“Heading into a critical period in the debate over health-care reform, public approval of President Obama’s stewardship on the issue has dropped below the 50 percent threshold for the first time, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Obama’s approval ratings on other front-burner issues, such as the economy and the federal budget deficit, have also slipped over the summer, as rising concern about spending and continuing worries about the economy combine to challenge his administration. Barely more than half approve of the way he is handling unemployment, which now tops 10 percent in 15 states and the District. The president’s overall approval rating remains higher than his marks on particular domestic issues, with 59 percent giving him positive reviews and 37 percent disapproving. But this is the first time in his presidency that Obama has fallen under 60 percent in Post-ABC polling, and the rating is six percentage points lower than it was a month ago.”
how low can he go
Approval Ratings of America’s President Get Closer to Honduras’
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Namaste85
i know an easy way to sky rocket that approval rating…GIVE GAY AMERICANS THEIR RIGHTS AND REPEAL DADT!!
Alex
Yeah, but if the economy starts to turn around in the next six months, those numbers are going to change. Fast.
SteamPunk
@Alex: Precisely what I was thinking: It’s the economy. Although we’d like to kid ourselves into thinking that if DOMA and DADT were overturned, his approval ratings would be much higher, we’re wrong. Even if we could get married, we’d still need jobs đ
SM
Uhhh….Find 60 votes in Congress for DOMA and DADT and stop blaming Obama. Same story over and over.
You see how hard the Democrats have to work on health care? Obama is not a DICTATOR.
Congress can also overturn or screw up Executive Orders.
InExile
The economy probably will NOT improve in 6 months, it cannot with the continued loss of jobs. If Obama does not get moving on our civil rights soon, we will miss the boat.
InExile
@SM: Like I have said before, he needs to show some LEADERSHIP to get the 60 votes for DADT and DOMA. He has not directly addressed Congress on these issues yet, what is he waiting for? Oh, and not one single mention of his “Civil Unions” with federal benefits since he was sworn in!
SM
@InExile:
Do you watch the news INEXILE or are you hiding under the bed all the time. You are about to see a war over healthcare. The Republicans have admitted if they can screw Obama over on heathcare they can take him down.
I just love how a person with a fraidy cat name like INEXILE thinks they know more about being President of the United States than someone brave like Obama.
My GAY BROTHER NEEDS HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION PASSED!
InExile
@SM: We all need health care legislation passed and the Repugs are trying to take it down, I agree it is very important. But just because there are other priorities does not excuse his lack of leadership on our civil rights. A President has to be capable of handling more than one issue at a time. I would like to see some action before his poll numbers drop more, and they will!
akn
A few small (or rather, big) gripes re: Obama’s healthcare fantasy:
(BTW this is not about gay issues at all, so if nothing else interests you, stop here. I’m only taking this opportunity since other people here seem to be blindly in favor of socialized medicine.)
Obama implores health care professionals to refrain from ordering “unnecessary” tests, and yet, if something is missed as a result of not ordering a comprehensive panel of tests, he proposes NO LIMITS on what physicians can be sued for. So, essentially, he’s saying, “Stop doing your job as thoroughly as you are trained to, but if you screw up, you’re practically guaranteed to spend the rest of your life destitute!”
But wait! If healthcare is socialized, physicians will be destitute anyway! My sister, a reconstructive plastic surgeon (i.e. not the cosmetic nosejob kind, but the kind who puts your face back together after a bad car accident) and her husband, a urologist, have a combined $500,000+ in educational debt. If, as Obama proposes, they essentially become state employees with commensurate salaries, their chances at financial survival are ruined. Example: my sister and a team of 8 other surgeons and nurses recently spent 12 straight hours on a reconstructive procedure, for which all of them and the hospital together were compensated $5,000 total by medicare. The costs of the procedure itself go way beyond $5k, so all of those highly trained professionals essentially got paid nothing for 12 straight hours of work.
If Obama wants physicians and other healthcare professionals to work for bullsh*t salaries (not to mention under constant threat of litigation), then medical education should be free or extremely low-cost, and past debt from medical education should be forgiven. Also, if that’s the future of the medical profession, then everyone should expect a drastic decline in the quality of healthcare in terms of the human talent it attracts. Look no further than the teaching profession for proof: hard work and low pay draw some of the least gifted people in our society.
frekada
about healthcare :
people are sick and tired because they eat, breath, and live in chemical/toxic cesspools …. The FDA is an organ of Satan.
There is no outcry over our systemic and harmful way of life because not enough people understand that cars, vinyl siding, plastics etc …. are sick and unnatural…will kill us, have been.
edgyguy1426
well, it’s come to pass, the approval rating has gone down. So do you think it more or less likely Obama is going to try and get unpopular legislation through?
What Obama should do is give a major policy speech (and not just to the NAACP) but to the American Public and explain why civil rights for everyone is better for everyone. This would take leadership (and a good speechwriter) he must have 1 of these handy… appeal in terms like Sen. Duane did to the N.Y. Senate-he has the oral skills (no pun I promise).
My money’s on no. He doesn’t have the stomach for it. (and I meant before all the criticism rained down on him.) He’s too much of a politician – to use SM’s refrain- brought up in the Chicago political system- to come thru.
So as the Health care reform gets dragged thru the mud and back again and the economy gets a little worse before it gets a little better and the Afghanistan War gets uglier, and he loses more friends and gains more enemies..when IS the best time for the man to lead?
InExile
@akn: The social health care in France is much better than ANYTHING I had in the US (Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser). The quality is better (your doctor gives you more than 10 minutes), he prescribes the best medication for you not the cheapest, and he does not need insurance company approval for you to see a specialist. Also, there is no preexisting conditions blacklist. And if you go to the emergency room, you pay nothing.
The insurance companies need to be removed as the middle man, drives the cost up.
Obama seems to be trying to add a social option while keeping insurance companies in the loop$$$$, that is the problem.
galefan2004
@Alex: Not really. History has proven that we are much more likely to blame the president in times that are bad than we are to praise them in times that are good. The damage has already been done. The only way Obama will go is down. In all actuality, I don’t think sky daddy himself could have lived up to the expectations that people had for Obama, but Obama set all of those expectations himself and only has himself to blame.
galefan2004
@SM: Obama screwed himself over health care. His plan requires that the Democrats remove the choice of people to rather they want to have health care or not. This country was founded on freedom of choice. Fining someone $1000 because you don’t agree with how they live their life doesn’t have any place in a democracy. Obama came up with a plan that even the Democrats aren’t willing to back or it would have been done by now. The Repugs are 100% correct on this one, and they will eventually prevail. The struggle will show Obama for exactly who he is. When its all said and done it will be people like you that are in that 25% that actually approve of the man and that will be because you think he is the second coming. Also, when it is all said and done, Democrats will have to fight like hell to keep their seats next year. Those that manage to keep the seats will be the ones that can prove they didn’t sign on for Obama’s agenda, and the first real place to start proving that is with health care “reform”.
galefan2004
@akn: I agree with everything but your last part. The teaching profession has some of the most gifted people. The reason that it has some of the most gifted people is when people get into teaching they don’t do it for the money they do it because they want to do it. When you do something you love instead of working only for the money you care A LOT more and some of the most gifted people you will ever meet are in the teaching profession.
SM
@galefan2004: @galefan2004:
Do I have a choice if I can have car insurance or not?
I don’t bash Obama on anything yet. I do question if Democratic Senators like Max Bacus are being bought on health care from the opposition.
SM
Obama and the Democrats are having to fight our own. At a time we should all be united, its not happening. If hope and change go down the drain, its all our fault. It does not matter who is in the White House if people cannot work for it.
Ad running in Montana because he is being bought~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izNe4Bw_Ars
TANK
@SM:
Shaddup, butch. Obama deserves criticism for his actions and lack of actions with regard to lgbt rights. When you don’t have your civil rights, nothing else matters.
SM
@TANK:
It drives you nuts until you can bash me…TANK….the guy who wants respect and equality for LGBT at the same time he never gives it to others.
GROW UP
InExile
BE CAREFUL TANK, SM will get all hopey and changey on you!
schlukitz
@InExile:
LOL
Joanaroo
In Exile makes a good point about national health care. The Rethugs who always bitch about any countries’ national health care are the same motherfuckers who brag that the “US has the best health care in the world”. Well they’d fucking say that because the fucking taxpayers already pay for THEIR coverage while people here can’t even pay for their own goddamn coverage!
Joanaroo
Pardon my language but my spleen needs venting and the bile is flowing. There are many surgical and medical breakthroughs and new techniques that have come from these “low-quality” professionals in countries with national health care. It’s the damn ideology that has people scared and the fucking Rethuglican propaganda since they have to protect their insurance company friends.
Joanaroo
And of course the Rethugs get the lowest-common-denominator jesus-fucking white trash to do their mob mentality shit. The “God’s Own Party” bastards who don’t give a fuck about helping anybody else but force their bible bullshit down your goddamn throat. Fuck their high and mighty asses and may they rot in hell! Oh wait-if they know they’re going to heaven may they rot there!
schlukitz
@Joanaroo:
Now, would you like to share with us how you really feel. You know, deep down inside? LOL :o)
Actually, I am with you every step of the way…and it gets me really fucking pissed-off at times as well.
Loathsome, meddlesome bastards that have nothing better to do than fuck with other people’s lives.
Joanaroo
I know Schlukitz, sometimes when I think of the idiocy of some of the American people I feel like I could go to the window, open it, stick my head out and yell “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”. đ
schlukitz
@Joanaroo:
OMG! One of my all-time favorite lines from Howard Beale in the movie Network. I too have often felt like doing just that.
If I still lived in Manhattan where enough people could hear me, I probably would do it. LOL
Great pic.
Joanaroo
I was 16 when “Network” hit the theaters and loved that the TV preview had that scene. Drove Mom nuts imitating Peter Finch! đ I love Turner Classic Movies and films and film history from the silent era to the 80s (and beyond too). That was a great film.