Current Event Posting Number: 1
Topic: Leaders (national)
Title: Obama approval hits a new low
Writer: Alan Silverleib
Publication Name: cnn.com
Date of Publication: September 24th, 2010
Length: 487 words
Main Ideas: Presidents Barack Obama is losing the trust of the public. Currently, 42% of the nation still approves of Obama and his handling of the presidency while 54% of Americans disapprove, and 4% are undecided, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. According to this poll, Congressional Democrats face a nine-point deficit when voters were asked which party they would follow in the November midterm election. Non-partisan political analysts believe that the Republicans have a good chance of acquiring the 39 seats in the House of Representatives that they need to regain control of it. 56% of Americans believe Obama is not living up to their expectations and only 34% say they are more likely to vote for a congressional candidate if they are supported by Obama, while about half of voters claim that they will vote for a candidate supported by the Tea Party. Although they are voting for the Republican party, half of those voters say they are doing it to oppose the Democrats rather than to support the Republicans.
Conclusion: Obama's support may be dropping, though the same situation occurred for Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter in September of their second years in office. Obama faces the troubles of dealing with public worries about the delicate economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his failure to live up to the majority of the public's expectations, which all tie together to show his low support among the nation. Though Republicans face many troubles as well with their lack of true support for the party and lack of agreement for tax cuts among the rich and the less fortunate. Overall, it seems that both parties are lacking support for their representatives' positions and neither party can produce candidates that the public actually agrees with rather than gaining support through the public disagreeing with the opposing candidate.
I kinda think Obama reaching a new low is reasonable for he completely turned on some people. Like there was a statement he said which was taken has "If you mess with Israel you're messing with America." and he is on the side of a country that is VERY EXTREME, and killing people such as Palestine for a reason so irrational it's absurd. Obama acts like a puppet, and he seemed to be so strong and just when he was running. He does not show similar qualities as he did when he was running which disappoints me. I think he could be a great president if he actually spoke his mind because clearly this isn't him, or to my knowledge it isn't.
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of people don't really give Obama credit. Everyone was initially very excited, because everyone expected somehow that Obama would come in with his sweeping change and fix all the problems that this country currently faces. Nobody seems to grasp how impossible that is for a president to do. The presidency as an institution was created so that the president, as a single person, wouldn't have the power to make radical changes all by himself, hence the idea of separation of powers that is the foundation of our government. Couple that with the fact that Republicans in congress are determined to prevent Obama from accomplishing anything without heavy compromise (i.e. the health care bill). Add on top of that the sheer amount on Obama's plate, and the array of problems that Bush passed on to him. The expectations people have of Obama are unreasonable, and when things aren't perfect the president gets blamed. Cut the man some slack, he's accomplished quite a bit considering the circumstances he's in.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that nearly every single president in American history has ended their term with a significantly lower popular approval rating than they started with.