Obama: I don’t quit
It was James Carville who gave us one of the most memorable lines of the 1992 presidential campaign: It’s the economy, stupid. Of course the economy wasn’t nearly as bad then as it is now, but Bill Clinton won when President Bush seemed to lose his way.
While I haven’t heard anyone using the line lately, it certainly seems to fit now more than then. Of course we now have Democrats in charge.
The malaise goes beyond the economy, of course. Health care bills we don’t want, a climate bill we don’t need and a decision to try a terrorist in New York that we just don’t understand.
I find a good place to gauge the malaise is not at the water cooler at work, but at rasmussemreports.com. By polling likely voters, Scott Rasmussen has hit the nail on the head over and over, including the last two presidential races and the recent Scott Brown win in Massachusetts.
Take a look at some of these findings:
61% Say Congress Doing a Poor Job
59% Say Cut Taxes to Create Jobs, 14% Expect Congress to Listen
9% Expect Obama’s Spending Freeze To Have Big Impact on Deficit
President Obama’s approval numbers as of yesterday were at -17, two points lower than before his State of the Union Address. But like George Bush I, he just doesn’t get it. On Wednesday night he boldly proclaimed, “I don’t quit.” He apparently believes pressing on with his agenda is the right thing to do, and if we were all a little smarter we’d see it, too.
From the New York Post earlier this week:
President Barack Obama told a group of House Democrats not to fear big losses in the 2010 midterm elections similar to those in 1994, saying House Democrats didn’t have him to lean on back then, Rep. Marion Berry (D-AR) told a newspaper Monday.
Berry told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “I’ve been doing that [pointing out concerns about 2010] with this White House, and they just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all. They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’”
