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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jules Witcover
Obama's Approval Ratings (© Jennifer Kohnke)
One of the first political themes of the new year is the speculation that President Obama after less than a year in office is already on the skids, and that his
Such talk is widely heard despite the fact that it has also been less than a year since arguably one of American history's worst presidents left office, leaving in his wake two wars, one of which he unnecessarily started, and the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression.
Obama's own early performance undoubtedly has contributed to the speculation. As a matter of personal style or policy ambiguity, he has sounded a somewhat uncertain trumpet in his cool and calm response to the crises he faces. The buck, as Harry Truman liked to say, does stop at the president's desk.
But the apparent collective memory lapse of American voters about what had gone before, at least as those whose sentiments have been measured by the pollsters, may be a factor as well, perhaps inadvertently assisted by Obama himself.
His early edict to his own administration team and to Democrats in
Largely relieving the Republicans in
Fairly recent history supports the Republican hope that the fickleness of the American voter will work in their favor. Ever since one of the lowest points in
Only four years after that debacle, in which the last rites of the
Next, after Nixon and his corrupt vice president, Spiro Agnew, had brought the
Now, a year after George W. Bush left the
Actually it is not so much that the party itself is seeing a resurrection -- its numbers in truth are also dismal. Voter disenchantment with Obama appears to be making voting Republican a digestible option again, so soon after the Democratic recoveries at the polls in 2006 and 2008.
When Goldwater in 1964 was snowed under by Lyndon Johnson, many crepe-hangers of the day pronounced the death of the party of Lincoln. But as Mark Twain famously once observed that "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," so apparently can it be said once again of a bloodied but unbowed
If so, the Democrats and Obama himself can take a share of the credit by volunteering effectively to give the
The Democrats for years have been accused of being soft on defense. By ruling criticism of past
AMERICAN POLITICS
WORLD | AFRICA | ASIA | EUROPE | LATIN AMERICA | MIDDLE EAST | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS
2010 Elections & Short Voter Memories | Jules Witcover
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