Dear Billy, Thank you for brightening my day with that article!
// Lennart! On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 12:34 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > from the site : Sphere > > Opinion: A Case of Buyer's Remorse > > (Jan. 20) – It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a pollster to know that > Americans are not happy with Washington. The honeymoon that greeted > President Obama a year ago today has degenerated into hypercriticism, deep > anxiety and downright anger. > > That may sound more like a high-profile Hollywood divorce than a political > analysis, yet in some ways that's exactly what Americans are going through > right now. Make no mistake: Americans were giddy about getting rid of George > W. Bush and Dick Cheney, but they are clearly suffering from buyer's remorse > a year later. > > The seeds of Obama's current political dilemma were sown the day of his > inauguration. The expectations heaped on his shoulders were clearly > impossible to sustain, and there was little effort by his administration to > dampen the "hope" that had propelled him from first-term senator to first > African-American president. And when those expectations weren't met, someone > had to be held accountable. > > Polling done over the past 30 days paints a very clear picture of a > president who has fallen short of expectations: > > • Only 39 percent of the country would vote to re-elect Obama, according to > a National Journal poll, while 50 percent would "definitely" or "probably" > vote for someone else. This is significant. George W. Bush is the only > candidate in modern times to win re-election with less than half of the > country expressing a desire to re-elect him. > > • According to Gallup, Obama has suffered the greatest fall in approval of > any elected president since the company started ongoing tracking during the > Eisenhower administration. Obama came into office with the approval of two > out of every three voters (67 percent) but ended his first year with just > half the electorate (50 percent) offering a positive evaluation of his > performance. Only the unelected Gerald Ford fared worse in the court of > public opinion. > > • It's not just the Obama agenda that is under attack. It is his philosophy > that has America balking. For example, Americans are increasingly returning > to the conservative ideology they held before the perceived failures of the > Bush administration crushed conservative self-identification levels. > According to Gallup, fully 40 percent of Americans now identify themselves > as conservative, compared with just 21 percent who call themselves liberal. > > • And finally, while the Republican brand has barely moved since its > electoral disasters of 2006 and 2008 and remains unpopular, Democratic > popularity has collapsed as well. Most surveys now have the GOP even or even > slightly ahead in the generic congressional ballot, and Americans now see > the Republicans to be as good if not better in handling the economy. > > But the single most damning polling result doesn't mention Obama or his > administration or even government in general. Rather, it's the collapse of > intergenerational optimism that had characterized American attitudes and > driven the American spirit of achievement for more than half a century. > > Only 12 percent of Americans believe their "quality of life" is worse today > than when their parents were their age, but nearly half (44 percent) believe > their children will be worse off than them. Worse yet, 57 percent believe > their children will "inherit a worse America." Once the most hopeful nation > on the globe, we are now a pessimistic nation to our core. > > But after all the polling and focus groups have concluded and all the > conflicting opinions recorded, in the end it is the American people who > rightfully have the last word. In no less than three states that voted for > Obama just one year ago (New Jersey, Virginia and yesterday in > Massachusetts), voters replaced their Democratic representatives with > Republicans. > > That says more than any pollster ever could. > _______________________ > Frank Luntz is the author of the New York Times bestseller > "What Americans Really Want ... Really." > _______________________________________________ > Centroids mailing list: [email protected] > http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com > Archives at > http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/ _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
