The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Washington Post Shocked — Shocked! — to Learn Failed President Is Unpopular

Posted on | April 29, 2014 | 18 Comments

Gloom, despair and agony for Democrats:

Democrats face serious obstacles as they look to the November elections, with President Obama’s approval rating at a new low and a majority of voters saying they prefer a Congress in Republican hands to check the president’s agenda, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Obama’s approval rating fell to 41 percent, down from 46 percent through the first three months of the year and the lowest of his presidency in Post-ABC News polls. Just 42 percent approve of his handling of the economy, 37 percent approve of how he is handling the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and 34 percent approve of his handling of the situation involving Ukraine and Russia.
Obama’s low rating could be a significant drag on Democratic candidates this fall — past elections suggest that when approval ratings are as low as Obama’s, the president’s party is almost certain to suffer at the ballot box in November.
Republicans are favored to maintain control of the House, with the focus now on whether they can take control of the Senate. One key question about November is who will vote. Turnout in midterm elections is always lower than in presidential elections, and at this point, key elements of the Republican coalition — namely white voters and older voters — say they are more certain to cast ballots this fall than are younger voters and minorities, two groups that Democrats and Obama relied on in 2008 and 2012.

The Republican National Committee sent out an e-mail release:

MSNBC is calling Obama “politically toxic” while CNN notes this is a low for Obama’s entire presidency. In other news, Democrats are scrambling: Alison Lundergan Grimes, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats are really busy kissing Tom Steyer’s ring in Chicago this week while Elizabeth Warren will headline Netroots Nation.
“This poll shows people want Republicans to fight back against the Obama agenda– from foreign policy to ObamaCare and the economy. Those 2014 Democrats who have overwhelmingly supported the extreme Obama agenda are going to suffer at the election booths for putting donors interests above that of their constituents.” — Raffi Williams, RNC Spokesman

Of course, with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell running the show for Republicans in Washington, we cannot underestimate the potential for them to fuck up everything between now and November. The question is, can the GOP Establishment fuck up bad enough to overcome the Obama-induced unpopularity of Democrats?

 

Category: Democrats, Election, Polls

Comments

18 Responses to “Washington Post Shocked — Shocked! — to Learn Failed President Is Unpopular”

  1. McGehee
    April 29th, 2014 @ 11:48 am

    Donor pandering is a bipartisan phenomenon.

  2. Neo
    April 29th, 2014 @ 11:49 am

    “… can the GOP Establishment fuck up bad enough to overcome the Obama-induced unpopularity of Democrats?”

    Of course, they can. All it would take is a stupid immigration bill and the Republican base. along with independents, would stay home.

  3. RS
    April 29th, 2014 @ 11:50 am

    Remember. It’s the messenger or the implementation. It’s never the political philosophy.

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 29th, 2014 @ 11:54 am

    Other Democrats are not surprised, they are calling him “toxic”

  5. Finrod Felagund
    April 29th, 2014 @ 11:57 am

    This should encourage us to work harder to evict Democrats in November, not to kick back and think we’ve got this in the bag.

  6. Bozikek
    April 29th, 2014 @ 12:19 pm

    Toxic is dog whistleracist word becasue because… wait a minute … *wikipedia search* … black used to be unable to donate blood to white people. So there you are denounced!

  7. Bozikek
    April 29th, 2014 @ 12:20 pm

    “…can the GOP Establishment fuck up bad enough”

    Whatever you are finishing there, the answer is YES.

  8. Alan Markus
    April 29th, 2014 @ 12:20 pm

    This should not be complicated like brain surgery – more like acquiring a foreclosed run-down house:

    1) Gain title to the house/Evict the problem tenants
    2) Clean out the “trash”
    3) Fix what is broken
    4) Maintain to high standards
    5) Keep as long as possible – hopefully turn over to future generations in good condition.

    But, the key thing is, the house must be acquired – can’t fix it if you don’t want to try because of current conditions. And some of the “trash” tenants may learn to conform their behavior if they want to stay.

  9. Lightwave
    April 29th, 2014 @ 12:23 pm

    Absolutely. Any immigration bill offering amnesty to 20 million illegals and not only will I stay home in 2014, but from here on out.

  10. Reggie Love
    April 29th, 2014 @ 1:01 pm

    Hey, I was tested!

  11. DeadMessenger
    April 29th, 2014 @ 2:05 pm

    Bill Clinton’s mentor, historian Carroll Quigley, wrote in “Tragedy and Hope”,

    “The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.”

    We know that he is not speaking only of what “should” be, but what “is”, because, for example, we see Boehner playing wink-wink nudge-nudge with El Presidente all the time, and we constantly see it in the voting records of Republicans (so-called.) We also know it because what incoming modern President or Congress gets rid of the poor policies of the prior idiot or idiots? An example here are Republicans (so-called) who speak of changes they would make to Obamacare, when the root of the problem is that the entire concept of Obamacare is completely unconstitutional at its core, represents breathtaking federal overreach and ought to be fully excised. And why do we still have the Patriot Act? I’ll leave it to the reader to brainstorm many, many other examples.

    Gosh, it almost seems as if the Administration is ~deliberately~ trying to help Republicans (so-called) into office this year by becoming as vile, despicable and unpalatable as possible. And if that admittedly wacky supposition is true, the question becomes: why would they do that? I could speculate about many reasons, all of them significantly not beneficial to me and other normal, decent taxpaying citizens. And it almost seems like there’s a pattern of vile Democrats coming into office in order to enact vile social and economic policies, and vile Republicans coming into office in order to enact vile national security and defense policies.

    It seems to me that the fact that 42% actually approve of the President’s handling of the economy just goes to show how far down the drain this country has gone. Why would anyone think that? The only answer I have is, “derp.”

    Am I wrong? I’m frightened that maybe I’m turning into Alex Jones, and I know I can count on you guys to tell me the flaws in my thinking. hehe.

  12. MNHawk
    April 29th, 2014 @ 2:50 pm

    Or vote for one of the candidates 3 through 10 on the ballot.

  13. richard mcenroe
    April 29th, 2014 @ 9:49 pm

    o hells yeah.

  14. Greg
    April 29th, 2014 @ 11:15 pm

    I advised my rep, Cathy McMorris Rogers,

    last night that her comments vis a vis immigration and 404Care have driven this nearly 40 year Republican voter away. I’m done.

  15. JeffS
    April 30th, 2014 @ 12:09 am

    Yeah, she’s really sucking up to the GOP establishment. And I’ve heard of no prospective challengers.

  16. Adjoran
    April 30th, 2014 @ 1:51 am

    She IS “the GOP establishment,” ranked 4th or 5th in the Leadership.

  17. Adjoran
    April 30th, 2014 @ 1:55 am

    All this polling is ObamaCare/Ukraine, with maybe some doubts carrying over from Egypt and Syria and the ongoing Kabuki theater with Iran. Today’s Benghazi revelation – the talking points were influenced from the White House – won’t help.

    Obama is looking more like the anomaly than the trend. If he wasn’t black, he would never have attracted the huge numbers of black and young voters both times.

    Sooner or later we need to be able to convince the voters that Democratic policies are old, not new, and have been demonstrated NOT to work everywhere they have been tried.

  18. JeffS
    April 30th, 2014 @ 9:14 am

    Yes, Adjoran, I know that. But she attained that position only in the last term. Before then, she was actually a decent representative. In the last couple of years, she’s gone from a grassroots person to GOP establishment supporter.

    As a resident of that Congressional District, one might say I have a front seat in viewing that decline.