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President Obama: Change No One Can Believe In Anymore?

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by Glynnis MacNicol | 9:16 am, December 24th, 2009

» 14 comments

2-face-obama(5) So! 2009 is almost over. The health care bill has passed. President Obama has announced his plan for Afghanistan. The midterms are still eleven months away. What will we talk about? If some of the coverage these last few days (from normally stalwart Obama supporters) is any hint, it’s likely the focus between now and the president’s State of the Union address is going to on Obama’s sinking popularity and everything he has done wrong in the last…eleven months.

On Tuesday Time ran a piece by Michael Scherer about why the president should actually be concerned about his dropping poll numbers because it’s not just the economy, stupid. Though that’s a big part. Also a problem is the fact that Congress’ support tends to dwindle with the country’s and “change we can believe in” has become change we can’t be bothered to vote for.

The 2009 elections in New Jersey and Virginia were initially talked about by Obama allies as a test of the President’s organizing power. By the time the votes were counted, however, with Republicans winning two Democratic seats, no one at the White House wanted to claim any responsibility. That’s because the remarkable enthusiasm that greeted Obama’s victory in 2008, with record turnout among independents, blacks and young people, had gone away, along with the minions of Obama organizers…the enthusiasm gap bodes poorly for 2010, when Obama will be trying to minimize losses in the House and the Senate. According to the recent Battleground poll, just under two-thirds of Democrats say they are extremely likely to vote in upcoming elections, compared to 77% of Republicans and Independents.

Wow. Easy come, easy go, I guess? Meanwhile, traditional Obama media stalwarts like HuffPo, which basically built its online dominance on the back of the Obama campaign is now running banner headlines like “Now Obama Gets Involved: President Pledges Hands-On Role Merging Bills.” Snap! Even Chris Matthews, he of the shivering leg, sounded a tad cynical last night about whether and how Obama has been keeping any (all?) of the promises he made during last year’s campaign. And Salon’s Joan Walsh sounded downright skeptical about Obama’s near invisible support of the public option. (Video below).

I’m a pragmatist. I still have to say Obama got both sides mad at him. The left is not happy with him, we’ve heard from lots of diff senators that the president never pushed this, he never twisted any arms.

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan, is still knowing Hope. He thinks Obama’s first year was a success:

Change of this magnitude is extremely hard. That it is also frustrating, inadequate, compromised, flawed, and beset with bribes and trade-offs does not, in my mind, undermine it. Obama told us it would be like this – and it is. And those who backed him last year would do better, to my mind, if they appreciated the difficulty of this task and the diligence and civility that Obama has displayed in executing it.

“Inadequate, compromised, flawed, and beset with bribes and trade-offs” also does not make for easy headlines or quick content, neither does an always bad economy, so it may be a while — a long while if circumstances remain unchanged — before we get back to the victorious change you can believe in meme. Matthew’s video below.

barack obama, Chris Matthews, HuffPo, Leg Shivers Gone Bad, Michael Scherer, msnbc, Salon, The State of Journalism, Time

Jim R

Andrew is largely right about the unprecedented scale of the problems and the broken political system that Obama must navigate in order to repair years of trickle-down deregulating failure.

Emulating Clinton by adopting Republican pro-corporate solutions on multiple issues while being portrayed as a liberal commie is not the way we need to go again.
TfT

Obama and civility? Laughter abounds on that one. Didn’t he just threaten those who dare go against him?

Obama told Reid do whatever it takes to get Nelson on board, and Reid found Nelson’s sellout point. Bribes, corruption — it’s the Obama way. The worst event of the year, imho, was when the head of the CBO met with Obama and ever since then, the number crunching has been less than stellar (well, it was always flakey, but of late, it has been quite shady. imho).
SWWT

He’s angering both those on the Left and Right? He’s probably doing a good job them. And why would anybody expect Health Care Reform, at a national scale, to go smoothly at all? This is a good start and much better than nothing.
disgusted

I wouldn’t say that he was a “disappointment” – I didn’t EXPECT anything better! You NOW have members of his “party” (TAXPayer supported, of course) – Leaving a “sinking/stinking” ship – for another ship – just as BAD?
marquis

EPIC FAILURE
FIRST YEAR: LOWEST APPROVAL OF ANY PRESIDENT IN HISTORY …GALLUP: 46%…
Only 36% of voters approve of Obama’s nationalized health care plan, yet, Obama Lashes Out at GOP For Using Filibuster to Stall His Takeover of 1/6 of US Economy
New Obama Plans: ‘Spend Our Way Out’ Of Downturn…
The US budget deficit tripled in Obama’s first year.. tripled to a record $1.4 trillion for the 2009 fiscal year
And who can forget..
*The Czar Scandals
*Van Jones
*Anita Dunn
*The disastrous million dollar AirForce One photoshoot frightening the hell out of NYC citizens
*Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” promoting “Fisting” to Children
*NY 9/11 show trials in NYC instead of military tribunals..(Germany, Hey Holder, You Can’t Use Our Evidence For Death Penalty in Upcoming KSM & Fellow Terrorists Trial) *Even though he PROMISED military trials
*Climategate
*Beersummit (blame the cops, say they acted stupidly without knowing what happened)
*Universal Nightmare (PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail;Failure to Comply, 5 Years in Prison)
*After two minutes of smiling, pointing, giving a “shout out” and dithering… Barack Obama finally gets around to mentioning the massacre at Fort Hood in Texas.

*Obama Has Now Played More Rounds of Golf than Bush’s Two Terms in 8 YEARS!

*White House strips immigration policing powers from Arizona sheriff…DHS: Hotels, instead of jail cells, for illegal immigrants!

*The $10million rejection trip in failed Olympic bid
*ACORN SCANDAL (*Ranked #9 scandal of the year by Time Magazine )
*Massive Fail– Cash for Clunkers Cost Taxpayers $24K Per Car, crushing perfectly good cars.
*Obama’s Approval Index Number Tanks to -19 – Another Record Low

…
Barack Obama’s presidential approval index number has dropped to -19.
Obama has dropped a stunning 50 points in less than one year.

Democrats didn’t create the deficit. They just tripled it in less than one year.

Not a single GOP Rep voted for the democrat’s historic trilion dollar Stimulus Package.
Not a single GOP Rep voted for the democrat’s record budget.
And, once again, not one single Republican House members voted for “Son of Stimulus” the latest Democratic spending bill.
ingenieux

marquis really drags down the entire human race with that painfully delusional rant, I think even the king of crazy himself wouldn’t touch that with a 50 foot pole.
marquis

notice how this little bitch ingenieux can’t dispute any of the context of my post, word is bond.

Southside Jamaica Queens represent son
roxsteady

Sore losers still haven’t gotten over the historical ass kiicking they took from the Dems last year. Don’t worry about the noise from many on the left. True Progressives will continue to fight for improvments to this bill and other Progressives. Some have brought the full on crazy while most of us are counting the victories and moving forward. While Republicans and Conservatives continue to live in denial and losing elections.
marquis2.0

Hey cocksteady, are you really that retarded?
“Sore losers still haven’t gotten over the historical ass kiicking they took from the Dems ”
+7 point difference equals a “historical ass kicking”? If you’re looking for the true meaning of that phrase, let me introduce your faggotass to 2010.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

It may be purely political (and non-media-related) for me to say, but one would hope all of johnny-come-latelys would at least familiarize themselves with 1980.

Though as I said in another comment to another blog: It may ironically show our rate of progress that the Kennedy-wing is now represented by the White House and I’m not sure yet about the meaning of several upstarts touting a Southern Dem.
Fidoohki

The worst thing about all of this is that if he had only kept his promises, he would have been
one of the most reviered first year presidents ever.
http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

CZARS CZARS CLIMATEGATE VAN JONES SOCIOFASCISM OBAMACARE CZARS VAN JONES ACORN ACORN ACORN!!!11
disgusted

Chicago!
disgusted

“Idiocrasy” – NOW, NOT in 2025!