Leftward Lurch Not Playing Well
Moreover, the poll sampled all adults, not merely voters or even likely voters in 2010. It is quite possible that among actual voters Obama’s numbers are far worse.
Why does all of this matter? At the time in which Obama is thrusting himself forward to “sell” government-centric health care, his credibility on that on other issues is skidding. Furthermore, lawmakers can read these numbers too. They understand that the public is losing faith in a government-run health-care scheme and in the massive tax plan that would be needed to fund it. There is a reason lawmakers of both parties are openly challenging Obama’s timetable and vision for a massive health-care reform effort.
Meanwhile, the administration appears to be panicking, resorting to every trick in the book to stem the tide of discontent over its leftward drift.
This is in response to the latest poll that shows Obama slipping – badly – in the public’s opinion of his handling of pretty much everything.
Here’s what I suspect at this point. Obama and the Democrats in Congress thought the recession – despite the banking crisis – would play out in much the same way as most recessions. That is, the situation would right itself fairly rapidly. Therefore, they passed a “stimulus” bill that was nothing more than a laundry list of leftist funding schemes. The expected outcome was that the economy would turn around anyway, but that they would get all the credit by “saving the day” with their funding porkfest.
What the Democrats did not count on was Obama’s outright theft of two American car companies, shafting the investors and giving the proceeds to unions. These two thefts essentially killed investor confidence. (That and Pelosi’s near-psychopathic response to the AIG bonuses. Ex post facto laws tend to make investors extremely nervous.)
And that made the recession into something much different – and quite a lot worse – than what the Democrats expected. Now they are looking at internal poll numbers that tell them that the game is up and they are in serious trouble.
Speculation on my part, but I think it is a pretty good theory that explains a lot of what we are seeing.
By Uncle Fester, July 20, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
Democrats delenda est!
By Plumpplumber(balding), July 20, 2009 @ 6:39 pm
Some of my customers have had a lot to say about what has happened to our confidence in the markets. I personally believe that Ooover is a marxist, because he has done so much economic damage do quickly. I enjoy reading your blog, and I get a kick out of your suggestion that he went way left on the democrats. Okay, but only a border line fool would ignore the influences in his life. Even the Bible tells you that. So, I firmly hope that he can be stopped.
By Ropelight, July 21, 2009 @ 9:12 am
As public support for Obama and his several boondoggles continues to sink faster than real estate values in Detroit, I look for the Chicago machine man to double down. I know, I know, any reasonably intelligent high school drop-out knows that backing obvious losers is a sure fire way to go belly-up, especially in our current economic morass.
But, ya got to call um like you see um, and that’s how I expect Obama to react. In the face of obvious public rejection of his idiot health care nostrums, he’ll just push harder and harder, till he turns blue in the face.
By martian, July 21, 2009 @ 1:06 pm
Most of the recession belonged to the Democrats from the outset – despite their successfull assignment of the blame to the Bush Administration with the help of the Democratic Party Propaganda Ministry (MSM). And I think Gaius is right, they expected the economists to be right. Economists were predicting a recovery starting mid 2009 if the government did NOTHING – no stimulus, no bailouts, nada. The problem is they couldn’t resist using the recession as an excuse to create and pass their pork laden Spendulous Package, followed by the infamous Pork Bill – all aimed at paying off Democratic Party supporters. The problem is that the DPPM did its job too well. Investors got nervous. Big money players got nervous. Then they looked at the deficit the Democrats were gleefully accumulating and got even more nervous. Even regular people who weren’t investors cut back on their spending, hoarding what they have. More money moved out of circulation. Now we are in the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression and are still headed down and Obama and his disciples have no clue how to put on the brakes. Their whole scheme is coming back on them. Growing numbers of people are no longer believing that his is all Bush’s fault. The Democrats are having to take ownership of the economy despite the best efforts of the DPPM. And the panic is beginning to set in.