Why Barack Is Behind
President Obama needs to fight back against Republican policies
Most Americans feel no nostalgia for that era or its
politicians. A midsummer Newsweek
poll showed that the Republican right's program is still far from popular.
Asked whether they care more about reducing the federal budget deficit or
increasing federal spending to create jobs, 57% said they wanted more spending,
not less, and only 37% were more concerned about red ink. More than half want
to let the George W. Bush tax cuts benefiting the top 2% expire, and only 38%
prefer to extend them. Nearly every poll indicates that even now, as President
Obama's approval ratings sink, those of his predecessor remain considerably
lower.
Yet we appear to be heading toward an election that
will empower an ideological minority, whose candidates endorse extremist
nostrums such as privatizing Social Security and shutting down the
Environmental Protection Agency. Why should this be happening now?
The Enthusiasm Gap
There are several plausible explanations, but the
most persuasive overall is what political scientists and pollsters describe as
the "enthusiasm gap."
The zeal that Democrats felt in 2006 when they
ousted the corrupt Tom DeLay machine, and in 2008, when they bade farewell to
Bush and Dick Cheney, has dissipated under Barack Obama—who has inspired the
same kind of fiery determination among Republicans. In a midterm election, when
voter turnout is predictably much lower than in a presidential contest, the
fervor of the partisan base can make the difference between a draw and a rout.
Public Policy Polling, a firm whose accuracy was
recognized by The Wall Street Journal
despite its Democratic affinities, recently tried to measure the enthusiasm gap
in several statewide contests. Across the country, its researchers found that
the gap has shifted an average of 7 points in each of 10 Senate and
gubernatorial races—and in some places, such as the president's home state of Illinois, that number is
even higher. Without the gap, critical Senate races, and presumably many House
races as well, would be closer—or the Democrats would be leading.
Although President Obama has passed important reform
legislation, saved the auto industry and confirmed two Supreme Court nominees,
both women, the Democratic base is obviously dispirited. They hoped he would
bring more fundamental change. Instead, his White House staff seizes every
opportunity to exacerbate the inevitable letdown by insulting, bullying and
mocking the progressive voters who are the most vital and loyal constituents of
his coalition.
At this late hour, Obama shows few signs of
understanding why he is about to lose the majorities that made his achievements
possible. He needs to speak up, fight back and win back the respect of the
public. They know that if he won't fight for his party and his program, he
won't fight for them, either.
© 2010 Creators.com.
Its simple: liberals are INSANE.
I can't describe how excited I am to see you liberal clowns get buried this November. I do, however, feel obliged to thank the messiah, lord obama, and you inferior leftists for indirectly leading to the upcoming conservative revolution. I get a kick out of how you bozos are dumbfounded as to why the enthusiasm is all on the republican/tea party/conservative side of the poltiical spectrum, but let me spell it out for you. Obama/Pelosi/Reid are taking the country in a direction that most people do not want to go. In other words, the liberal elitists are governing against the will of the people. The stimulus has failed and nobody wants government-run healthcare. Again, thank you, because if it wasn't for the insanity of you leftists we would be stuck with obama for a second term.
Corrina, I didn't know that the Mendota Mental Health Institute allowed patients on the internet. Good for you!
Amazing! The highly polarized opinions of those who post, like moderates do not exist. It's like religious ferver, get off the fence, you are either for God, or against Him..., either extreme right-wing, or extreme left-wing, everyone else should just shut-up. (As a matter of fact, everyone against MY personal view should shut-up, I do not want someone else's free-speech trying to shout me down!... ;) )
Okay, Why is Obama's "Hopey Changey" thing failing?
When I listen to co-workers out here in Waukesha County, I am surprised at how many voted for Obama in the primary, because they feared their pick McCain could not beat Hillary. Yes, strategic voting does exist! Had the economy not crashed between the primary and general election, the strategy could have worked. Now there were many new disillusioned voters that just wanted SOME change from "the Failed Trickledown", so they voted Democrat, (didn't really want to vote for Obama).
Now the real issue... Change! Nobody who has been around the block likes Change, it means having to roll up our sleeves, and do the hard work of adapting to that change. Hiring white-collar folk to develop a new set of paperwork, to develop new methods of making money; and forcing blue-collar folk to learn new skills, find new jobs, or even to re-learn how to do an existing job that management "changed" on them. All the new regulations that are put in to take away those cheats that allowed you to make money in the good old days. Big business cheats, labor union cheats, small business cheats, civil service and bureaucratic cheats you all know what I mean.
So, is it any wonder that the 553 elected legislators who are all campaign funded by those in the upper tax brackets are standing in the way of the kind of change the voters really wanted? The only change that will be allowed is something that allows somebody to make enough money to put up with the costs of change! ... Like a mandate that healthy people must pay for health insurance, they must now pay their healthcare costs through a middleman that is allowed a 20% profit.
That's the backlash we are feeling. The true price of "Change". This is the perfect opportunity for those who stayed silent (out of political correctness) for far too long to make their move. Since it is all about money in our working class pockets, maybe now we can dump those hated entitlements that "redistributed our wealth", those school choice programs that allowed welfare kids into our catholic schools, those chapter 220 intrusions of thugs into our lilly-white neighborhood schools. The chance to return to the good old days when bigotry and "my vote counts more than yours" is once again politically correct.
Unfortunately, this Tea Party drive for a total regime change is being co-opted by those few who live only by "he who has the gold makes the rules". I made that realization over 10 years ago, when I learned that both candidates in local Wisconsin races had been funded by the same organization. Didn't matter who won, both would remember who their big contributor was.
They are businessmen, and they know full well that a vote is a vote, a dollar is a dollar. Do you honestly think that a store like Wal-Mart or Target cares if that dollar in the cash register drawer came from an honest taxpayer or from a drug-deal? Like legal money laundering. And if both stores are owned by the the same stockholders, do the stockholders care which of your stores you walked into? Votes work the same way.
My other concern, ending the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Is it any wonder that companies are reaping record profits, and CEOs are still paying out huge bonuses to themselves in this jobless recovery? Got to milk it while top tax-bracket is at a post-WWII low of 35%, get the money out before it goes back up to 40%, or possibly back up to 70% like the 70's, or 90% like it took to recover from WWII's bailing out from the Great Depression.
In fact, that 90% top tax-rate was during the so called "good old days" of 56 chevys and such, when the only way a corporate exec could reap his reward was to put the profits back into the American company, and pay himself with stock. Had to keep the company going to keep his stock high. Not so today if they have a low-tax opportunity to "cash out" of the high-stakes poker game.