Obama Honeymoon Over
by Marc Rotterman
Issue 137 - August 5, 2009

The old cliché bad policy makes bad politics is beginning to be borne out again with the drop in President Barrack Obama’ poll numbers.

As I write this column, Obama’s job approval rating is at 54% -- down from his honeymoon high of 66%.

A job approval rating of 54% this early in his presidency is still very respectable by historical standards, but the drop off in key swing states with independents is a cause for alarm for the White House’s inner circle.

In the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, Independents had virtually voted in lock step with the Democratic Party – thus resulting in the Democrats seizing the majority in the House and Senate in 2006 and the White House in 2008.

Obama and his team mistakenly -- in my view -- misread his election as a mandate to institute the largest peacetime expansion of government in the history of this country.

As unemployment numbers rise and the economy continues to falter, it is becoming increasingly clear that independents are rejecting the Obama Administration’s expansive and wildly expensive programs.

Reality is setting in and Obama’s soaring rhetoric is not matching the results in communities around the country and at the kitchen table.

Numerous polls reflect the growing skepticism of Obama’s programs. The middle class sees no tangible results, (jobs) and understands that there is huge downside to all this debt and wonders out loud how the government can create jobs or for that matter run General Motors.

My friend Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard some weeks ago on the Fox news channel called this trend “Obama’s Persuasion Gap.”

While Obama tends to remain personally popular -- his policies of massive spending and excessive government control are not.

Some pundits and Democratic operatives dismiss this shift of Independents away from Obama as only temporary and they point out that the President is not on the ballot in 2010.

However, Republicans and Conservatives -- while acknowledging the president is not on the ballot in 2010 believe that there is an opportunity to contrast “Obomanomics” with their vision of smaller government, real tax cuts for families and businesses…as well as affordable and portable healthcare vs. a single payer government run insurance program.

In this off-year election cycle, Republicans have an opportunity to make great gains in Congress. One only has to pay attention to what is transpiring at the tea party events (i.e. a grass roots tax revolt) and town hall meetings in which many congressman and senator’s have had some uncomfortable interaction with their constituents.

Anger over “Cap and Trade” legislation and “excessive government” is beginning to manifest itself through out congressional districts around this country.

And make no mistake about it. Democrat governors or candidates for governor who are unwilling to make hard choices in regard to discretionary spending could pay a heavy price this fall and in 2010.

Two “bell whether” races to watch this fall are the New Jersey and Virginia Governor’s campaigns. In both cases, Republicans have the early lead.

Currently Bob McDonnell leads State Sen. Creigh Deeds 49% to 43 %, according to Public Policy Polling, a Demcratic firm. But, what is even more significant is that Mcdonnell leads Deeds by 21 percentage points among independents.  And in the latest Rasmussen Report’s telephone survey in New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie leads incumbent Governor John Corzine 46% to 39%.

Granted this is only the summer -- but one senses that the “Persuasion Gap” is real and that there is a hunger for tangible solutions to the economic problems that confront the country.

Soaring rhetoric by Obama and nationalizing the economy is not creating jobs, nor is it moving this country forward. 

Marc Rotterman is a Senior Fellow of the John Locke Foundation and served in the Reagan Administration from 1981-1984.

Post this article to your Facebook profile