When I was working on the Obama Campaign, I watched the poll numbers like a HAWK.
I knew that Hillary had the African American vote, because many did not believe Barack Obama could win in the summer of 2007.
I watched many, from this site and in this country, get off their couches and knock on DOORS before Iowa.
I had to listen to my very pragmatic, moderate father not believe this country would elect a BLACK MAN, while my mother was bustling "GO OBAMA..."
We saw things change in fall 2007....
Now we are entering late June 2010, with the oil in the Gulf still spilling, the economic numbers NOT GOOD, no JOBS OUT THERE, housing still in the dumps (with little being done about it).....and we have a mid-term election a few months away...
November, again is about the economy, jobs.
Right now, the Obama White House needs to be fired. Why? For the worst communication and messaging EVER coming from a White House. We don't need to go through their greatest hits, that White House knows it. This is the second poll out in a week with the same bad numbers.
Obama is getting SLAMMED for his slow response to the oil drill. Many here have argued, "What else could he have done?" Well....
Bill Clinton, then Candidate Clinton, was the first person ON SIGHT in Florida after Hurricane Andrew. Images and video of him was sent viral for all to see. President George H.W. Bush, LATE ON THE SCENE, and the folks in that region LET HIM KNOW IT.
President Lyndon Johnson after Hurricane Betsy, was on a row boat in the lower 9th ward in New Orleans letting people know after the levees breached that he was their president and was there to help. That mattered.
President Barack Obama was slow to the game of the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. The decision to stand back and let BP take over will be written in history books and justly so. To actually believe a corporate company, a foreign one at that, who don't give two shits about Americans will be remembered, as the company who gave thousands of Americans the "run around."
Now his poll numbers are showing it:
Two months of oil continuing to gush from a well off the Gulf Coast, as well as an unemployment rate still near 10 percent, have taken a toll on President Barack Obama and his standing with the American public, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
For the first time in the survey, more disapprove of his job performance than approve; for the first time in his presidency, more than 60 percent believe the country is on the wrong track; and as he relieves Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his command in Afghanistan, Obama’s scores on being able to handle a crisis and on being decisive have plummeted since last year.
This is important for this fact, during mid-terms it is about the BASE coming out. But now we know that the Democrats want to spend 50M to get minorities and new voters out, this lets me know that many are not engaged. That enthusiasm gap is real and no need to dispute it.
One thing that can help this President is getting that oil spill capped, but it is currently blowing more oil than ever. Also, that communication or command structure still has not been provided or FIXED in the Gulf and folks are continuing to get the run around. Lastly, globs of oil have hit Pensacola beaches and we all know what will happen next. Nothing good.
Today was a good day for the President, he showed leadership because in the polling lately he has taken a huge hit on this. But the reality is that tomorrow night, no one will talk about McChrystal, he will be a footnote. In fact, most Americans don't even or won't even know what he had done. But that oil spill will still be there, pictures of that will still be there, unemployment numbers are still there, folks losing homes are still there, wasting money in Afghanistan is still there, gripes from the Gulf Coast will still be there and that is reality. That is what is on the ballot, now, for November.
It is not that the Republicans have anything new or different to offer, they don't. It is that the Democrats have not pushed to fulfill what many Americans voted them into office for.
Joe Barton was a fuck up of the highest magnitude, but his statement on BP is not going to change things with many families whose father or mother is out of work and can not find any. His statement is just a footnote, on the reality that this election is about the ECONOMY, JOBS and when will the Obama White House get that? I think the train has left the station...
In the poll, Obama’s job-approval rating stands at 45 percent, which is down five points from early last month and down three points from late May.
[snip]
The other dominant story in the poll is the public’s sour mood about the economy and about the nation’s direction.
After last month’s disappointing jobs report (in which the economy added just 41,000 private-sector jobs), only 33 percent believe the U.S. economy will get better in the next 12 months. That is a seven-point drop since May.
If we don't see some real movement after Labor Day and we are looking at these numbers, expect a long day in November.
Lastly, when is this country going to stop, or decision makers stop, NATION BUILDING, when we have schools HERE crumbling, teachers HERE not being retained, first responders HERE put on the unemployment rolls, firefighters HERE being told good-bye, hospitals HERE not being fully funded. When are we going to say adiós to these wars and start taking care of US. That is what I am sick and tired of. And I don't give a mickey-fick about General Petraeus continuing a war that should be OVER. Period. Not when this country is on the bankrupt lane, I want OUT and want that 9-10B stopped being sent over seas for these wars that will NEVER END.
Full Poll
Bad approval ratings for a President can be bad news in November, remember that.