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The
Raw Story
Are Obama’s
approval ratings sinking past the point of no return?
By Agence France-Presse
Friday, November 15, 2013
Barack Obama’s second term fumbles have pitched him to record low poll
ratings and splintered his credibility with the American people.
But has his presidency reached the point of no return?
History and opinion poll data suggest that when reelected presidents
slump in the ratings, it is tough, if not impossible to bounce back.
Obama, stung by the amateurish debut of his health care plan, which has
sent fellow Democrats into revolt, is beginning to sense the depth of
his woes.
“I do make apologies for not having executed better over the last
several months,” he said at a Thursday press conference, punctuated by
uncharacteristic mea culpas.
“Am I going to have to do some work to rebuild confidence around some
of our initiatives? Yes.”
He had better act fast.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal survey two weeks ago had the president’s
approval rating down to 42 percent. A week later, Pew Research put
Obama at 41 percent. By Wednesday, Quinnipiac University had him at 39
percent, a new low.
The data suggest Obama can no longer count on the solid floor of
support that has sustained his crisis-strewn presidency.
“For the first time it appears that 40 percent floor is cracking,” said
Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling
Institute.
But do polls matter for a man who will never again be on the ballot?
Second term presidents enjoy some freedom from the tyranny of their job
ratings — and become more obsessed with staving off dreaded lame duck
status.
But Obama’s deteriorating image threatens to shred his remaining
authority on Capitol Hill — where key priorities, including immigration
reform are on life support.
He is also pleading with sanctions-wielding senators for more time to
do a nuclear deal with Iran.
And Obama’s unpopularity is spooking Democrats with tough races in next
year’s mid-term elections, which may doom his long-shot hopes of seeing
his party recapture the House of Representatives.
Already, Obama is getting the cold shoulder from vulnerable Democrats,
including Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu who is brandishing her own
bill to clean up the Obamacare mess.
Charlie Cook, a renowned political analyst, suggests Obama’s presidency
is suffering a “classic case of second term fatigue.”
Bill Clinton saw his second term consumed by a sex scandal, George W.
Bush was brought low by Iraq and Ronald Reagan struggled through the
Iran-Contra scandal.
Obama’s self-inflicted wound is the jammed Affordable Care Act website
and his discredited promise that if Americans liked the health
insurance they already had, they could keep it.
The damage is obvious: Quinnipiac found that by 52-44 percent, people
thought their president was not honest.
“Any elected official with an eight point deficit is in serious
trouble,” Malloy said.
Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney offered the timeworn politician’s trope
that his boss did not “spend a lot of time, worrying about ups and
downs in polls.”
But no president in the last 60 years who has got into deep polling
trouble in their second term has been able to bounce back..
Read the rest of the article at The Raw Story
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