President Obama has put a lot of points on the board.
Whether you agree in the legislation that has been passed or not, in the end it does not matter to the average American.
The real issue going forward is JOBS, pure and simple. As long as the the unemployment rate rings at 9.8%, as long as close to 30M are not employed or vastly unemployed, as long as the foreclosure rate continues to skyrocket, people will remain unfocused on the legislative victories of the Obama White House.
The truth is the average American is not paying attention to these victories.
I was happy about DADT being repealed but when I was at Target shopping, I overheard a woman talk about her son losing his job and worried about paying his mortgage.
A small percentage of folk are talking about the START treaty. Ask your local mechanic or gas pump guy, they will say, "Start what?" And if you explain it to them, they don't give two shits about it because it is not part of their reality, now.
I read this over at Huffington Post in comments and this rings true:
Obama's problem is not so much that unemployment is still what it is, but that his accomplishments ring hollow in the minds of 95% of Americans.
DADT - how many Americans does that new policy actually affect. 18-30 years olds who are typically more open minded about homosexuality combined with those that will enlist in the Armed Services. I served 25 years ago so I don't care one way or the other.
START treaty - it's just a piece of paper. Who cares? Will I be affected directly whether we have 1750 nuclear warheads or 8500. I'll never know one way or the other.
When Obama has to raise taxes because of his ineffective stimulus plan, then Americans will be angry. That hits them in the pocket book.
The last statement is about this economy.
The states all over this country are not getting anymore money from the federal government. The real ravages of this hollow economy is starting to ring true.
Here in Illinois, it is bad. The State of Illinois is so much in debt that many doctors here are not taking Medicare because the State is 8 months to over a year behind in payments. When you have gas stations not accepting the State of Illinois credit cards from Illinois State Troopers to pump gas in their cars, you have a major problem. On 60 Minutes all this was brought forward about Illinois in the piece with the atrocious Governor Chris Christie blaming unions, pensions for many states spiraling deficits.
The narrative of taxes has been hijacked by the Republicans for decades and always put Democrats in the corner whenever someone talks about raising taxes.
Now what the states across this country are dealing with is cutting drastic programs that aid many poor folk, middle class folk with no safety net under them to keep a float.
Which ties in with unemployment.
We can cheer forever about all these accomplishments and some need to be cheered loudly, but when your neighbor hears you cheer and don't have a job, do you think they care about any of this? They don't. Not when they are faced with foreclosure, job loss, health insurance non-existent, and the list is endless.
The only thing the Obama Administration should concentrate on up to the 2012 election is putting Americans back to work. Not the silly trial balloons being floated of cutting Social Security. If Obama cuts Social Security while we are still printing fake paper for 2 wars that has drained this country dry without working on real job creation and massive overhaul of the foreclosure scams going on out here, he won't be re-elected. Remember, 2010 midterms was about this economy and jobs. If we don't move the unemployment numbers down and create real jobs, the Democrats must defend this because by 2012, we own it.
From the Ed Show: