A Left Too Far?

Karlyn Bowman in Forbes:

In late July, the Pew Research Center reported that President Obama had lost significant ground handling the economy and the deficit, with approval ratings on the economy tumbling from 56% in February to 38% in July and approval ratings on the deficit dropping from 50% in April to 32% in July. No single factor explains the erosion except “cumulative sticker shock.” Democrats have misread the mood on the public’s appetite for more government.Americans are generally ambivalent about government. We’re a rich country and we expect Washington to do many things. At the same time, we see our government as wasteful, inefficient, too expensive and expansive. We are conditionally pulled back and forth between those views–but it wasn’t always so.

…..

 During the 2008 campaign, Americans initially supported federal efforts to shore up the financial system, but their skepticism about bank bailouts grew. They opposed the auto rescues from the get go. Initially, they supported the stimulus, but opposition to it, and to the second stimulus plan, has grown. While the deficit is usually an issue with little political intensity, the big numbers bandied about recently in the headlines have gotten people’s attention. And then came health care and headlines about a trillion-dollar price tag over the next decade.

Bowman concludes that the Democrats misread – rather badly – the public mood. All of this has gotten too big to swallow and the public mood is souring on Obama’s big plans.

There’s an old joke that two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do. I suspect the Democrats and Obama have tried to make too many turns to the left and the American electorate is now headed back to the right – with the accelerator pressed to the floor.