The Man who Fell to Earth from the Sky
posted at 11:55 am on March 13, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
When critics of Obama administration policy speak to public skepticism, Obama apologists point to his approval numbers in various polls. One of those pollsters now says not to pay as much attention to the general approval number, but the motion in the underlying numbers. Douglas Schoen and Scott Rasmussen explain that Obama’s support has quickly declined to just his own party, and even that may be at risk:
It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama’s high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his administration. Indeed, a detailed look at recent survey data shows that the opposite is most likely true. The American people are coming to express increasingly significant doubts about his initiatives, and most likely support a different agenda and different policies from those that the Obama administration has advanced.
Polling data show that Mr. Obama’s approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an analogous period in 2001. Rasmussen Reports data shows that Mr. Obama’s net presidential approval rating — which is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve — is just six, his lowest rating to date.
That number bounced upward a little to 9 in today’s tracking poll, but the trend has certainly been a sharp decline. When Obama took office in January, he had a 30-point gap in this measurement. The trend line for strong approval shows a shallow decline from the 40% level to the mid-30s, but the problem comes in the strong disapproval number. It has risen sharply from a honeymoon 10% to the low 30s, as independents peel away from Obama.
Rasmussen notes this as an indicator of a confidence drain:
Overall, Rasmussen Reports shows a 56%-43% approval, with a third strongly disapproving of the president’s performance. This is a substantial degree of polarization so early in the administration. Mr. Obama has lost virtually all of his Republican support and a good part of his Independent support, and the trend is decidedly negative.
The American people as a whole tends to give new administrations some time to find their footing, which is usually referred to as the “honeymoon” period. The polling shows that Obama has rapidly depleted that store of goodwill, and that voters have begun taking a hard look at the massive amounts of spending and government expansion, as well as the fumbling response to the financial crisis. Rasmussen notes that taxes have become a big concern, with most voters no longer buying the line that Obama can fund his programs merely by taxing the top 5% of earners. Over eighty percent — a hefty bipartisan majority — worry that the deficit spending Obama has proposed will make the situation worse, not better.
The top-line tracking poll measures whether people like Obama. In general, they still do — but the leading indicators show that they’re beginning to re-evalute his policies to the detriment of Obama and the Democrats helping him ram them through Congress.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3 4
Quite correct. Fields such as molecular biology, medicine, etc. do require extensive training. Again, we conservatives don’t object to higher education–far from it. As I pointed out above, many of us, myself included, have enjoyed higher education and have post-graduate degrees. What we object to is the poor quality of education now which includes, as you pointed out, the failure to properly teach critical thinking–and yes, that is partly the fault of parents preoccupied with things other than their children, but also it is a failure of the school system. A proper liberal arts education encourages critical thinking and analysis.
True, but never underestimate the power of the self-educated and self-motivated man or woman. While Thomas Jefferson received an education in law at William and Mary, he taught himself architecture, designing not just Monticello, but also many of the buildings on the University of Virginia campus and learned his farm management techniques all on his own. All the while he invented the swivel chair and other inventions. Amateur astronomers, in many cases armed mostly with self-acquired knowledge carry out valuable observations on variable stars, supernovae, and have contributed to expanding our knowledge of the cosmos. Amateur geologists who have also acquired their knowledge on their own have also made valuable contributions to their field. You, yourself have expanded the depth and breadth of your knowledge through your own endeavors.
We understand that–and believe it or not, we don’t hold it against you :). Many of us were angered and irritated by McCain’s poor response to the financial crisis–that probably cost him the election. Your statement regarding your reaction to Palin’s comments and actions I think speaks more of the power of the press to distort as I’m sure that much of your perceptions were colored by what you saw in the media. I would suggest that you take the time to really get to know her record. While you might not agree with her personal positions–and that’s ok–we all have our views, you might find that an unfair and distorted picture has been painted of her. You’ll find that she tends to govern in a very pragmatic and honest manner and that she has done a very effective job in her state, and is popular with both Republicans and Democrats at home. Yes, she probably wasn’t quite ready for “prime time” on the national stage in 2008, but she’s got the makings of being an effective leader.
What is he missing? That’s what we call a red-meat question here. :) In other words, you’ll get plenty of responses to that, and some of them–many of them–will be quite unflattering towards Obama. To me, Obama lacks appreciation for the true values of this country: respect for individual inalienable rights and liberties including private property and the choice to make one’s own decisions as well as the Constitution and values of the Founding Fathers upon which the country was founded; faith–not necessarily in a higher power, but in the wisdom and ability of one’s fellow human being to exercise reason; integrity–his record as a politician is one of corruption and opportunism. Finally, to be brutally honest, to me Obama also lacks the basic competence to be president of this country. He’s not the only incompetent we’ve had occupy the Oval Office, he joins such others as Jimmy Carter, James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, and Millard Fillmore, but it’s never a good thing for the country.
There’s an old saying about “assuming”, Magnus. We understand you’re wanting to give Obama the doubt, but please, never assume that those “higher up” are necessarily acting in your best interests regardless of who the “higher ups” are. Always question and always hold their feet to the fire–demand answers. Jefferson, Madison, Adams would tell you the same thing.
Matt Helm on March 14, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Lets blend experience with the higher education which would approach the ideal situation. There are a lot of wonderful, feeling, beautiful people out there that I wouldn’t let take out my appendix.
mixplix on March 14, 2009 at 12:10 PM
Matt Helm,
Mainly it was Palin’s “Real America” comment. It drove home for me that I am not included in her and conservatives view of what it is to be American and a patriot. I’m from the South Bronx and before that live in Brooklyn. My entire life has been spent in urban ghettos and largely populated cities. Everything is real America for me. South Central, LA – Paulding, Georgia, NYC, the small town vet, and the ghetto welfare queen. Besides that I don’t have any sort of admiration or enthusiasm for guns and hunting so a woman being able to field dressing a moose means absolutely nothing to me.
I was also extremely turned off by the way Bristol Palin (besides her being attacked by the left), was celebrate by the Right. I applaud her keeping the baby, however I the reaction from the Right was a bit hypocritical in that I rarely see any support or reverence for poor/urban teenagers or women that get pregnant and have children out of wedlock and make a choice to keep them. I felt if her parents weren’t who they were and had the resources they did, she’d be another teen mother, probably using social services, with a baby’s daddy, the type Conservatives deride so much.
Magnus on March 14, 2009 at 1:20 PM
RD on March 14, 2009 at 1:57 PM
Hmmm. Interesting — I’ve had exactly the opposite experience from you. I’ve found shades-of-gray thinking, whether from myself or from others, more accepted on so-called conservative websites than on sites like DKos or DU. Actually, a lot of commentary on blog sites like this one comes from those whose basic world view is grounded in liberalism — classical liberalism. The commentary on DKos or DU – but also on HuffPo, sad to say – is of the leftist-fascist variety that brooks no dissent whatsoever. It’s as if the slightest iota of difference is a betrayal of sorts, and puts you in the enemy camp pretty quickly. That difference is manifest, no matter *what* one’s political leanings happen to be.
Have you not noticed the same thing? Since our two experiences are so different, it seems to suggest that the DKos/DU/HuffPo are more erratic than places like HotAir, though I’m not aware of any hard data (sample or otherwise) on the subject.
Everything he just said, Magnus.
RD on March 14, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Maybe not now, but what if circumstances drive you away from cities and into the wilderness? Then what? How are you going to feed yourself? “Come here, little cutie…” ;) Without vitamin supplements, all-vegetarian diets get very tricky out in the wilderness. Perhaps fishing is more your style?
Cities are constructs of civilization, and can vanish (and always have vanished) during periods of history. If some natural or man-made disaster wipes out our cities – or their populations – you and I may be put in a position where we have to obtain our own food and shelter. That’s where field-dressing a moose or a deer applies, even to your own hierarchy of needs (Maybe not! ;). During such periods there’s no obligation to starve to death. Nor is it appropriate to depend exclusively on others, and it’s darn difficult to barter for enough food to live on.
Not saying you’re guilty of ignoring anything – such concerns might not have kept you up at night, maybe they have – but IMHO a lot of us tend to bristle at Palin’s masterful displays of physical and mental survival skills because they remind us (consciously or otherwise) of just how little we measure up in comparison, as well as how fragile our toehold is on what I’ll call “easy living”.
Not suggesting that life’s “easy” in the urban ghetto — it’s a struggle there too — but even that construct is an artifice or byproduct of a series of deliberate decisions by humans about where to concentrate their collective wealth & resources. (Plumbing? Electricity? Food stamps?) Urban ghettos don’t occur spontaneously in the wild, whether in Alaska or the sub-Saharan savanna. There, it’s us humans pitted against the elements and other animal species first, and then against each other second. (Sorry for the sloppy writing – is this making any sense? I haven’t exactly thought this out but I hope it’s still possible to see what I’m getting at.)
You know as well as I do that it will always be up to society to tell such people (teen mothers with no means of support) “no”, otherwise they will take advantage of others. What I worry about is our increasing inability to say “no” to those individuals on the socially constructed grounds that it’s racist, sexist, fill-in-the-blank-ist, or just downright mean. Meanwhile, the implicitly violent act of taking money and resources from others – who may need those resources in a crisis of their own, and are now S.O.L. is not even acknowledged, let alone criticized. Just the opposite, in fact: Any criticism or resentment is held in open contempt, and portrayed as a severe character flaw. To me that’s not liberalism; it’s the polar opposite of liberalism.
RD on March 14, 2009 at 2:30 PM
RD,
Frankly I’ve found the same on both sides. People willing to discuss honestly, people willing to discuss but resort to belittling and personal attacks when the other won’t bow to their point and folks that do nothing but belittle and attack.
But in saying that at the I feel more comfortable amongst the left side such as HuffingtonPost I am able to say something like this without backlash,
“Black americans have suffered value and social deterioration that include a lack of generational wealth, educational value, and destruction of family resulting from past policies and institutions where the purpose was to prevent these systems from thriving in their community inorder to create a sub-class of people that did not interfere with the ruling class. And it will take generations for the majority of that to weed its way out.”
Or I can say something like this without someone feeling like I’m attacking them, “Reagan and Reaganomics did absolutely nothing for blacks. The unemployment rate skyrocketed, the poverty rate trippled and the War on Drugs and racial disparities in the judicial system ravaged the black male population.”
This is my reality. This is my shade of gray when people make comments like black people are lazy, all on welfare doing a “thug thizzle” , stop whining, get over it, my Irish Ancestors ran out of potatoes, they aren’t complaining”, and so on. Because I know its not that simple and will never be and deep down I get offended because I’m living and have lived what they haven’t.
At a risk saying this here, I felt there I could openly admit without attack that my father and his wife are muslim, and he is an Imam and that while not muslim myself, I’ve been to mosque and around people belonging to the NOI (Nation of Islam) and traditional Muslims and have not seen nor heard any of the radicalism that’s been attributed to all Muslims and Islam in general. I own a Koran, a gift from my father, and I am open to reading it without feeling like my own Christianity is compromised or I’m committing a sin against American, or that I’m not patriotic. Nothing in there can compete with the gift of Christ’s sacrifice.
The only problem I strongly have with the left and sites such as Huffingtonpost is that there is no room for Christianity or criticism of homosexuality. I personally don’t care if gay people have government unions with all the same benefits. I just want my right to not recognize it as the same institution that God put in place or feel its a good environment for children. I feel like when those issues pop up the true vitriol comes out and the left can attack you like rabid dogs. They also can’t accept that terrorist exist and really want to kill us and they tend to be muslim.
So maybe all the things I said above will color folks opinion of me, but that is my purpose. To find out if my realities and view of life are open, maybe not to acceptance, but understanding in the conservative pool.
Sorry I’m rambling.
Magnus on March 14, 2009 at 2:50 PM
This is where her inexperience on the national stage came in. It was an inartful comment, pure and simple, I’ll concede that. A more seasoned politician wouldn’t have used quite those words. Again, she’s got four years to expand her repertoire and her world view.
In some ways, I wonder if we’re becoming two separate cultures that are becoming increasingly irreconcilable–but then, I read posts from those like you which gives me hope that maybe we’re not so irreconcilable after all. I grew up with firearms–how to handle them–how to be safe around them. I also grew up hunting and fishing. Nowadays, my hunting is with a camera, but I still like to target shoot and I do possess weapons to defend myself and my family. Thankfully, I’ve never had to exercise that option and I pray I never do, but I am thankful to the Founding Fathers for insisting on the 2nd Amendment stating that I have the right to do so.
Perhaps you’re not looking in the right places? We don’t deride single mothers, Magnus. As Rush said, and he’s right, conservatives love people. You’d be surprised at how many churches there are that offer outreach, pre-natal, and daycare services for single mothers–all done without insulting or demeaning the mother or trying to force their religious beliefs on her–although spiritual counseling is available should she wish it. There are also many other conservative groups that offer counseling for single mothers and expectant single mothers to help them explore options such as adoption and to provide instruction and help in infant and child care should the mother and/or father and/or their respective families choose to keep the child.
Take the time to get to know some conservatives Magnus. We come in all stripes, all colors, both genders and even different sexual orientations. Yes, we do approach conservatism from different angles and perspectives–it’s that whole rational individual thing I mentioned earlier. For instance, I’m more in the classical liberal tradition of the Founding Fathers and Adam Smith while others here put more emphasis on social conservatism while others are more libertarian in outlook and there are a host of other viewpoints. No one’s going to try to convert you here…we’re not a religion. :) Yeah, sometimes we might get a little curmudgeonly, but honestly, we don’t bite. Well…I take that back…we do bite the occasional troll–but you’re not one of those. Stick around and get to know us a bit more, you’ll see that we’re a pretty diverse lot.
Matt Helm on March 14, 2009 at 2:52 PM
Conservatives would point out that while injustices most definitely did take place and that there is no excuse for those injustices, that much of the destruction of the black family took place due to the welfare reforms of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs which encouraged the breakup of family groupings and that the Democratic party did do it partly to create a sub-class dependent upon the dole. As a conservative, I would point you to Jack Kemp’s Enterprise Zones as efforts to attempt to encourage minority small businesses. Further, Johnson’s Great Society programs not only affected black families adversely, but poor white families as well.
What I would ask you to do here is to remember when the War on Drugs started–again with the Johnson Administration. The unemployment rate for blacks–especially black males was already very high by the time Reagan took office, so can blame really be laid at his feet here? Also, don’t forget efforts such as Kemp’s Enterprise Zones and other small business loans to encourage minority businesses. As for the increased poverty rate–again, I would encourage you to check the graphs as I think you’ll find that much of it takes place during and immediately after Johnson’s Great Society programs.
I’m not going to attack you for saying that and reading the Koran isn’t a sin against Christ nor does it make you unAmerican. Again, just as elsewhere, you’ll find all types of people here–remember, we’re humans. :)
Matt Helm on March 14, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Matt thanks for your insight. Its appreciated and refreshing. I very exciting about getting into discussions on various topics here.
And now that I threw the thread off course I’ll put it back on topic.
I wary of Obama’s performance so far, but I’m doing a wait a see approach before I make my final decision. I need a little bit more information to make an honest conclusion.
I will say his transition has been a disaster.
Magnus on March 14, 2009 at 3:16 PM
A fair analysis and understandable position. Please do feel free to chime in on the discussions here.
Matt Helm on March 14, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Nice posts Matt and Magnus. I enjoyed that exchange (for what that is worth).
I think there are more, on each side, like each of you than some would like us to think. We’re not that polarized, I suspect.
My proof can only be anecdotal, but I am suprised at the great divide between the internet community. Whereas, in the outside world these differences don’t seem to matter as much.
DWB on March 14, 2009 at 5:22 PM
Obambi is indeed falling to earth. I’m seeing only a tiny fraction of the Obama shirts and bumper stickers that I saw a few weeks ago. Granted the election is over but many choose to keep the stickers on when the going is good.
The problem with BO now is reality. Now he actually has to do something besides write books about himself. This has been the most feckless and incompetent start of any administration, R or D, in my lifetime (I’m 50).
I hope America has the collective wisdom to stop looking to a corrupt and incompetent government for the answer. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for ought to me that we reject government as the answer. Four years in the doldrums awaits.
Welcome back Carter!
Mojave Mark on March 15, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Who is BARRY SOETORO?
BHO Jonestown on March 16, 2009 at 2:33 AM
Over-promise; under-deliver. That’s the Obama way.
the_souse on March 16, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3 4