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Monday, August 1, 2011

Bill Daley's Pragmatic Approach Moves Obama Further Right; Ignores Progressives (Decision 2012)















Obama won't win back white voters by being 'President Pushover'

With these sorts of gains with white voters old and young, high unemployment, and continued Republican obstructionism designed to prevent President Obama from enacting policy that would surely boost his image, there are growing concerns about his chances of re-election.

And naturally, conspiracies abound as to why Obama is losing support among white voters. Leah Christian, a senior researcher at the Pew Center told Reuters that researchers had not detected evidence that Obama's race had anything to do with Republicans picking up more support among white voters.

It's unrealistic to believe that the bulk of white voters have magically shifted their party affiliation over President Obama's long known racial identity. That belief is as insulting to white voters collectively as it is to all of our better senses. That sort of surface level thinking deviates from what is a truth for voters black, white, and Oscar the Grouch green: President Obama has disappointed a lot of people.

I know, I know: I read his lengthy list of first year accomplishments. I'm well aware of the fact that even when he did have a Democratic majority in Congress, there were a couple of useless Blue Dog Democrats impeding domestic policies more advantageous to the country. At the same time, though, I also know there is a stark contrast between the ways Obama campaigned and the way he governs.

President Obama is a savvy legislator, pragmatic in thought and typically eager to utter the word "compromise" -- perhaps sometimes too much. While the reality may be that compromise is a necessary evil, it tends to sometimes make Obama appear as a weak negotiator because he does so quite often. Or a Paul Krugman recently referred to him as,

His perception problem combined with a 9.2 percent unemployment rate have bred frustration and apathy among voters, hence President Obama's approval rating floundering at 43 percent for the week of July 18-24, tying the lowest weekly average of his administration.

Fortunately, Obama has begun to become more forceful in his rhetoric and negotiation techniques. He will need to continue this for 2012 because his fate won't rest on race but the economy, stupid -- and how the public feels he responded to it.



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Sources: Fox News, Meet The Press, MSNBC, The Grio, The Young Turks, Think Progress, Youtube, Google Maps

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