Tag: popularity

Democrats: Danged if they do embrace Obama, danged if they don’t.

David Axelrod:

“I’ve always believed that it’s not an effective strategy to run against a president of your own party, unless you’ve been actively opposed to that president,” said David Axelrod, who was Obama’s top political strategist in his two presidential campaigns and a senior adviser in his White House. “You’re going to get tagged with it anyway.”

Particularly when running against said President is in direct contradiction to your own voting history.

[A] new issue of Congressional Quarterly brings fresh evidence that Senate Democrats have maintained a tight formation behind the president, even as his approval ratings have sunk. It analyzed the 120 Senate votes on which Obama has urged a “yes” or “no” this year, and found that the most vulnerable Democrats stood behind him a minimum of 96 percent of the time.

You end up pleasing nobody.

Why it doesn’t matter, electorally speaking, that the public hates Congress more than Barack Obama.

Writing stuff like this actually does no favors for Democrats…

President Obama has hit another low in another poll, but so have many of his critics in Congress.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll gives the president an approval rating of 40%, a record low; Congress has a rating of only 14%, also a low.

…and this is why: it produces a false equivalence.  Democratic incumbents in trouble aren’t going to be happy to see Barack Obama showing up… but Republican incumbents in trouble – yes, there are some – weren’t going to get ‘Congress’ to come out to campaign for them.  They’d get specific (and popular) Republican politicians to do that.  I understand that you can’t really compare Barack Obama’s popularity against every member of Congress and not have the result be utterly cumbersome, but I think framing the discussion this way doesn’t really lead to correct conclusions.

Continue reading Why it doesn’t matter, electorally speaking, that the public hates Congress more than Barack Obama.

Why Barack Obama should be relieved that George W Bush is more popular than he is.

What’s that? Oh, yeah, funny how that happened:

No less a source than FIVE THIRTY EIGHT DOT COM reports that Greatest Living President George W. Bush is on the rebound: “Since April, Bush’s favorable rating has averaged 49.3 percent. His unfavorable rating has averaged 46.3 percent.”

As the Washington Free Beacon perhaps somewhat gleefully went on to note, that’s rather better than Obama’s current 45.8/49.8.  But it’s good news for President Obama, really. Do you know why?  Because it means that even though Barack Obama’s numbers are going to almost certainly plummet further in the next few years, the American people will almost certainly eventually forgive him, too.  Just as soon as Barack Obama leaves office.  Because that’s what the American people do.   Continue reading Why Barack Obama should be relieved that George W Bush is more popular than he is.

Barack Obama has never HAD the upper hand in the #Obamacare debate…

…so why are we talking about his need to “regain” it?

Obama tries to regain ObamaCare edge after mandate delay setback

The White House is working to get back on offense in the debate over ObamaCare, after a surprise delay in part of the implementation knocked its message off course.

President Obama touted the law’s benefits in a White House speech Thursday, emphasizing a provision that is already in place and heralding positive news about the cost of insurance policies sold through the law’s insurance exchanges.

Contra the Hill article, the administration has been singularly bad at messaging Obamacare. And it shows in the polling: Continue reading Barack Obama has never HAD the upper hand in the #Obamacare debate…

Local Democrats still incognito when President Obama visits?

The background: Politico did an article on how Democrats across the land who have tough battles ahead in 2012 are kind of… avoiding… the President these days.  The quote below comes right after the article in question noted that most sitting North Carolina Democrats were distinctly unwilling to get within camera range of Barack Obama:

“[Obama] may end up being Walter Mondale of 1984,” said Raleigh-based Democratic strategist Brad Crone, recalling how the only elected official who risked being seen with the party’s nominee that year was the longtime agriculture commissioner.

Man.  Those ag commissioners are afraid of nothing, huh?  Must be all that contact with genetically engineered food.  No, really: I hear that the latest generation of GM corn has taken to carrying around switchblades and hassling the rutabagas. Continue reading Local Democrats still incognito when President Obama visits?