The State of Obama’s Union

The thrill is gone.

Wednesday, January 27th at 12:00PM EST

17 Comments

As we approach President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address, it is worth taking a look at where Obama stands with the public one year into The One’s presidency.

As previously discussed here, Obama began his term with higher approval ratings that any president since John F. Kennedy, and lower disapproval ratings of any president except George H. W. Bush. But a year of broken promises, a far-left liberal agenda, and a near neurotic drive to nationalize health care system, the president finds himself in a much different place at the beginning of his second year in office.

Quinnipiac conducted a poll recently on the question of whether Obama has been a success or a failure thus far, and the results were a shocking rebuke of the Administration in general and President Obama in particular. When viewed through the proper lens, the poll shows that America’s white-hot love affair with Obama has burned out, as such things are wont to do, and the country is looking to come back home to the security of a trusted old flame.

BusinessWeek’s editors can’t quite bring themselves to say just how bad the results are for Obama in their report on the poll. But one finding even they can’t gloss over is that when it comes to the president, the public is experiencing a huge case of buyer’s remorse.

U.S. voters are evenly divided on whether President Barack Obama has had a successful opening year in office, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

The survey found 45 percent said Obama’s first year, which began Jan. 20, was a success. The same percentage gauged it a failure. Also, 45 percent approved of Obama’s performance in office and 45 percent disapproved. [...]

Poll respondents were closely divided when asked if the nation would be better off if Republican John McCain had won the 2008 presidential election. Saying yes were 35 percent, while 37 percent said the U.S. would be worse off and 17 percent said it would be about the same. [...]

Obama, a Democrat, gets higher marks as president than his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush. Asked whether Obama has been a better president than Bush, 43 percent said yes, while 30 percent rated him worse and 23 percent about the same.

Now let’s do the math that BusinessWeek is reluctant to do.

52% say the country would be in better or the same shape if John McCain were elected president.

53% rate Obama as worse or no better than George W. Bush.

Those results really speak for themselves.

The poll also found a 57% disapproval rating for the president’s handling of the economy – with a plurality (47%) saying he has not been spending enough time on it – and a 58% disapproval rating of Obama’s handling of health care. No wonder this poll was not publicized widely in the mainstream press.

In the face of this public undressing, the White House plans not a radical course reversal, but rather to double down on its agenda. “Damn the icebergs, full speed ahead!” Sure, the president will make a “hard pivot” to job creation, and spice up his leftist message by paying lip service to spending freezes and “sacrifice.” But he will also continue to press for his widely unpopular government takeover of health care, will propose a government takeover of the student loan industry, will likely support a second economic stimulus modeled on the first unsuccessful one, and will sit by idly while the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 expire later this year. It will be the same agenda wrapped in more austere packaging.

It is against this backdrop that President Obama comes to the rostrum of the House for his first State of the Union. The president himself acknowledged his troubles in an interview this week, defiantly declaring that he would rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre two-term one. He may be on to something. If President Obama continues along the path he is on, he won’t have to worry about giving very many State of the Union speeches.

17 Comments Leave a comment

State of the Union Drinking Game

scottbomb (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 1:28PM EST (link)

On Facebook tonight! See the rules here:

http://www.facebook.com/#/obamadrinkinggame?v=app_4949752878&ref=mf

www.HowObamaGotElected.com

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” – Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

I love the Left's math

revolutionary Wednesday, January 27th at 1:57PM EST (link)

It always come up short of its intended mark. Of course no one wants to discuss the “real” numbers because then they might have to admit a few things they have been ignoring. Things like…oh i don’t know…the voters in Mass were NOT voting in a Republican because they were still angry at another Republican. Or what about that the American people are not quite as stupid as they planned on us being. I mean, how about that for a kink in the chain…there are those of us out here that know what is really going on. We are intelligent, fact-finding citizens who can smell a scam before they put the finishing touches on it. His speech tonight, I fear, is going to be more of the same- just dressed up in a prettier box. It will buy him some time with that 45% of people that call him a success (that hurts just to think it), but the rest of us have taken off the glasses they handed us in the beginning and we see right through the rhetoric.

The fact that he has come out in the last few days proposing a hijacking of the student loan industry and the “freeze” on spending (smoke and mirrors people!) and that he will fight for healthcare reform only proves to me that he has lost touch with reality and simply does not care what the American public wants. He is an arrogant and selfish man and those with buyer’s remorse do not have my sympathy…we tried to tell them this before he was elected, but we were made to look like idiots. Who are the idiots now?

-For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
Jonathan Swift-

-Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights. Because you can’t have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.
Larry Flynt-

-I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.
Harriet Tubman-

can you impeach a President for being stupid?

Alberta (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 2:11PM EST (link)

This is nuts. He is going to go more left? Or at least stay left?

First, anyone with their kids in Harvard should save the money and send them to the local community college, because if this 12 year old idiot President is a product of that school…

Second, if your captain is irrational, can you mutiny?

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
Abraham Lincoln

SOTU Advice? Don't watch.....

Spartan4Life (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 2:38PM EST (link)

Total waste of time to watch this snake oil show. About as substantive as the “Jobs Summit” and “Middle Class Task Force”.

One of the worst things you can do to someone is ignore them and that is my plan for Obama tonight,

I think Ann Coulter said

ofsneocon (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 3:04PM EST (link)

that Democrat’s get elected only after a Republican has been in office so long that the electorate forgets that liberalism is terrible.

that is absolutely right, and the fault of the "supposed" Independents...

JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 3:29PM EST (link)

every 8-12 years the middle mushers forget how bad Liberal/Progressive/Socialist/DEMOCRATS fowl things up and go soft. They have short attention spans and even faultier memories. That, plus, of course, a whole new crop of freshly Indoctrinated school kids that have no clue to pull the JackAss lever as their Teachers have guided them to do – whose votes must always be counter-acted, and it is always a question of whether enough people that do pay attention, remember, know better, get off their lazy hind-sides and get out to ensure they don’t out-vote them and allow the Demoncrats back in.

Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for^? America what they’ve done for^? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit

(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)

The so-called "independents"

scottbomb (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 6:10PM EST (link)

…call themselves that because they don’t know enough about politics to claim a party identity. They think they’re safe ignoring party platforms and hard facts and just voting based on how they “feel” about a person. They’re the ones who will tell you “all politicians are the same” or “they’re all crooks”, etc.

How else do you explain the election of a hard-left politician with absolutely no executive experience and keeps his past employment information (as a professor) a secret? That’s like me, a lowly salesman, applying to be CEO of the company and no, you can’t see my resume. Nor will I prove that I’m authorized to work in the US ;o)

www.HowObamaGotElected.com

53% say Obama no better than Bush

texasgalt (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 3:16PM EST (link)

Mr Soros, how can this be? Oh, you dont care – you are still short the dollar.

sooner than later, someone is gonna be Vince Fostered by this Admin....

JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 3:33PM EST (link)

(Vince Foster) — which is the real reason many Democrats are afraid of crossing this current crop of RADICAL SOCIALISTS. With unrepentant Terrorists still arguing they didn’t “do enough” death and destruction upon the American System (with bombs and bullets) – what makes anyone think they are waiting in the wings to start up again soon to their own that oppose them. SOMEONE WILL BE MADE EXAMPLE OF!!!!

and keep an eye of Sandy Bergers sock drawer (nt)

JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 3:35PM EST (link)

SOTU....EXPECT

reelman (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 4:04PM EST (link)

OBAMA SOTU…EXPECT

So its already been a year of smiling promises and all the answers (via Alinksy…secular socialism) given. We all know how the economy and the taxpayer wallets have been looted. Debt 4x and still 2x the jobless despite the diaper-changing media daily spin. Tired of the sissy blame shifting, voters are wacking the (in denial) socialist party at the ballot box. Taxes galore loom.
Now here comes the SOTU speech. Expect some small short term measures. This is a discomforting strain for the Alinsky-ites so it will be lauded to no end. Businesses will not be hopeful long range so there you go with hope. Why do tax breaks have such a short life when the demo-socialists are in power? (Answer: they hate them, all $$$ is for gov-meant to buy votes)
Expect some snide or near cryptic code about how “its really really not the fault of a demo-socialist party congress that has run the show since Jan. 2007?. Hey, is been a full 3 years of socialist power, not a year. Its one of those facts the media bury deep. Three years.
Bush went along with the demo-socialist spending which stamps him forever as not helpful when he should have vetoed all that demo-debt. That in no way excuses the folks that put those huge bills on his desk in the 1st place and those folks are still there cranking out more of them which Obama will sign with glee.
Expect Obama to act like he really WAS unaware that the voters were upset. Obama, the guy that said Brown won because of the SAME anger that elected him, will pretend he “has heard the message”. Do NOT expect Obama to announce support for keeping the Bush tax cuts after this year. That will tell you all you want to know.
Expect him to say the freeze of about 11% of the budget (after signing off on the 12% rise last year) will be wonderful. LOL.
Expect Obama to cry that he and his administration are working sooooo hard.
Expect Obama to try to reduce the “I and me” words to a few dozen instead of a hundred. Its His way. Arrogance is like that.
Expect the diaper-changing media to praise his “moves” (beyond his mouth) for weeks.
Expect the basic laws of economics to be ignored and the economy to remain on its knees…a la J. Carter Obama.
The true believers in secular socialism will remain so…only tactics change.
http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

“Ignore what is said, watch what is done”
The problem is congress…is congress…
Secular Socialism is never the answer…
“This is where we hold them, this is where we fight”
The “reelman” in central Louisiana

Don't forget...

piratecoastbucs Wednesday, January 27th at 6:23PM EST (link)

Expect him to deflect blame and attach himself to everything anyone might find positive.

He may take credit for winning the American Revolution.

I bet he will justify virtually placing the U.S. in to the #2 spot in the science of space by saying that he has been to the moon already, or that Gods like himself don’t need rockets to be above the people of earth.

I wouldn’t be shocked if he takes credit for JFK (would be a Red State Conservative today) and Reagan tax cuts.

But look out for when he blames ‘W’ for the Vikings loss, among, well, everything else bad.

I hope for Statement of resignation SOTU

snowshooze (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 4:38PM EST (link)

Awww..don’t spoil my dream….then it would be Biden…then Pelosi..

SOTU is really (SOOTPRS) the State Of Oblahblah's TelePrompter Reading Skills address ;-) (nt)

JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 5:13PM EST (link)

Is it wrong???

piratecoastbucs Wednesday, January 27th at 6:12PM EST (link)

This from an AP story about why Hillary is ditching the SOTU, stating that it isn’t for continuity reasons… Anyway it discusses why some members of the cabinet are not present in the event of:

“a catastrophe wiping out the rest of the government leadership in the Capitol during the address”

One question… Is it wrong that I got a ‘tingly feeling running up my leg’ when I read this?

OK, fine. I hope nothing happens… It’s called humor people.

Can you direct me to it?

snowshooze (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 7:01PM EST (link)

I can’t find that one, she is in London at conference, but I couldn’t find this exact piece…
Thanks,
Mark

It might be interesting if:

anotherindyfilmguy (Diary) Wednesday, January 27th at 7:42PM EST (link)

Someone unplugged the TOTUS halfway through the speech…

The O has to shout down Democrats yelling for impeachment…

The O’s speechwriter decided to “quit memorably” with this speech…

The live audience decides it is “question time” for almost every point…

The O announces that he’s returning to his old job as a professor effective Monday…

When the O announces cutting NASA Democrats yell “You’re no JFK!!!”… Then continue with chants of “JFK not LBJ” until dragged from the room…

The opposition response is short, very short and ends with something like: “and tomorrow we begin debate on the motion for impeachment proceedings”.

Santorum? Well, at least he’s not Romney…
http://www.zazzle.com/enemy_of_the_statist_tshirt-235977043035297478