Originally Posted By DAR Here's an article explaining how President Obama is starting to lose some support from white voters. These are actually people who voted for him not Republicans who wouldn't think in a million years of voting for him. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-politics7-2009sep07,0,7305762.story" target="_blank">http://www.latimes.com/news/na...62.story</a> <<Among white Democrats, Obama’s job approval rating has dropped 11 points since his 100-days mark in April, according to surveys by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. It has dropped by 9 points among white independents and whites over 50, and by 12 points among white women -- all groups that will be targeted by both parties in next year's midterm elections.>> Those are very key groups and he's going to need them
Originally Posted By hopemax Maybe you would be also interested in Nate Silver's take on it <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/09/dept-of-stupid-headlines-la-times.html" target="_blank">http://www.fivethirtyeight.com...mes.html</a> Basically, Obama is down ~10% among people. Whites, non-whites...it's the same. So why cherry pick his approval ratings and make the headline about white people? W
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt Obama is losing traction with voters because the opposition is waging a war that has people frightened about health care reform. The bad economy is yet another factor. Admittedly I'm a bit annoyed with the way Obama has dealt with the health care issue and frankly very surprised at how ineffective the White House has been at explaining what the bill is really all about.
Originally Posted By HRM >>> "Admittedly I'm a bit annoyed with the way Obama has dealt with the health care issue and frankly very surprised at how ineffective the White House has been at explaining what the bill is really all about." <<< and that's why tonight's Presidential address is so important... unfortunately the key points will probably get lost with all the spin doctors afterwards.
Originally Posted By mawnck I think he's getting the economy totally wrong and botching the health care debate. So yeah, I'm sort of starting to wish I'd voted for Hillary in the primary. Not sure it would've helped, but I'm not real happy with the President right now.
Originally Posted By HRM and unfortunately, even with all the "progress" we've made... it still boils down to racism in some ways.
Originally Posted By dshyates I am a white voter whose luster for Obama has lost a bit of its sheen. I want him to ram the public option through regardless of what the GOP and their backers want. Private Healthcare insurers have decimated the healthcare industry. As far as the economy goes, did anyone EVER think that the stimulus package would fix the damage the GOP did in 4 months?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>As far as the economy goes, did anyone EVER think that the stimulus package would fix the damage the GOP did in 4 months?<< The damage started with Reagan, and the current policies are not fixing it. You don't have to wait a couple of years to see if it works if you understand the problem and can see that so far, they aren't fixing it. The problem is that you can't sustain an economy on unlimited credit, because eventually the interest payments suck up all available capital and there's no unlimited credit anymore. Throwing trillions in nonexistent government money at the problem just destabilizes the currency. The problem I have with O's plan is that it doesn't appear that anything is being done to quash the irresponsible credit practices. I've heard a bit of lip service, but that's it. In the S&L crisis, thousands of bankers went to jail for fraud. This time? Just Bernie Madoff. No one has done a blessed thing to stop and/or punish the Wall Street practices and incentives structures that led to the irresponsible activity in the first place, and guess what? They're still continuing! Which means another popped bubble is assured, and this time, it *starts* with the US government up to its eyebrows in debt. Which, of course, will only matter if the dollar holds out long enough. And Israel doesn't bomb Iran. And the far-right-wing nutjobs don't try to stage a coup. And there are no natural disasters for the next several years.
