Tuesday, July 14, 2009

ObamA Administration: Hope to Change Perceptions

And not doing a very good job at it.
President Obama’s approval rating has fallen six points in the past month, a new CBS News poll finds, amid growing skepticism about his handling of the economy and questions about the impact of the stimulus package.

The president’s current approval rating, which is 57 percent, is still relatively high. But it has fallen 11 points from its peak of 68 percent in April, and has also dropped since last month’s mark of 63 percent. His disapproval rating, meanwhile, has risen from 23 percent in April to 32 percent today.
That is CBS trying to put a decent spin on poll numbers that are in free fall. Yes 57 percent approval is far better than President Bush enjoyed in his second term, but Obama has fallen 11 points in just three months.

The fact is that as we move further and further from January 20, 2009, the hard it becomes for the Obama Administration to claim that the problems were started by Bush. President Obama's highly touted plans and stimulus package do not appear to be garnering any fans and the constant intrusion and government creep in to private enterprise must have a fair number of people getting nervous.

The flip side of the notion of "too big to fail" is that no company is so big that the government can't step in to correct matters as it sees fit. If the government can take over General Motors and their legion of lobbyists, lawyers and contributors, what is to stop the government from stepping in to take over some small business or worse, put that small business out of business.

Similarly, the pace of Obama's legislative agenda and push to pass legislation without some much as allowing Representatives to read it has made people nervous. While people may grumble about the inability of Congress to get anything done, I think a happy medium of deliberative action, with time for reflection and investigation, is much more palatable than the break neck speed of legislation that Obama has pursued.

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