Posted by
"Mind and Morals" Michael Coyne on Friday, March 13, 2009 3:18:00 PM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690358175013837.html
Shocked? Don’t be.
For those of you who didn’t bother to click the link above,
I’ll synopsize: President Obama’s approval ratings have slipped from 65% on
January 21 to 56% as of March 12, according to Rasmussen Reports. That’s a
10-point drop in two months. Ouch!
Now, I’ll ask again: Shocked? Don’t be.
There is a reason that Republicans warned America about
Obama’s Carter-esque leanings during the campaign. We’ve seen this picture
before: threats of nationalization, a stock market in free fall, taxes on the
rise, and government promises that they can fix it all. Sure.
But, as I said, this is not new territory. In 1982—Carter
just finished up his roll in the hay with Speaker O’Neil and Reagan was taking
over—the
unemployment rates were at approximately 10.2 percent. That’s roughly two
points higher than it is now. And, prior to the 1980 election, Congress showed
no signs of slowing down on the spending and accompanying tax hikes that marked
Carter’s four years.
Plus, according to former Clinton advisor Dick Morris, the national
deficit has reached approximately 15 percent of America’s GDP. For comparison,
Japan’s national deficit never topped 10 percent during their downturn.
President Obama has proven himself good at only one thing thus far: spending
our money. Most Americans are against spending projects in general, and therefore
disapprove of all of the astronomical spending projects—such as the $3.6
trillion budget—that have come to symbolize the President’s agenda.
Now, realistically, 56 percent is not really something to worry about.
If Obama were to change course now and to actually cut wasteful spending, as he
promised to do during the campaign, he could realistically maintain solid
approval ratings. But I do not see that happening.
My prediction: President Obama will continue to cater to Speaker
Pelosi and her far-left cabal, and this slight dip in the polls is but mere
foreshadowing of what’s to come. By the end of the year, the President’s
approval ratings will be below the 45 percent mark. Possibly lower, depending
on how the foreign policy situations pan out. But primarily based on economics
and Democratic budgeting, the Obama administration will grind to a PR halt just
as quickly as the Obamamania hype began.