Last post for Tri 1! - Due Fri 11/8
This is your last post for Tri 1! It is due on Friday, November 8th.
Last week you answered the question, "Does Obama have the popularity (with the US public, the US' allies, &/or with Congress) or support to get more of his agenda accomplished and if so what should he be focusing on and why? If Obama does not have enough popularity to get much done, what should he do to try to regain support? What's your advice for the president?"
Pick someone to respond to for this post that you have NEVER responded to this tri. React to how they answered the prompt. Use at least 1 piece of new research in your answer. Remember Wikipedia is NOT an academic source.
At the end of the Tri you will pick 1 original post and 1 response post you will submit as your best examples of your writing.
Thanks for an engaging conversation about current events this trimester.
Labels: political capital, popularity, president
posted by maby-keirstead @ 7:29 AM
39 Comments:
In regards to Jessica’s post regarding President Obama, I agree completely. I also believe that although Americans may not be directly blaming President Obama for the government shutdown, they feel that it is part of his job to navigate the hard times. I also agree that the main reason his popularity has declined is due to the NSA scandal and the Syrian air strike debacle. It seems that many Americans are tired of these scandals coming up and the president not really addressing them. The Presidents approval rating has continued its decline down to 41% despite the government being open and not any new scandals [1]. I also do not believe that the President will be able to do any more serious legislation. I doubt he will be able to garner much support on many of his issues as those in his party are beginning to look at the 2016 election already. The Democrats are not looking to take any risks leading up to the election. The only possible way I can see the president passing anything of substance is if the House flips to the Democrats after the midterm and I highly doubt that will happen [2]. It seems that President Obama is slowly ending his ride as president and will not make any more significant proposals.
xoxo,
gossip Spencer
[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx
[2] http://www.americamagazine.org/content/unconventional-wisdom/could-democrats-take-house-2014-eh%E2%80%A6
In response to Spencer's post, I completely support the plan that he put forward for President Obama to regain the support of the American people. I was unaware of the fact that Obama's current approval rating is only 43% (1). I think that one thing that significantly affected his approval ratings was the recent scandal that was uncovered about the NSA. Apparently, the NSA has been spying on some of the U.S.' closest allies (2). Although Obama first claimed to have no idea it was going on, I agree with Spencer that this makes him look weak and uninformed about what is going on near him. I believe that the plan that Spencer created for Obama would really help him in regaining support. Spencer suggests that the President needs to focus on passing legislation regarding issues that are considered safe and will be supported by Republicans. This is crucial because with the split Congress, it makes it even harder to gather support. According to a presidential tracking poll, one of the main reasons why Americans' mistrust in the government and in Obama specifically has decreased regards Obamacare. Therefore, I think its important for Obama to try to avoid any controversial discussion of Obamacare, which will no doubt be extremely difficult. In fact, President Obama's top health official told the Senate Finance Committee this week that delaying Obamacare is out of the question because there are sick Americans relying on the reforms (4). Hopefully, Obama will be able to avoid any controversy that will further lower his approval ratings. Instead of proposing legislation that leans quite heavily towards the liberal side, he should work on passing moderate legislation for the present time until Americans realize that he really is doing all that he can. I agree with Spencer on the fact that he should really go on a public image campaign, and remind the American people why we elected him as our President for two terms in a row in the first place.
[1] http://realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
[2] http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/28/21209499-us-coping-with-furious-allies-as-nsa-spying-revelations-grow?lite
[3] http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
[4] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/6/sebelius-apologizes-obamacare-delay-not-option/
In response to Tyler J's post, I would agree with most of what he has to say. I too believe that his popularity among allies, Congress, and the American public is going down the drain. Many issues have really hurt him, including his countless scandals. It is hard to have trust in him when he is doing these things to allies and citizens. Like Tyler stated, the ones that hurt him the most were Obamacare and Syria. At no point did Obama have a clear majority on the Syria issue, and he is only becoming more and more isolated on his stance. (1). Furthering his war plans there will only isolate him further and further until the point where he is out of touch with people. The recent passage of Obamacare has also been a major failure. The number of people receiving cancellation notices from their insurers rose to more than 3.5 million, in spite of President Obama’s pledge that Americans could keep their plans if they liked them (2). This is very upsetting to people who were told that they weren't losing their insurers. Like T-Johns also said, he must be responsible for these actions, and hold people accountable, especially himself. He must also divert attention away from these issues (if he even can.) As more and more time goes by, it seems the situation is only getting worse and worse for the President.
Works cited
(1)http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/09/us-usa-syria-crisis-obama-analysis-idUSBRE98800U20130909
(2)http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/4/problems-and-excuses-mount-for-obamacare/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
I wholeheartedly agree with Caroline B's post. Obama's lame duck session seems to have begun prematurely due to all of the apparent failures that have been exploded by the media. As stated before, the NSA leaks, government shutdown, Syria, and the Obamacare issues have all culminated in a disastrous 2nd term. As of last week, Obama's approval rating sat at an unprecedented 42%, but as of today, it has dipped down to a mere 39% (1). Obama's lack of support 2 years into his second term makes it nearly impossible to generate any more huge wins before he must resign the oval office. Caroline points out many key reasons as to why Obama will not be able to regain the momentum he once had. Besides the numerous domestic policy failures in the past year, Obama is no longer very popular with his allies. The NSA leaks, coupled with tensions in Syria, have put Obama in a terrible position on the world stage. Even if Obama were to regain enough public support in the next few months to increase his approval, the lack of enthusiasm from our closest allies will inevitably leave his foreign policy endevours at a standstill. And, as if that weren't enough, even if Obama could somehow overcome the glaring public disapproval, and the lack of strong bilateral ties, he still faces the problem of an uncompromising Congress. President Obama surly has put up a good fight, but it seems as though he is down for the count, and it looks like it will remain that way for the rest of his term. If there is anything left of him to do, it's smile, wave, and try to save some face.
(1) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/05/poll-obamas-approval-rating-dips-below-40-percent/
I agree with Alyssa in that the whole government is down right now and that in know. This doesn’t help the president, because in the American System of government each section of the government needs the other groups to do their job so they can get things done. According to a an article by the Huffington post the congressional approval rating is at a five percent, five percent (1). This approval rating is by far the lowest congress has ever had, and it really shows the failure of the government as a whole; people want to put the weight of bad government on the president but the president can only do so much without the other members of the government working together or efficiently. I agree with Alyssa that Obama needs to start making himself look better in the public eye, because if people start to like him again then he will have a little bit of leverage to get things back in order, and make progress. I believe people put to much weight on Obama One man can’t stall a government with over a thousand officials everybody is at fault. All Obama can do is improve his public image and go from there.
1.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/congress-approval-rating_n_4069899.html
I agree with Jack F when he says that Obama needs to take some serious measures to get the support of the Americans back. As I stated in my post Obama's disapproval rate which is 54% is higher than his approval rate which is 45%. Obama has not been going in the right direction lately when it comes to issues that matter the most to the Americans. I also agree with Jack when he says that Obama needs to be more honest with the public. If Obama continues to hide the truth it's only going to come back and bite him in the butt. I will say that Obama has made some good decisions regarding specific issues but overall when it comes down to the issues that really effect the public, like the attack on Syria. As the president of the United States he needs to make sure he's taking the public interest into account.
1)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/obama-approval_n_3453012.html
In response to Patrick B.’s comment: I really liked his emphasis on statistics, specifically the one about the percentage of Americans who want to replace their Congressperson due to dissatisfaction with that Congressperson’s performance. That statistic in particular sheds some much-needed light on the true meaning of President Obama’s approval and disapproval ratings. However, despite the fact that Congress’s disapproval rating is ten percent greater than the president’s, Obama’s ability to pass legislation is much more dependent upon his ratings. Although, as Patrick said, the president may be able to pass bills that are bipartisan in nature, those bills are almost always inconsequential, so I have some doubts as to whether or not Obama will ever reach the point at which he can pursue the agenda he had before his approval went down so much. I believe that the president will have to greatly curtail the ambitiousness in all parts of his agenda and will therefore be relatively ineffective from now on even if he does regain his ability to pass legislation: most of Congress is looking ahead to the next elections at this point, so unless the House somehow falls to the Democrats in the midterms, or some other miraculous change occurs that forces Congress to comply with the president, I am not confident that Obama will ever truly regain his pre-catastrophe standings.
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/unconventional-wisdom/could-democrats-take-house-2014-eh…
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/05/poll-obamas-approval-rating-dips-below-40-percent/
I agree with Mara’s view on Obama’s current abilities as president. Obviously, his approval ratings have dropped substantially in the last few months. They now hover around 43% (1). I agree that this is definitely from all the issues that have recently been in the news. Like Mara noted, I think that one of his huge falters was when information about the NSA spying on Americans was leaked (2). It also did not help that a couple months later we learned that the NSA was also spying on leaders in our allied countries (2). I agree with Mara that when Congress has a split majority like ours does, it is the president’s job to get them to cooperate with each other. I don’t think Obama has been doing the best job at mediating the House and the Senate. Mara’s suggestion for Obama to better explain previous and future policies is a good idea. Many Americans lack the political efficacy to understand the complicated levels of policies. If Obama better explained what each policy was trying to achieve, more Americans may realize they agree with his ideas and will back him up. This will lead to higher approval for him and a higher understanding for our country. Being on the same page with Americans is the best thing Obama can do right now.
1.http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx
2. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/29/politics/obamacare-nsa/
In regard to Caroline H., I completely agree with her. She talked about Obama's low job approval rating, and what has happened that gave him that rating- the NSA scandal, the issues with his healthcare act, and the whole Syrian conflict (1).The NSA scandal really shook people's reality of the way things were, which unsettled a lot of people. Most were content to just know that the government was looking into potential terrorism and protecting the nation from possible harm. Now that everyone knows how they have been doing that, there is a lot less trust placed in the government, which contributes to his low job ratings. The issues that Obama had rolling out his healthcare plan also shook people a little. Although there was much debate on whether or not to even implement it, I do think that those who would really benefit from it were excited and thankful. But when it had complications, some of their gratitude changed into frustration which also explains Obama's ratings being in the 40% range. Then there was the Syrian conflict, which was just a disaster for Obama. Not only did he visibly not have the backing of Congress, he also failed to see the opinions of the majority in wanting to attack Syria. This hurt his ratings by making people think that he may not always have their interests in mind. Because of these low performance ratings, I agree that it is safe to say that Obama has become a lame duck, and if he isn't yet, then he soon will be. I also agree with Caroline H's advice to the president- to focus on noncontroversial issues and work with the Republican party, who are also trying to improve their ratings (1). If the president stays away from the controversial issues for a while and focuses on things that the public supports, eventually his job ratings will increase (2).
(1) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/us/politics/obamas-approval-rating-matches-two-year-low-poll-shows.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
(2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/07/03/how-obamas-job-approval-rating-isnt-influenced-by-the-likability-question/
In response to Elizabeth A's post, I completely agree with all of her statements and facts. The government is definitely looking for ways to recover from the government shutdown and I believe Obama can help them with that. By sponsoring "a few noncontroversial bills that will easily pass... then push for more important policies" I agree that his overall approval will improve drastically. He needs to slow down his roll and then slowly reintroduce himself into the public mind as a strong political figure. Regaining a positive image outside of purely political press will give him more credibility to continue his agenda before he becomes a sitting duck. As Elizabeth mentioned, "[Obama's] polling numbers have fallen for everyone, especially the Republicans, who are at an all-time low of 22%." There needs to be more bipartisanship in the senate and house in order for Obama to be successful. As mentioned before, if he slows down his political agenda and attempts to regain some positive public attention I believe both sides would be more willing to come and work together to work on the government's overall approval. Obama has made a few mistakes during his presidency, but so has every other president in the past. I believe it is time to move on and focus on what he plans on doing in the future before he becomes sitting duck. The best thing to do is keep positive outlook on the government as a whole and find ways to step up and be the best citizen possible.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/05/poll-obamas-approval-rating-dips-below-40-percent/
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/50195/comment-page-1
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/30/21252250-nbcwsj-poll-obama-approval-sinks-to-new-low
I agree with Caroline B’s post that Obama does not have the popularity with the public, U.S. allies, or Congress. Obama has reached his all-time low approval rating which was below 45% (2). This is a huge change compared to his 82% approval rating from 2008 (2). I agree with Caroline B that issues that have come up like government shutdown, Obamacare, and the NSA spying on European leaders have made some impacts to his ratings (1). I also agree with her that he has not made any major wins lately and that things have gone the other direction for him. During the time when things were becoming more politically brighter for Obama, the issue with the Obamacare website occurred (1). During this time, even though government shutdown was something majority of the public disapproved, polls showed that most Americans had blamed the shutdown on the Republicans not Obama (1). This made it seem like Obama had more support and was going to be able to refocus Americans on his priorities (1). With the issue of the Obamacare website however, it lost people’s confidence on the healthcare (2). Obama in this case should have had someone checking on the website to make sure it was working properly. I also agree with Caroline that the NSA spying on European leaders has brought distrust with our allies and strained our relationships with them. Obama does not have popularity with Congress either since they are holding back his nominations, like for the federal court as Caroline B had stated. Caroline B also mentioned that Congress has not been giving Obama anything. I think that this is evident with the fact that Congress has refused to agree on some basic issues, like raising the debt ceiling which is something Congress has done multiple times before (1). Obama’s proposals that he has outlined in his State of Union like the immigration reform, universal background checks for gun purchases, and income tax reforms, are not going to be accomplished unless he tries to gain popularity in Congress (1). Caroline B states that Obama should go after popular, non-controversial issues. I support her point on this. While doing this, I think that Obama should also take the issues one by one for a while so that he can slowly gain back some support from the people and not trying to fix too many problems all at once. As Caroline B had said, Obama needs to get out of his lame duck period. He is heading toward the end of his final term, and he needs to work on getting his agenda accomplished (1). I agree on the fact that he needs to recreate his image. He needs to continue working on his image to make himself more like the candidate who was first elected for president back in 2008 and for 2012, when his approval rating was higher (2). If he were to work on his image more, he can gain back some of the support that he has lost. This would show the public he is still the candidate that they had voted for and help relieve some of the doubts they have.
1. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/01/opinion/obeidallah-obamas-next-act/index.html?hpt=op_bn6
2. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/01/opinion/morris-obama-voter-despair/index.html?hpt=op_bn6
In response to Vincent’s post, I agree that Obama needs to move on to the offensive. I also agree that Obama needs to refocus his efforts on issues he knows he can win on. He needs to be seen getting legislation passed because the public is very frustrated with the government for its lack of any significant attempts to stop the spiral the government has entered. The chief issue that has people upset is the surveillance the NSA used to obtain information about the public (1). I agree with Vincent that Obama would be better off making some changes in the NSA to show the public that he doesn’t approve of their spying. This would help raise his rating among those who believe he is not trustworthy because of how he allowed the NSA to spy in the first place. However, I disagree with Vincent that the new NSA should have a Republican majority. If Obama were to give high offices in the NSA to Republicans he would be upsetting his own party members who would have expected the jobs to fall to them. He would also open the door for the republicans to turn the NSA in a direction he doesn’t want it to go into, just to spite him. This is not unprecedented for Republicans, an example being the shutdown. I also agree that Obama needs to put forward some ideas that everybody is in favor of, and only then can he gain popularity both with the public and with Congress. I think Vincent has a great idea of how to put people back to work. His letter reader idea would help Obama’s public image because he would be seen helping those who are unemployed. It would also be almost impossible to argue against because it creates jobs and solves an organizational problem in government. This would be an excellent program and would defiantly help Obama regain support from the American people.
1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/obama-approval_n_3453012.html
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I agree with Calvin M’s, that Obama’s approval rating is suffering primarily because of the NSA leaks and the healthcare website problems, but in contrast I do think that there will be an overall positive legacy from this time period. If the worst thing that is happening in this country right now is the government watching our computers and temporarily shutting down while trying to create a nationalized health care system, we can count ourselves lucky, . Regarding what Obama should do to gain more support and accomplish more of his agenda, I agree with Calvin M; Obama should focus on less polarized issues to get something done with the divided Congress, but I believe would be difficult to find such issues. After the government shutdown ended, Obama tried to refocus on a long-term budget, immigration reform and passing a farm bill (1). The problems with the healthcare website have made it difficult for the federal government to get reach any consensus on these issues however. Currently it is predicted that nothing else is going to be done regarding any major issues this legislative year because the polarization of both parties over the healthcare issue has carried over rendering both parties unwilling to compromise. While in theory it would make sense to focus on issues that have bipartisan support in a divided Congress, currently few if any issues have the non-polarized quality that is necessary for significant progress
1.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/10/obama-agenda-hinges-on-health-care-fixes.html
This post is made in reference to Caroline H’s, whom I am officially replying to with this post. First note: You did not establish your opinion. This has given me limited room to work with. Onto Obama. Regardless of your opinions, I still hold that Obama has been dealt a bad hand. He’s had insurance companies quit on their customers because of his Affordable Healthcare act, even though they didn’t need to(1). Also, at least according to the liberal NPR, he really shouldn’t worry about his ratings numbers(2). As they’ve quite accurately noted, this is his last term period, and he’s never behaved as if he had a friendly congress to work with. Furthermore, Congress’ ratings suck even worse, and it may be one of the few times where Congress gains members friendly to the Democrats. Though he’s had a rough time of it, I’m not sure how much better other folks would do in this kind of situation. Again, it’s a kind of ‘wait-and-see’ situation. Nothing can be told at this time yet. He’s trying to make amends for the actions of other people, and, honestly, my heart kind of goes out to him. I don’t want President Obama to only be noted for the fact that he’s the first African-American we’ve had for president. It feels like there’s more trying to be in these terms, but they just aren’t happening. Yet, that is. We’ve got some room left, so, until the end, let’s see how it goes.
(1)http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/07/obama-apologizes-to-americans-losing-health-plans/
(2)http://www.npr.org/2013/11/07/243583805/why-obama-shouldnt-worry-about-his-lousy-poll-numbers
In response to Sam’s post, in which he stated that Obama really has to regain support of the citizens before he can hope to advance his own agenda, I have to say that I fully agree. As Sam said, only a very small portion of the American population actually believe that Obama cares about their needs, and this is certainly affecting his ability to promote his agenda. Sam also brought up a good point about how Obama could try to raise public opinion of him; he could try to be more honest. In the NSA scandal, Obama’s reaction was that he simply didn’t know it was happening, which I personally find hard to believe, and no doubt a large majority of Americans feel the same way. If Obama isn’t honest to the people, how can he expect them to support him? He did take one step towards this by apologizing for various failures of his healthcare system as it stands now (1), but it is going to take more than this to regain face with the American public. I also agree with Sam in that if Obama gave a speech, explaining his motives and what he plans to do, he may be able to use it to persuade members of society to believe him again. In addition to these things, I also agree that Obama needs to be seen by the public working to fix his mistakes; he needs to make sure the American people know he is working for them, and not against them. Like Sam said, he needs to avoid making decisions that will cause him to lose face with the people. He needs to avoid trying to push subjects that aren’t popular, such as Syria, because they aren’t going to help him succeed. If he does these things, I can agree with Sam in that there may be hope for his administration yet.
1. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/07/politics/obama-obamacare-apology/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
I agree with Spencer B’s post. Obama is clearly struggling with a lack of public support. As Spencer pointed out, he has received backlash because of a scandal involving US spying on close allies and has had difficulty gaining support because of a polarized congress. During the time leading up to the shutdown, Obama suggested a modest agenda on the budget (1). House Republicans refused his plan and also refused any form of compromise (1). His willingness to compromise has led to inaction, which has caused Obama to lose credibility in Congress. This credibility loss is also because of Radical Republicans who act against Obama whenever possible. In order to regain public support, I agree with Spencer’s advice to encourage moderate legislation that will not be supported by the Republican led House. As Spencer pointed out, this way the American public will see Obama doing all that he can. Seeing that the Radical Republicans are not compromising, public blame would shift away from Obama. Also, I agree that Obama should focus on clearing up the NSA scandal. He needs to gain American trust by weakening the NSA. Obama must act more forcefully if he wants to further his political agenda. He must change the American view that he has not, as Spencer said, delivered on his campaign promises.
1) http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-17/opinions/42126654_1_house-republicans-president-obama-tax-dodges
I agree with Elizabeth’s post. Obama is definitely running out of time quickly, especially because the American public has started to lose its faith in him as a leader and a politician. In her post, Elizabeth brought up that Obama should start by passing some generally-supported bills to get his approval ratings up. For example, today, the Senate passed the Employment Non Discrimination Act, which maintains that employers aren’t allowed to discriminate against employees or potential employees on the basis of their sexual orientation (1). I think this bill has potential to pass in the House as well, because even though views about sexual orientation vary widely in both chambers, it’s a lot harder to argue against this bill than a bill that would give all people equal marriage rights. However, unlike Elizabeth, I think that the trend that we saw in passing really important legislation, like, for example, legislation concerning the economy, will remain the same. The Senate will likely pass the bill and the less-compromising House will likely reject it, regardless of whether or not Republicans want to be more favorably received.
(1) http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/11/obama-enda-vote-tribute-to-gay-rights-movement-house-177018.html
In response to Luke S.’s post, I agree with all the points that he made. I definitely agree that Obama’s popularity is going down the drain, especially after the Syrian affair, the Congressional shutdown, and the NSA scandal. Luke and I both agreed that the NSA taping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone was the final nail in the coffin. This act by Obama made his popularity go down 3% more than it was before (1) and caused worldwide anger towards the Obama administration. I liked when Luke stated “If the president wishes to regain support he needs to start tying up loose ends that are affecting the American people first,” because I couldn’t have said it better myself. Obama shouldn’t be concerned with other countries affairs. If he wishes to regain support of the American people, he needs to focus on internal affairs. For example, the American people are most worried about the issues of jobs, healthcare, and education (2), which is where I think Obama should start. The last similarity I found in both our posts was that we both gave the same advice to Obama: to take a more moderate stance on these issues. Luke and I both thought that if he has a broader idea to reform these issues, then he’ll have more people’s support on his ideas. Although Obama is fairly unpopular lately, he still has a couple more years to turn this phase around.
1) http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/29/politics/obamacare-nsa/
2) http://video.foxnews.com/v/2781845125001/bob-beckels-advice-for-president-obama/
I both agree and disagree with Zach S. On one hand, I don’t see how sponsoring noncontroversial bills would make Obama seem weak. While they may not necessarily make him seem strong, I don’t think getting a few popular bills passed would hurt his approval rating. However, I completely agree that what will really affect the course of his term is the success of Obamacare. Obama really needs to get past the website issues and the more recent concerns about people losing their current coverage (1). People who have managed to successfully enroll have generally reported that the monthly rates are much lower (2). While there are complaints about the premiums being too high and not having enough plan options, people generally seem to be either unaffected or positively affected by Obamacare. If Obama can really get the nation to focus on the positive results of the law, he has a real chance at regaining a favorable rating and remaining powerful throughout the rest of his term. However if he is unable to get Obamacare working smoothly and accepted by the public, I would take Zach’s opinion a step further and say that he will definitely turn into a lame duck.
1) http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/07/politics/obama-obamacare-apology/index.html?hpt=po_c1
2) http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/04/news/economy/obamacare-costs/index.html
I agree with Amanda N.’s views about the status of President Obama and his administration. As Amanda says, Obama does not have support with citizens, Congress, or international leaders to push much controversial legislation, and I agree with the suggestion that Obama regain control and trust “one issue at a time.” Some say that historically it has been common for presidents to be trapped in similar situations in their second terms, but that does not lessen concern over Obama’s future influence and ability to accomplish anything with the remainder of his time in office (1). Right now many political scientists and analysts agree that Obama is stuck in campaign mode, trying to sell ideas to people who are not willing to listen, so he needs to do damage control to fix his image while he can, as Amanda says (1). As the Affordable Care Act is Obama’s signature piece of legislation and its current failures are extremely detrimental to his image, I also agree that it is important that the administration hire someone to help make sure the website is more workable. In the last week Oracle, Google, and Red Hat, among other corporations, were called in to work on the site and prioritize fixes, which was certainly a step in the right direction (2). So far the website has not improved drastically, but this is the kind of action that Obama should focus on in the immediate future: stepping back, calling in experts when necessary, and working on the multitude of things that have gone wrong recently.
1 http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/11/07/243480001/with-three-years-left-to-go-obama-remains-on-defense
2 http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-31/google-oracle-engineers-enlisted-for-obamacare-tech-surge
In response to Lau’s post. I agree with you on how Obama shouldn’t be blamed for any of the failings that Congress has had over the past few months. I can’t believe some people don’t realize that it’s Congress that passes the budget and laws of the country, and the president only has veto power. And that he could have just gone to Syria and started a war without consenting Congress first. And I also don’t think that the public or foriegn governments trust him as much as they did before thsi year. Because he is from the opposite party, the GOP never trusted him. Take the AHA, Mitt Romney used a very similar system in his state and most likely would have adopted it had he become president. But since Obama created it, the Republicans have voted to repeal the AHA something like 42 times. So that leaves the foreign governments and the public to win back over. The foreign governments have just learned that the NSA was spying on the leaders of our biggest allies including the German chancellor, and many citizens in France. Also Brazil and the UK, our biggest ally, are frustrated over the NSA spying on their citizens. Some of the frustration could be because their spy agencys do not have the technological capabilities of the NSA, but with all of this distrust, it is going to be hard to win back the trust of our allies for Obama (1). While Obama has a much higher approval rating that the members of Congress do, it is still well less that half of the population that approve of him. His approval rating sits at 42%, which is lower than Nixon’s during the watergate scandal. While his ratings are higher than they once were, that is still a very low number of people who support him, considering the fact that just a year ago, half of the population who voted wanted him to beat the GOP. He is about to become a lame duck president, and with all of the scandals and problems he has had to deal with, he might not be able to gain the public trust back either unless he does something different (2). He needs to become more of a compromising, bipartisan president in order to finish off the controversial presidency on a high note. And helping out the people as well such as what he did in Hurricane Sandy, which helped him win reelection despite a lowish approval rating. I think that even though some people will not support him because he is a member of the opposite party, he is in a position to unite the moderates under the Democrat banner because of the Tea Party influence in the GOP, and he can change the rapidly declining trust in our government both domestically and internationally.
1. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/obama-isolated-anger-builds-us-allies
2. http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-approval-rating-lower-than-nixon-s-middle-of-watergate-scandal
I am responding to Tim L. While I disagree with you on saying Obama was a senator from Ohio, I do agree with you on Obama’s declining approval ratings and the reasons for the drastic decline. Many people looked at the President as a meddler and weak after his address urging Americans into Syria (1). I also agree with your advice to the President, that he shouldn’t try to take on tasks that are too big or too unpopular with the public or Congress.
http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2013/09/11/33659/how-obama-s-decision-on-syria-will-impact-his-pres/
In response to Andrew R: I agree that Obama needs to refocus his efforts in order to be successful during the final years (or perhaps months for some perspectives) in office, but I’m not sure that means giving up some topics. Unfortunately, the President of the United States does not have the luxury of knit picking what topics to work on and what to ignore. The various complex daily issues of domestic and foreign policy are part of the job. While these issues are currently stretching Obama thin, they have stretched almost every president thin for the last 20 years. Andrew is right that the best path ahead is to “grind out resolutions to get things done and make progress.” As for the areas that Obama chooses not to tackle with resolutions, he needs to keep them as status quo as possible. Even if things don’t get better in some aspects of the government, it is crucial that they do not get worse (1). Andrew makes the good point that while Obama’s approval ratings have fallen, the Republicans have an even lower approval rating - something that can easily be used to Obama’s advantage (1). He is the more popular kid in school right now and people are more likely to support the popular kid, as long as they benefit from it somehow. Obama needs to deliver those benefits through refocusing his efforts to make as much progress as possible.
1) http://www.npr.org/2013/11/07/243583805/why-obama-shouldnt-worry-about-his-lousy-poll-numbers
In response to Leroy B.:
I agree with Leroy that President Obama can still accomplish more of his agenda. Leroy stated that even though, President Obama's approval ratings are low, if he were to focus on issues that he and Congress can make compromises on, than he can still get things accomplished. I believe that President Obama’s approval ratings can go up if he could move his attention to an issue that is not extremely sensitive and controversial. He’s ratings can still go up because Americans can see that he has made quite a few changes that improved America. For example, since his inauguration, the unemployment has been reduced to 7%, he has created more affordable health care, passed environmental issues, passed an education bill, and pulled the last troops out of Iraq (1). With these accomplishments, Obama is bond to gain his popularity back when Americans see pass the controversies on hand.
1. http://www.policymic.com/articles/71923/obama-s-approval-rating-would-surge-if-americans-knew-these-5-facts
I agree with Spencer B. when he said that President Obama’s poll numbers are dismal. They are. On the bright side, though, his numbers have not fallen as much as President Bush’s which went from 90% approval rating to 25% (1). Despite his low numbers though, I do not think that President Obama should give up. After all, he had trouble passing legislation when his numbers were good, and yet he still managed to get reelected (1). This is a point that I disagree with Spencer on: that it is President Obama’s fault for not making good on his campaign promises. President Obama had and still has a great deal of resistance in Congress from the Republican party. As early as 2010, Republicans vowed not to cooperate with the President on policy issues (2). Despite all the resistance, Obama was able to pass the Affordable Care Act and did not give into the pressure from the government shutdown that the Republican party used to protest the new act. If Obama is going to be a “lame duck,” he would have been one for the past five years. That is why I agree with Spencer when he calls to focus on the media. President Obama can still get through some legislation with or without support from Congress. For the good of his party and the integrity of American democracy, though, I think he needs to have some good press. He needs some easy policy to pass to lighten up the strain on the White House. The neverending stream of scandals is exhausting to American citizens. President Obama should not give up just yet!
1. http://www.npr.org/2013/11/07/243583805/why-obama-shouldnt-worry-about-his-lousy-poll-numbers
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/02/AR2010110207506.html
In response to Peter K’s Post:
Hello friend! It appears that I have not responded to one of your posts yet so here it is. I very much agree with all of the points you stated in your post. It is clear to see that President Obama’s popularity is going down as you showed in your first source. His approval is at an all-time low of 42%. (1) I also agree with you that the website being down and the situation with Syria has not helped the president. At this point in office, going into a lame-duck stage, he should be trying to gain favor with the people so he could possibly pass some legislation before they wait him out. He has gone big and now he’s going home. It’s pretty obvious that no one likes to be spied on, but yes, the NSA was accused of spying on our allies. The president’s excuse was that he didn’t know that it was going on. I totally agree with you Peter that that excuse is not acceptable. I’d hope that the Obama administration would find this important enough to tell Obama. Like I mentioned in my original article, I think that Obama should try to appear as moderate as possible. Yay! I mean boo! Last blog post of the year!
1. http://www.ijreview.com/2013/10/91070-shock-poll-obamas-disapproval-goes-50-mark-first-time-ever/
In response to Elizabeth A’s post, I agree completely that Obama needs to strike now and regenerate his public image. There is no doubt that Obama’s public ratings have gone down. Currently his approval rating sits at 39%, this is the first time it has been this low in two years (1). Elizabeth mentions some recent events that could explain Obama’s recent dip in approval ratings. She talks about how the Obamacare mess and the recent NSA scandal have not helped Obama and have put him in a tough position. The recent problems with Obamacare make Obama look like he is in a bubble, removed from everyone else. It seems odd that a program that is his legacy, and even named after him, surprised him with problems (2). It makes Obama seem removed and distant. Also, with the NSA scandal he seemed blind-sided by the spying that was going on (2). It does not give the public a good image when the president does not know what his own government is doing. Elizabeth also talks about how Obama can repair his image by putting his failures out of America’s minds. Recently he has taken a step towards this and has personally apologized to Americans who lost their health care coverage under Obamacare (3). As soon as he apologizes and admits his recent failures he and the public can put them in the past and move onto the future. Then, as Elizabeth talks about, he can sponsor noncontroversial bills with little trouble. This will give him back some momentum so he can make sure he does not become a lame duck prematurely. Also, as Elizabeth points out, the Republicans seem to be doing worse. Only 22% of the public views the Republicans positively (4). If Obama can start to gain back his momentum as soon as possible he can take advantage of the Republican’s weakness and revitalize his public image.
(1) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/05/poll-obamas-approval-rating-dips-below-40-percent/
(2) http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/1101/Obama-approval-rating-sinks-a-self-inflicted-wound
(3) http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/07/21352724-exclusive-obama-personally-apologizes-for-americans-losing-health-coverage?lite
(4) http://www.businessinsider.com/poll-obama-approval-ratings-gop-2013-10
In response to Leroy's post, I agree with how he believes that even with Obama's 43% approval rating and Congress's 11% approval rating, he can still accomplish more of his agenda. I like how Leroy mentioned the idea of compromising because with a divided Congress, the only way to pass legislation is if both parties are willing to compromise otherwise there will be a deadlock and nothing will get done, further lowering the approval ratings of the president and Congress. I believe that it is a critical time for the president to start getting more of his agenda completed because he is not eligible for reelection so therefore, he doesn't have to be as concerned with people's view of him (as opposed to when he was running for reelection) with the legislation that he should propose. I agree with Leroy on how Obama should bring back issues that have been pushed down the public agenda list such as renewable energy, immigration reform, and education. In doing so, if he is successful, this would greatly help the Democratic Party in the 2016 Presidential election. One of the key issues that I believe that Obama could have much success with is education. Currently the United States is lagging behind countries such as South Korea, Canada, Japan, and many other nations with the number of certificates and degrees handed out to people between the age of 25 and 34 (1). This may be due to the constantly increasing cost of college and if Obama can pass and education act that would help people afford college, not only would it help us as we are going to college next year, but it would distance Obama from a lame duck status. Overall, if Congress and the president can actually pass an effective piece of legislation instead of bickering and not making progress over a highly controversial issue, then not only will they gain more public support, their approval ratings would rise.
(1) http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education
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Replying to Ivy’s comment, I mostly agree with her. She talked about how Obama’s approval ratings were going down, especially due to the NSA problems. She also referenced the topic of the Senate blocking the Obama nominations, which I found interesting and hadn’t heard about. This brought to focus how many people believe that this Congress getting back to the ways of fighting the other party no matter how much it stalls government, even after the shutdown (1). This leads me to believe that Obama will probably not get much passed in the time being, although he should try and pass some non-conflict-making bills in Congress, like Ivy said, to show the public he is still working. I think that after the shutdown and the Republican’s seemingly lack of remorse over the shutdown, Democrats will have a much better chance of getting representatives, especially in the Senate(2). Overall, I agree with Ivy that Obama needs to do a lot of work to get things done and get his political standing back up, but I think Obama’s presidency isn’t a lock for a lame duck status by this time next year.
1) http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/31/senate-republicans-block-two-obama-nominees/
2)http://www.policymic.com/articles/71679/midterm-elections-2014-polls-show-republicans-could-take-over-the-senate
In response to Maddy S’s post, I completely support what she had to say about President Obama. Like she said, Obama’s is not high on people’s popularity list. You can definitely see this in the president’s approval rating which is at a low 41% and still decreasing according to the gallup (1). As Maddy pointed out this is highly because of issues that have occurred in government as of lately such the Syrian issue, government shut down, the agitation from Obamacare, and the NSA leak of bugging phones. Although I can’t completely blame president Obama for all of these I believe he is taking such a large hit because people look to him to captain our nation however it has obviously been going through some rough water. One of the major points that Maddy and I both agree on is that the president needs to focus on problems back at home here in the US. Although it is extremely hard to pass much in a divided house I believe Obama would find much more success and at least gain points with the American people if he were to pay more attention to his own country instead of toying with foreign affairs. For instance the latest NSA leak that they were spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel which has agitated many of our allies. I believe Obama needs to come clean on what he did and din’t know so that people wont look at him like he was a traitor. To add on top of all these upsets there has been much frustration in the Obamacare system. When the President first made the plan he promised American’s could keep their plans however the number of people who keep getting cancelation notices from their insurers has sky rocket to 3.5 million (2). The presidents situation is growing worser and worser, if he plans to maintain any popularity among the people he needs to make a huge push otherwise he will indeed end up a dead duck among the American Public.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx
(2)http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/4/problems-and-excuses-mount-for-obamacare/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
In response to Luke S post, I agree that Obama may not have known about some of the controversies that are surrounding his presidency. Although his hands may be clean, I don't think that he can claim ignorance forever. It is the presidents job to be on top of all things that the USA is involved in and any troubles that may come from bad actions, and Obama is claiming that he had no idea of a number of key issues. I also agree that Obama needs to take a more moderate few on issues he sees important. With the government split as it is right now, very few things will be able to get done if the president stays extremely liberal. Early in his presidency he seemed to be more moderate in his issues, and his approval ranking showed that many people liked what he had done. At one point, Obama had passed numerous bi-partisan bills and his approval ranking was at its highest at 65 percent (1). For Obama to have a successful and graceful end to his presidency, he will need to be more involved in the countries actions so he will be unable to say he didn't know something was going on.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx
It is interesting that Emily M. mentioned the trust Obama has broken with foreign leaders by spying on them. I feel that this issue was underreported in American media, or at least I assumed that it would grab more attention. To me it seems that Obama spying on world leaders that we are on friendly terms with would be a major blow to his presidency as it would portray him as sneaky, deceitful, and insecure. However, it seems that most Americans are not concerned with this and it has not changed their opinion on Obama due to this mishap. Obviously these actions have had a chilling effect on Obama's/America's relations with other countries that could put the U.S. into an international lame duck session that could even outlast Obama's presidency (1).
I agree that Obama's best bet to rebuild his image and reduce his lame duck session Obama is focusing on noncontroversial legislation. However, I am doubtful that even this could save Obama. Republicans are so angry about the ACA that I think that they might not be willing to go along with anything initiated by Obama, even if the legislation accomplished a bipartisan goal. The fury that Republicans are expressing now that the it is easy to see the ACA being implemented is, I think, unable to be quelled for the remainder of Obama's presidency.
1. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/07/21345853-nsa-spy-programs-show-that-america-doesnt-trust-its-allies-french-former-pm-says?lite
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I agree with Luke S that Obama should focus on the issues that are the most important to the American public. I also agree that he should try to support more moderate views, as with a split Congress, moderate views are more likely to get passed. I also agree with Luke that Obama should make what he knows about the NSA scandal as clear as possible to the public, as people always like someone that tries to be truthful. It also might help clear up the issues that he is facing overseas because of the concern about this issue.(1) Ultimately Obama needs to focus on the issues that are most important, as he finds successful solutions to the biggest problems, everything else should fall into place.
1. http://rt.com/news/germany-lose-trust-us-snowden-431/
In response to Andrew R’s post:
I disagree with your observation on how the Obama administration has stretched itself over too many areas. I disagree with this because the President is supposed to handle many different issues at one time. That is the responcibility of the president at this day in age. I also disagree that a strategy of focusing on one thing at a time will be an effective strategy, because it is not that they are trying to pass multiple things at once, it is that the President is trying to pass legislation through most ineffective Congress in History (having a record low of legislation passed). The only way that he is going to be able to get anything done is by first starting on neutral ground -issues that both republicans and democrats can find common interest in- but even then it is unlikely that anything will get done, because it seems that an influential few in the Republican party are set on not allowing the President to succeed in anything so they can say that he had a failed presidency (1). It also seems that they will continue this stagnation no matter what, even if it means a further dip in their already low approval rating.
Work Cited:
1.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/cnn-poll-republicans-want-obamas-policies-to-fail/2011/10/18/gIQAL0VbuL_blog.html
In response to Caroline H. I agree with Caroline on the facts of her post. The president is indeed suffering in the polls. And it is still dropping according to the Washington Post Obama’s approval ratings have dropped down to 39%, an all time low for Obama. (1) Many bloggers and reporters are taking his presidency in a bad light. Even the liberal bloggers are criticizing his errors in the harshest they have in years. However, Caroline is not looking at the good side of his presidency and is not seeing that Obama has tried to get more of policy through a Congress that will not agree with him no matter is it is the smallest part of policymaking. I do not believe that Obama is a lame duck quite yet. He is still fighting to get his agenda and he is definitely trying to work with Congress. I agree with Caroline on the fact that he should be able to get more policy through the republican due to their recent drop of support in the polls. He has put up a good fight so far and this drop of republican support might be Obama’s break to push through more work.
(1)http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/05/poll-obamas-approval-rating-dips-below-40-percent/
While searching for my two blog posts to turn in tomorrow I realized that I never ended up posting this...better late than never I guess.
I would have to agree with Caroline B that President Obama has reached, or is nearing the end of his influential period as president of the United States, should his drought of major accomplishment continue. Recently the Obama administration has been plagued by failures and scandals. The roll out of the Affordable Care Act was a miserable failure, and so far the silver lining of its implementation remain to be seen. Once it became clear that Obama did not have support nationally, much less internationally, for his ambitions in Syria, it pounded another nail into his theoretical coffin. Perhaps most damaging, as Caroline eluded to in her post, was the exposure of the shady operations of the NSA. Close allies of the United States are publicly proclaiming their skepticism of our policies and tactics. In terms of international relations, we've done nothing but continue to shoot ourselves in the foot time and time again. This failure to produce results is accurately being shown in President Obama's approval rating which has now reached a low of 42%, down from 82% in 2008. The American people aren't the only ones noticing the weakening of his influence either. Two of Obama's nominations, one for a federal court judge and one for a housing regulatory agency, were recently rejected by the Senate. I also agree with Caroline's suggestion to the President; he needs to start winning if he wants to accomplish anything worthwhile during the remainder of his second term. While they need not be sweeping reforms, even minor policy victories would be acceptable to set the administration back on track. Unlike some Americans, I do not believe that the president is done just yet. However, if he doesn't start to earn victories in the political process, he is going to see his lame duck period begin earlier than he expected walking into his second term.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/01/opinion/morris-obama-voter-despair/index.html?hpt=op_bn6
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gop-blocks-obama-nominees-and-dems-weigh-response
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nsa-spying-shows-how-to-lose-friends-and-alienate-allies/2013/10/29/0d0c2928-40cf-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/05/poll-obamas-approval-rating-dips-below-40-percent/
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