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Obama has the lowest approval rating since Eisenhower

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/16/gary-younge-obama-first-year

Just seen this; apparently Barack Obama has the lowest approval rating of any US President since Eisenhower - 'why?' is both a mystery and depressingly clear.

A mystery because, prima facie, even those who don't agree with him politically could look at the length of time he's been in, what he has done, and compare him to his predecessor and baulk at this idea. There just is just no objective case for him to be in this position, based on comparative performance with other US presidents.

But the slander, bile and lies that have been spewing out of those screens and rallies in response to the healthcare bill, combined with a quite staggering level of overt racism, seem to provide the best answer.

I'm not making an argument for or against Obama's presidency in terms of particulars here - what I'm stating is that, given the conditions of other US presidencies in the distant and not too distant past - for him to be in this position now is nothing short of baffling.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    the thing is that it's easier being in opposition than in government, especially for cheap publicity grabbing stuff, and the GOP are REALLLY good at that

    the other thing is that the mechanisms of congress are truly super slow, especially if you look at the number of filibusters over the past 40years, plus the fact the opposition in the things he is trying to do, aren't providing alternatives or working to improve the bills, they're just flat out rejecting them without any extra input

    i think obama has been trying to please all the people some of the time, when as president, as good as appeasing oppisition is in the long run, there are times to crack some bills through just using your own party

    it's a complicated one i think, plus a good 30%+ of the population truly are 'individualist' in their attitude to politics
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It comes as no surprise to me.
    Everything he promised he has back tracked on apart from his health care bill.
    He has continued ...in fact broadened ...Bush's wars.
    He is in fact so obviously working for the same people Bush and all Presidents since Kennedy have worked for and that is the military industrial complex.
    Eisenhower warned in his goodbye speech that the military industrial complex was taking over America.
    Kennedy signed an order designed to destroy the federal reserve and even went as far as issuing dollars which had printed on them ...government dollar as opposed to federal reserve dollar. Dollars backed by silver as opposed to dollars ,made out of thin air and backed by nothing. He was of course dead in a matter of months and the government dollars were destroyed.
    He was the last free president of America.
    Obama is just the new face at the shop counter.
    His bosses are the international bankers.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Obama is just the new face at the shop counter.

    Purporting to be selling hope and change.

    The punters have started to realise there is no change, not even out in the back of the store.

    At least hope has a long way to go.

    I do not like shopping ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kennedy at the same time as producing interest free government dollars was about to pull the troops out of vietnam.
    This was a double whammy to the intenational bankers who fastest and biggest money maker is war.
    When Kennedy was killed many people said it was as a warning to future presidents to know there place.
    Clinton said in a speech at the begining of his presidency that he was a virtual president as presidents no longer had the power to make major decisions.
    Kennedy was the last free president.
    Obama is now an employee of the the biggest fascist nation in history and nothing more.
    American politics and media is pure hollywood.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    To be honest, I think when someone in any position has the "lowest approval rating" then they're either the worst or the best that could be in that position.
    What we need is one more criterion for judging which.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    He also got a Nobel Peace Prize seemingly for winning an election - go figure...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    He also got a Nobel Peace Prize seemingly for winning an election - go figure...

    Well quite, but by virtue of the fact that the main thrust of critique there was (justifiably) 'he hasn't done anything!' - ditto the approval rating...if he hasn't done anything, then what's the big objection?

    He is possibly the greatest advert for the impossibility of bi-partisanship in contemporary American politics...and no, I'm not his biggest fan either.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's because people are shockingly impatient these days. In the age we live in, if no one has been seen on television for about three months, they're almost presumed to be dead. Similar things happen in politics - if this "change" which Obama promised appeared in less than 538 seconds within him taking over the country, people would get dissatisfied.

    As long as he doesn't start waffling on about "getting on with the job" and "helping hard-working families", I won't go on about this too much.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well quite, but by virtue of the fact that the main thrust of critique there was (justifiably) 'he hasn't done anything!' - ditto the approval rating...if he hasn't done anything, then what's the big objection?

    He is possibly the greatest advert for the impossibility of bi-partisanship in contemporary American politics...and no, I'm not his biggest fan either.

    Well if he hasn't done anything that would probably explain the approval rating.

    He was elected as this great new hope and so far nothing has happened. Cynics like me are naturally sceptical of leaders who come in and claim that they're going to change the world (or at least their country) - it's just taken the states a bit quicker to realise that the world doesn't change than the UK did with Blair.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    So no-one want to comment on how much the US media will have played a aprt in this, the teabaggers (a name which always amuses me) and the fact that he is doing some unpopular things (such as trying to close Gitmo) even though they are the "right" things...?

    Plus, I like to idea of him doing "Nothing" when he has managed to get a health reform bill through - something which has been tried and failed of several previous occasions. That was a *huge* thing to get through in his first year of his presidency - especially at a time of financial instability...

    I'm not much of a fan of either of the US parties, but look at what the alternative was and look at the candidates starting to gather in the Rep party now and consider if you would really want them in power?

    President Palin is a phrase which scares the shit out of me.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    MoK wrote: »
    So no-one want to comment on how much the US media will have played a aprt in this, the teabaggers (a name which always amuses me) and the fact that he is doing some unpopular things (such as trying to close Gitmo) even though they are the "right" things...?

    Plus, I like to idea of him doing "Nothing" when he has managed to get a health reform bill through - something which has been tried and failed of several previous occasions. That was a *huge* thing to get through in his first year of his presidency - especially at a time of financial instability...

    I'm not much of a fan of either of the US parties, but look at what the alternative was and look at the candidates starting to gather in the Rep party now and consider if you would really want them in power?

    President Palin is a phrase which scares the shit out of me.

    They also played a part in getting him elected so it seems a bit nonsenical to complain that they're knocking him now. The problem is that most people look at this with UK eyes not American and think as Brits do - we may speak the same language and have some cultural similarities, but there are also a lot of differences and things which seem right and sensible to Brits don't look the same over the other side of the Atlantic.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    They also played a part in getting him elected so it seems a bit nonsenical to complain that they're knocking him now.

    Yes but referring to 'the media' en bloc as if they blow one way or the other like the wind isn't really accurate - what we're here talking about is principally the truly scary level of distortion spewing out of Fox.

    It isn't nonsensical at all - what is absurd in all of this are the continued acts of slander against himself and his presidency.

    There's plenty of points (as others have observed) upon which to make criticisms of his presidency; that doesn't mean it makes it alright for the GOP's 'fool for Christ' to go up and accuse Obama of planning 'socialist reeducation camps' for American youth.
    He was elected as this great new hope and so far nothing has happened. Cynics like me are naturally sceptical of leaders who come in and claim that they're going to change the world (or at least their country) - it's just taken the states a bit quicker to realise that the world doesn't change than the UK did with Blair.

    Agreed - but my point was that even inertia was better than the record under Bush.

    Thatcher and Regan seemed to do pretty well changing the world in a short space of time, so I don't think this is a tenable cynicism.
    The problem is that most people look at this with UK eyes not American and think as Brits do - we may speak the same language and have some cultural similarities, but there are also a lot of differences and things which seem right and sensible to Brits don't look the same over the other side of the Atlantic.

    Quite - which of these do you think are the most significant?

    I ask because in relation to my previous point, when we say we see things through 'British eyes' that argument has so much mileage - until you get to accusations and slander, where things are pretty much supported by evidence or not - and alot of the vitriol directed against Obama is just ridiculous propaganda.

    Cultural relativism doesn't excuse lies.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    MoK wrote: »
    President Palin is a phrase which scares the shit out of me.
    Thankfully, it'll never happen. Chances are almost none of us will, at this stage, even have heard the name of the next president.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    American politics consistantly depresses me, there are so many things wrong with their society (many the same as here) and instead of actually discussing how they deal with them they are locked into a two party slanging match.

    The idea that you would sacrifice abortion rights just to get a healthcare bill through is just one shining example of how hardline the two sides have become. I fear neither side actually wants to help the American people they just want to fuck over the other party.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    stargalaxy wrote: »
    Thankfully, it'll never happen. Chances are almost none of us will, at this stage, even have heard the name of the next president.
    I don't share your confidence tbh. Republicans will vote republican whoever you put as candidate, and if it never takes that many floating voters to swing an election one way or another.

    It is rather sad that Obama's ratings have deteriorated so much so quickly. I suspected he was going to have a hard time, simply because he entered office in the middle of a serious recession, but still it is astonishing.

    Then again what can you expect when you get large chunks of the electorate shouting 'socialism' as a scareword whenever healthcare reform is mentioned?

    Never mind that most Americans wouldn't know socialism if it came and kicked them in the bollocks...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    wrong thread!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    and I thought you'd gone all political my_name, shame.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote: »
    Never mind that most Americans wouldn't know socialism if it came and kicked them in the bollocks...

    Like the frog boiling in the water. Little by little.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Like the frog boiling in the water. Little by little.

    Well that growing socialist heat might help keep the millions of Americans in fuel poverty (a rising number of whom are classified as 'middle income') a bit warmer.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well that growing socialist heat might help keep the millions of Americans in fuel poverty (a rising number of whom are classified as 'middle income') a bit warmer.

    That is price they have to pay for making the choice to get in the pot in the first instance.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Do a little research on David Rockefeller and see how powerful he is.
    Read in his own words about his plans to turn America into a socialist state.
    Corporate socialism that is.
    It's all unfolding before our eyes.
    No it aint conspiracy stuff ...read what he himself has written.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Republicans have just won another senate seat taking away the Democrats' majority. Oh dear. Just when you think the American public have turned a corner.....
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Republicans have just won another senate seat taking away the Democrats' majority. Oh dear. Just when you think the American public have turned a corner.....

    LOL @ Americans.
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