The stunning decline of Barack Obama 2011 edition: 10 key reasons why the Obama

telegraph.co.uk ^ | August 8, 2011 | Nile Gardiner

[ilovesarah2012]

In August last year I published a list of ten key reasons why the Obama presidency was in serious decline. This is a sequel to that post, which was one of the most read pieces on The Telegraph website in 2010. Twelve months on, the outlook continues to look exceedingly bleak for President Obama, with no sign of a recovery.

July was the worst month for the Obama presidency since the November mid-terms which saw his party emphatically drubbed in Congressional elections across the country. The president hit an all-time low with a Gallup poll at the end of the month giving him just 40 percent approval, with his rating among independents plummeting to just 34 percent. The outlook became even worse at the start of August, with dramatic falls in the stock market, and the historic decision by credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s to downgrade America’s debt.

As the latest RealClear Politics average of polls shows, less than a quarter of Americans believe the country is moving in the “right direction,” a damning indictment of the first 30 months of the Obama presidency. According to Rasmussen, that figure is as low as 14 percent, the lowest level of public confidence since November 2008.

[ilovesarah2012]

Very interesting.

[martin_fierro]

[Responsibility2nd]

Ping the mods to fix your headline.

The stunning decline of Barack Obama 2011 edition: 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency continues to melt down

I know it won’t all fit, but try...

10 key reasons why the Obama presidency continues to melt down

[ilovesarah2012]

I tried. Wish we had room for longer headlines. Headlines are important.

[Iron Munro]

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Why can’t the American Media give Gilligan a reality check? This is ridiculous! To get anything approaching a fair opinion of Obama we have to get it from Britain? Thank you Nile Gardiner for doing the job our butt kissing Obama media will not do!

[AngelesCrestHighway]

[D-fendr]

Obama’s only logical campaign strategy at this point is: “Yeah, but the other guy is a monster.”

He’s weak, but we still need a good candidate to beat him.

[CitizenM]

Great article. I put it on my FaceBook page for all. Thanks for posting this.

[kalee]

lol

[SMARTY]

9. The Obama presidency comes across as bitter, nasty and divisive

“... charge by Democrat Congressman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania that Tea Party Republicans had “acted like terrorists” over the debt issue, was symbolic of an emphatically partisan White House, that is increasingly lashing out aggressively at anyone who questions its policies. As I noted at the time:

There is something deeply sad and disconcerting when the vice president decides to compare opposition legislators in Congress with terrorists simply because he disagrees with their views and principles. This is the kind of ugly, threatening rhetoric that has no place at the heart of the US presidency… Joe Biden has clearly overstepped the line with his comments, and brought the office of the vice president into disrepute. His actions today are symbolic of a White House that increasingly looks bitter, crass and petty in its behaviour as public opinion moves firmly against it. Biden’s outburst is a sign of the Left’s growing desperation 30 months into the Obama administration, and only further reinforces the image of decline and decay sinking in at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

It’s over for them. Liberals are not only bad winners but really bad LOSERS

[Alberta's Child]

Interesting list. I think #9 on the list should be seen as the single most important factor. My rationale is this:

If you go back and track Obama's approval ratings since he took office, I'm almost certain you'll find that his ratings began a long, steep decline in July of 2009. There are a number of reasons for this, but I believe his response to the incident involving the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was the major turning point in his presidency. This incident in particular -- from his idiotic "the police acted stupidly" response to that "let's have a beer together" charade at the White House -- convinced an awful lot of fair-minded, objective Americans that the guy was not a serious leader. It also confirmed a lot of suspicions that people had about his race-based motivations even though they may have been afraid to raise them publicly.