Posted on 07/13/2010 9:15:52 PM PDT by MissesBush
Robert Gibbs, Barack Obama’s chief spokesman, got into hot water this week for daring to speak the truth – that the Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives in November. But it could be even worse than that.
Contrary to pretty much every projection until now, Democratic control of the Senate is also starting to coming into question. While Mr Obama’s approval ratings have continued to fall, and now hover at dangerously close to 40 per cent according an ABC-Washington Post poll published on Tuesday, the fate of his former colleagues in the Senate looks even worse.
EDITOR’S CHOICE In depth: The Obama presidency - May-23Obama attacked over business regulation - Jul-12Video: Donohue on business regulation - Jul-12Global Insight: US financial reform - Jul-12Obama taps Lew for budget office - Jul-13Clive Crook: A president under attack - Jul-11In the past few days polls have shown Republican challengers taking the lead over previously safe Democratic incumbents, such as Barbara Boxer in California and Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. Indeed, given the uniformly negative direction in the numbers, it is now quite possible the Republicans could win the Senate seats formerly held by both President Obama in Illinois, and Joe Biden, vice-president, in Delaware.
Add to that the continuing woes of Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic majority leader, in Nevada, where the Republican party’s recent nomination of Sharron Angle, a far-right and highly eccentric Tea Party supporter, appear to have had no positive effect on Mr Reid’s prospects, and the Grand Old party has a good shot at taking control of both houses of Congress. Worse for Mr Obama, political scientists say that at this stage in the calendar, there is almost nothing he can do about it.
“If you ask me where the silver lining is for President Obama, I have to say I cannot see one,” says Bill Galston, a former Clinton official, who has been predicting for months the Democrats could lose the House. “Just as BP’s failure to cap the well has been so damaging, Obama’s failure to cap unemployment will be his undoing. There is nothing he can do to affect the jobless rate before November.”
The direction of the data could hardly be worse. According to Democracy Corps, a group headed by Stanley Greenberg, a liberal pollster who is a close friend of Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s chief of staff, a majority of US citizens see Mr Obama as “too liberal”.
Astonishingly, 55 per cent of citizens think Mr Obama is a “socialist” against only 39 per cent who do not share that diagnosis. The same poll shows 48 per cent support for Republicans against just 42 per cent for Democrats. The numbers are eerily similar to 2006, except that it was George W. Bush’s Republicans who were on the receiving end four years ago.
“The bottom line here is that Americans don’t believe in President Obama’s leadership,” says Rob Shapiro, another former Clinton official and a supporter of Mr Obama. “He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that.”
In private, informal advisors to Mr Obama are almost as negative. According to one, the US public’s loss of confidence in Mr Obama’s leadership is a factor above and beyond their dissatisfaction over the state of the real economy, which continues to slow as last year’s $787bn stimulus starts to run dry. The adviser, who asked to remain anonymous, said the public did not know what Mr Obama really believed. Examples include his lukewarm support last year for a public option in the healthcare bill and his equally lukewarm support today for a Senate bill that would extend unemployment insurance and aid state governments to keep teachers in their jobs.
In both cases, Mr Obama has offered only token, negotiable, support. “I never thought I would say this, but even I’m unsure what President Obama really believes,” says the adviser. “Instead of outsourcing decisions to Congress, he should spell out his bottom line. That is what leaders are for.”
Next week, Mr Obama is likely to sign a historic Wall Street re-regulation bill into law. Earlier this year he did the same for healthcare. But polls show the public either does not care, or even opposes these otherwise big reforms. “The longer this goes on, the more it looks like Obama wasted his first year on healthcare,” said the outside adviser. “It’s still the economy, stupid.”
Why doesn't someone in the media simply ASK him if he is a socialist? Seems like it is a reasonable question to ask
Yes, people have translated his game book and know what The Great One really meant when he said he wanted to serve the American people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WudBfRa0ETw
The biggest liar in America loses a little credibility.
All this comes as a great shock!
Absolute Zero Kelvin- negative 459 Fahrenheit. (reminds me of a book I read 35 years ago.
Frozen in indecision without a consensus of academics to support his position. He got through school cleverly reflecting their opinions, having no value base of his own.
Unfortunately, these types just bounce ideas around a narrow group until they all huzzah. No one has an original thought, or one based on real-world experience.
Why do people act like it is so shocking Obama is a socialist (actually I think he is a liberal fascist, but that is another conversation) when even TONY BLAIR freely admitted he himself was a “socialist”.
At BEST Obama is a Euro Socialist, at worst he is a Liberal Fascist. It is asinine for the MSM to pretend you are talking about martians landing if you bring up socialism.
I guess they’d just fall over in a stupor if the F word was uttered.
It's astonishing alright...39% still don't admit that 0bama is a socialist. What have these 39% been smoking? Obama is even more socialist then even Hugo Chavez. Chavez himself said so.
Well said.
An attack event would expose this fraud like nothing else would I imagine. Just try and picture how this guy would have handled 9 11 and your worst nightmares would come to life.
Obama faces growing credibility crisisShouldn't that be, 'faces declining credibility crisis'?
Either way, how can that be? He's given a speech on virtually every known subject to man.
Oh... that is so cute!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.