more popular once they’re removed from day to day politics.
A more apt comparison would involve the incompetence of Jimmy Carter and the ethics of Richard Nixon. I don’t recall Nixon getting invited to many book signings after he left office.
Nixon was already unpopular when he left office. According to Gallup, LBJ and Clinton are the only recent president to become less popular after leaving the White House, with LBJ’s approval falling from 55% to 42%, and Clintons slipping from 66% (the best of any recent exiting president) to 60%.
In general, that is true. Jimmy Carter is a notable exception, and Obama is increasingly compared to Carter.
Carter’s approval was 34% when he left office, and is 56% today.
We are living in the good old days? Wow, the inevitability of a dystopian world and that we live in such a world already is a deeply ingrained theology on the left. The thought that not only the world today is the best it can be but that tomorrow will be worse is a sad place for Democrats to be. Obama is destroying the pysche of his party not just our country.
I guess the question would be, who would have been better as POTUS?
McCain or Bush-43?
Bilwick has your number.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a solid 40% of this country that will support Obama no matter what he says or does. Obama could be loading up the opposition into boxcars to be taken to reeducation camps and they would be cheering him every step of the way. That 40% scares me a lot more than Obama himself.
[voice=Tom Hanks]
Houston, we’re having a look at those numbers now. Job approval is down to 37% – and it’s still dropping.
[/voice]
In the most recent CBS poll, only 12% of Democrats want Obamacare to stay as is. At some point a delegation of Congressional Democrats will have a go-to-Jesus meeting with Obama, gathering around him and stabbing him to death from all sides like he was Julius Caesar.
The problem with that scenario is that Obama would say (and he’d be right) that the PPACA is as much their doing as his. They can’t stab him in the back without stabbing themselves in the process.
“They can’t stab him in the back without stabbing themselves in the process.”
Their weasel-out will be that Obama is the Executive and didn’t execute the Plan well.
It will be Obama’s fault that the glittering law, Pelosi and Reid generated, failed.
They will claim Obama lied to them just like they turned their back on the war in Iraq.
To wit:
“They are letting it be known that House and Senate Democrats are increasingly frustrated, bitter and angry with the White House over ObamaCare’s botched rollout, and that the president’s mea culpa in a news conference last week failed to soothe any ill will.
Sources who attended a meeting of House chiefs of staff on Monday say the room was seething with anger over the immense damage being done to the Democratic Party and talk was of scrapping rollout events for the Affordable Care Act.
“Here we are, we’re supposed to be selling this to people, and it’s all screwed up,” one chief of staff ranted. “This either gets fixed or this could be the demise of the Democratic Party.”
See? “Botched rollout.”
Not
“seething anger at Obamacare’s silly concepts…”
The above is from The Hill:
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/190844-obama-hits-new-low-with-dems-at-capitol
““People here want to be on the record showing support for fixing the problem,” the senior Senate aide said. “He should understand that. For someone who served in Congress, people are surprised how little he understands Congress.”
Delicious. So the Left is finally figuring out what we knew about Obama from the start:
he’s never worked hard; never dug in and learned deeply about anything (including his job); but just flits around like a manic butterfly with ADD confusing looking t something with knowing about something.