Barack Obama is facing his Jimmy Carter moment

telegraph.co.uk ^ | 5/26/12 | Tim Stanley

[Justaham]

As Mitt Romney closes the gap, it is 1980 all over again for the man in the Oval Office.

Until recently, Barack Obama’s re-election was regarded as inevitable – in the same way that summer follows spring, or a monsoon follows a hosepipe ban. The president’s poll lead over Mitt Romney was strong, while the Republican’s character was assassinated by a primary fight that permanently spoiled the reputation of his party. To court the GOP’s conservative base, Romney was forced to adopt positions on abortion, contraception, health care and welfare that are thought to be unpopular among moderate swing voters. Obama, by contrast, is the man who killed bin Laden and toppled Gaddafi. A choice between Obama the moderate statesman and Romney the craven conservative is surely no contest at all.

But in the last two weeks, things have changed. Obama’s re-election is no longer guaranteed; some pollsters think it is unlikely. Day by day, the odds are improving that Mitt Romney will be the next President of the United States.

What changed? For a start, voters are getting gloomier about the economy. Joblessness remains high and debt is out of control. According to one poll released this week, only 33 per cent of Americans expect the economy to improve in the coming months and only 43 per cent approve of the way that the president has handled it. Voters think Obama has made the debt situation and health care worse. The man who conducted the poll – Democrat Peter Hart – concluded that “Obama’s chances for re-election… are no better than 50-50.”

[Ann Archy]

geesh, I NEVER thought he was a shoe-in.

[HerrBlucher]

Me either. Many of the Obama voters I know had given up on bambi even before the pubbie primary season had started. These are the hard working dems (yes there are some) with good jobs that see the damage bambi is doing to the economy and want him out before they get laid off too.

[Beagle8U]

“... or a monsoon follows a hosepipe ban.”

Huh? What is a hosepipe ban?

[uncbob]

Barack Obama is facing his Jimmy Carter moment

As bad as the country was under Carter in 80 Reagan should have creamed him 65 to 35 or better
Shows how stupid too many of the American voters were
And they are worse 32 years later
November is going to be one big nerve racking month
Worse than 2000

[galloway15]

"What's a hosepipe ban"

Not sure but maybe it's like a polopony?

[Signalman]

The president has tried to distract from America’s economic misery by playing up the so-called culture war. Earlier in the year he decided that he would force Catholic employers to provide contraception to their employees through their insurance plans, and he followed that swipe at social traditionalism by endorsing gay marriage. This embrace of Sixties liberalism has backfired.

[Beagle8U]

Or a Polyp?

[Jeff Chandler]

What is a hosepipe ban?

A garden hose ban. A ban on watering your lawn or garden or washing your car with the garden hose.

[SaraJohnson]

The talking heads did not know anyone who was not voting for Obama’s re-election. :)

[galloway15]

C’mon, surely you know what a polopony is?

Think Honeymooners.

[Lockbar]

"November is going to be one big nerve racking month Worse than 2000"

I agree 100%. O-hole doesn't have 80 citizens being directly held hostage by Islamic Militants, and doesn't have burning U.S. helicopters in the Iranian desert. People want "fun and funny", and O-hole is that talk show host wannabe that fills the bill. Sorry to say this, but its true.

[bytesmith]

Huh? What is a hosepipe ban?

A hosepipe is what many of us call a water hose. The hosepipe term is used widely in the south.

[Jeff Chandler]

Ya hoser.

[Beagle8U]

OK, you would think a UK paper could write in common English ( American) terms...lol.

[Jeff Chandler]

But I sure like that girly way they talk.

[Kickass Conservative]

The Democrats have almost six months, a lifetime in Politics, to convince the Voters that Obama must be reelected to protect them from the Evil Republicans.

They started this last week with the new story that Obama is a real Penny Pincher compared to the Republicans that handed him all the debt.

According to them, 2009 spending belongs to Bush, and that set the Trillion Dollar plus Deficit foundation.

The fact that Bush never signed the Fiscal October 2009 to October 2010 Budget approved by the Democrat House and Senate or the fact that Obama added over $1.2 Trillion to the Baseline during his first year in office means nothing to the Sheeple.

The question is, will the Voters believe Obama or their lyin eyes? My fear is by the time the Election rolls around and Obama spends a Billion Dollars brainwashing the Electorate with the help of his Sycophants in the Media, they will wear down the common sense Voter.

Every time I hear Obama all I think is, “the prisoners in the Gulags cried when Stalin died”. We are surrounded by Useful Idiots and we even have many in our own Families.

[Beagle8U]

” The hosepipe term is used widely in the south.”

Southern Europe?

I grew up in Southern USA ( Bamma and Fla) and never once heard that term for a hose/garden hose.

[Signalman]

My fear is by the time the Election rolls around and Obama spends a Billion Dollars brainwashing the Electorate with the help of his Sycophants in the Media, they will wear down the common sense Voter.

The difference, this time, is that, unlike the McCain campaign, the Romney campaign is highly competent and have shown that they will fire back with ads refuting the lies spewed out by Obama.

[DeaconRed]

" I grew up in Southern USA ( Bamma and Fla) and never once heard that term for a hose/garden hose."

Same here LA to be more precise. (Lower Alabama)
We called it a hose or a garden hose. or if you lived in a trailer it was called a supply line. . . . . .