Obama Approval Hits New Low
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 1st, 2011 4:39 am by HL
Obama Approval Hits New Low
A new Quinnipiac poll finds President Obama’s approval-disapproval level has shrunk to an all-time low of 42% to 52%.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “President Obama has hit a low 42% approval in the past, but this is his highest disapproval rating. Ominous for him is that the share of voters who think he has strong leadership qualities has dropped from 64% to 33% in January to 50% to 48% now. Voters say 54% to 42% that he cares about their problems, but that is not impressive since it is a measure on which Democratic presidents historically rate well.”
“The best news for the president is that voters still blame former president George W. Bush rather than Obama for the economy by 53% to 32%. One can only imagine what Obama’s approval rating might look like if that ever changes.”
No U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Last Month
For the first time since the American invasion of Iraq, an entire month has passed without a single United States service member dying, the New York Times reports.
“The milestone is particularly remarkable because it comes after 14 troops were killed in July, making it the most deadly month for the Americans in three years, and it has occurred amid a frightening campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations from Sunni insurgents that killed hundreds of Iraqis, resurrecting the specter of the worst days of sectarian fighting.”
Obama Relents and Reschedules Speech
President Obama will now address a joint session of Congress next Thursday to lay out his plan for jobs and the economy, the Washington Post reports.
“The date is one day later than the president requested earlier Wednesday, but that date conflicted with a scheduled debate of Republican presidential candidates in California, drawing objections from GOP lawmakers.”
“The agreement followed an afternoon full of political maneuvering, injecting still more ill will into the ongoing fight between the White House and Congressional Republicans in their attempts to gain the upperhand in the debate over how to solve the nation’s ongoing economic problems. And both sides quickly pointed fingers at one another for the scheduling problem.”
The Fix: “No one wins a process fight: If Obama had doubled down on the Sept. 7 date, the coverage leading up to the speech would have focused heavily — if not exclusively — on the process (why the White House had done it, etc.) of the speech rather than the policy of it. Process battles, while beloved by reporters, are rarely a good thing for politicians and policy-makers.”
