Obama Held Responsible

So who take responsibility for the lousy economy? The answer is the President. That's the way it's supposed to work, regardless of how much leverage the President has. It's part of his job to take responsibility.

President Obama has never understood this and for a long time it seemed like he would be the real "Teflon President". That seems to be about to end. From a Poll by The Hill:

Two-thirds of likely voters say the weak economy is Washington's fault, and more blame President Obama than anybody else, according to a new poll for The Hill.

It found that 66 percent believe paltry job growth and slow economic recovery is the result of bad policy. Thirty-four percent say Obama is the most to blame, followed by 23 percent who say Congress is the culprit. Twenty percent point the finger at Wall Street, and 18 percent cite former President George W. Bush…

The poll, conducted for The Hill by Pulse Opinion Research, found 53 percent of voters say Obama has taken the wrong actions and has slowed the economy down. Forty-two percent said he has taken the right actions to revive the economy, while six percent said they were not sure.

The Administration's position has been that it was all Bush's fault and things would be even worse without Obama's policies. It appears that there may be a statute of limitations on both arguments.

Meanwhile it may be that the Obama Administration Campaign has been doing Romney more good than harm with its attack on his Bain record. From USAToday:

By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney's background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation's economic problems over the next four years…

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are much more enthusiastic about the election, an important factor in persuading supporters to vote. By 18 points, 51%-33%, they report being more enthusiastic than usual about voting. In contrast, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents by 4 points say they are less enthusiastic than usual, 43%-39%.

A record number of Americans express skepticism about the activist role of government Obama espouses; 61% say the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. That's the highest number since Gallup began asking the question in 1992.

It might have occurred to some voters that, even if Romney was bad for some of the employees of companies that Bain invested in (a dubious claim), he was at least good for Bain which was his chief responsibility as a corporate officer. We can't judge what kind of executive Obama might have been in other contexts. Up to four years ago he had never been in charge of anything other than a campaign.

Comments

[larry kurtz]

Sounds like another college professor I know now building a content farm for the GOP in South Dakota while in the employ of the State: how conservative, Ken.

[Donald Pay]

You have a fetish with national polls, but no one else is falling for your spin. Really, do you think Obama and those of your readers who know what is going on are dumb enough to worry about national polls?

You know full well Obama will get his electoral vote win in states whose voters are very concerned with exactly the issues Obama is hammering. Meanwhile Romney is in London collecting checks from the foreign Libor crooks. I think they all know Obama is coming after the foreign and domestic financial mafia, and Romney is one of them.

[duggersd]

Donald, considering a good size portion of Obama's 2008 funding came from overseas, I really do not believe you should be complaining. In fact your guy is probably guilty of election law in regards to some of those untraceable credit cards to fund his campaign.
Obama is in serious trouble. He cannot run on his record. The best he can do is try to paint Romney as a bad guy nobody would want to vote for. Right now we have a president whose administration has been a total failure on the economy; has made the US world standing even worse than it was; has signed onto a plan to gut the US military; has leaked classified information to make the Prez look good; has seen to it drug dealers were able to get guns, causing at least one American and possibly two Americans to be killed and countless Mexicans; lied about his health care takeover plan and I could go on and on. His campaign has to lie about Romney in order to make attacks stick--felon??? Really? Then he has to lie about what he said and cannot even get it straight in his own commercial. This guy is incompetent. If you think otherwise, just keep being blind. Also, let us not forget about "executive privilege" on documents he is supposedly never seen.

[Donald Pay]

The economy actually is growing, and job growth is actually better than under the entire Bush Presidency. I realize that is a low bar, but if we adopted Romney/Republican economic policies we would be back in a recession, and likely a couple years away from another financial depression. Obama's heath care plan is a Republican plan, taken mostly from the Heritage Foundation and Romney. The whole gun walking episode is hyped up bullshit, considering we just had a massacre at a movie theatre, and we've had more Americans killed by guns in Madison, WI, this summer than were killed in Fast and Furious. And how many terrorists has he killed? Just about all of them left in al-Qaeda.

Romney is a serial liar, a tax cheat and a pet abuser. His own campaign manager called him an "Etch-a-Sketch," but he's even worse than that---he's a broken etch-a-sketch, a completely useless piece of humanity perfectly suited to be nominated by a political party that has lost its soul to the devil.

Romeny is not only incompetent, he's unaccountable for his incompetence because he acts as if he's above the law. He's a self-important, self-entitled spoiled little rich kid who never grew up. Worse, he was, and continues to be a bully. He claims to be pro-life now, but invested and managed in a firm that made money off abortion. And, he won't show us his tax returns, because he's still invested and making money off abortions. He thinks he can tell us whatever pops into his pea brain at the moment, and that he can change his story, positions and ideals without anyone noticing what a pathetic piece of shit liar he is.

And that's just for starters.

[duggersd]

If you are going to claim Romney is a serial tax cheat and serial liar, than show some examples. Your guy is definitely a liar. Incompetence means unable to perform duties in a competent manner. Romney's success in the business world and with the Olympics shows something different from what you say. Even his governorship in MA was pretty good considering the legislature he worked with. No, I do not like his health insurance plan, but you should love it.
The economy is growing. Sure it is. That explains the 8% + unemployment overall, the 15% for certain minorities and the record non-participation level.
F&F is not BS. Tell that to the family of Brian Terry. And more people killed by guns in Madison, WI? More than 200? Wow! Or maybe you don't consider Mexicans to be people. And what does it say about your liberal mecca when so many people are killed in it?
As for terrorists killed, um, I am thinking the "he" refers to Obama. The answer is 0. Last I checked, it was our special services killing terrorists. It was our drones operated by our agencies killing terrorists. Obama authorizes them, but when it comes to the deed, it is someone else.
You are getting desperate. When you start saying Obama is going to win in those swing states, I just remember your predictions of the recent Scott Walker and Ron Johnson. And it must really hurt seeing Wisconsin leaning more and more towards Romney. Ouch!

[Donald Pay]

Duggersd,

Really? You have no factual basis for anything you say. Goodbye.

[Dave]

The House won't allow anything the President proposes to come to a vote. Whose fault is that?

And this is what is being said about the GOP "jobs" bills;

"A lot of these things are laughable in terms of a jobs plan that would produce noticeable improvements across the country in the availability of employment in the next four or five years," said Gary Burtless, a senior economist at Brookings. "Even in the long run, if they have any effect all, it would be extremely marginal, relative to the jobs deficit we currently have."

The fact is that these land-line telephone polls are biased towards the elderly. They are the last segment of thee population who still have a land-line and are willing to pick up the phone when unknown number comes up on the caller id.

What these polls actually show (imho) is that the so called "liberal media"s use of false equivalence, combined with the FOX effect has swayed the opinions of low knowledge voters.

[duggersd]

Dave, it seems to me the Republicans have put President Obama's budgets up for a vote. He gets 0 votes. The House has also put forth several job creating bills only to have them die in a Senate that will not even allow a debate. I also believe if you listen to some economists besides the Brookings Institute, you will find plenty of economists who believe the Republican ideas would be good for the country.
Republicans want to keep taxes where they are. Democrats want to increase taxes on job producers. Which idea is more likely to produce jobs? Republicans want to open more areas to energy exploration. Democrats want to keep more areas off limits. Which policy do you believe would increase domestic energy production and create jobs? Republicans want to get rid of Obama major regulations. Democrats want to keep them in place. Which policy do you believe is more likely to produce jobs?
It is interesting how you rationalize the bad polling for Obama, yet when you look at pollsters such as Rasmussen, they are very close to the actual vote. Keep dreaming.
And Donald: I challenge you to point out something I said above that is untrue. You have made some claims about Romney and I asked for examples. Please provide.

[larry kurtz]

Ron Paul's Fed audit just passed the House yet his cannabis bill is stalled: fun to see if the Senate puts the two together.

[Ken Blanchard]

Donald has gone bye bye.

[Ed]

I voted for Clinton in the 90's, Bush in 00 and I chose to vote for every other position on my ballot BUT el Presidente in 04. I drank the Kool-Aide in 08. As of the Iraq invasion in 03', however, I threw away my Party Affiliation as it doesn't matter any longer. I provide this context only so that the reader is provided full disclosure, something neither candidate running today appears able to do.

Back in 03 I revisited President G. Washington's 1796 Farewell Address (it was actually a letter...but whatever). His warning regarding political parties of ANY KIND (geographic, religious, or otherwise), and the dangers resulting from them, caused me to re-think my allegiances. I encourage everyone to take an hour and pour over this document. Placing in it's proper context (I'm a Historian after all), it is very sad that much like Eisenhower's warnings in 58, no one listened.

All of that said, this blog, which is chalk full of the same crap spewed around from those with a 'D' or an 'R' on their sweater, curiously attracted me to reply to the recent squabble over poll numbers.

Not that it matters, because both of these candidates, and their parties for that matter, won't change a damn thing while the status quo of our corrupt political system is in place. Still, here is the final word you can go by regarding this puppet show...

Forget the polls. If Romney fails to release his tax records for the past 4 years, he's done. Long and short. Fini. If he does, and there's nothing illegal or severely repulsive in them, he'll win.

As for me? I'll quote the man with a way with words in saying, 'Fool me once, shame on--shame on the other guy, fool me-- you can't get fooled again'.

[larry kurtz]

Durable goods up, jobless claims down, cheap dollar easing trade imbalance, Romney: stupid white guy=landslide for Obama:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/26/157409751/jobless-claims-drop-previous-weeks-increase-erased

[Religion Jeans outlet]

Support, write your article is good!

[Ken Blanchard]

Ed: what?

[Ed]

'What?' to which part, Ken?

The part that states that George Washington knew exactly what the dangers would be if we embraced party politics? Not because he had amazingly accurate foresight, but because he was wise and worldly enough to know that you learn far more from the past than you do the present.

Or was it the part about the ridiculous rah-rah, my party is better than your party madness, that continues to cause dangerous and eternal stalemates within our Republic? Seriously, it kills me that nearly ALL Repubs support Romney's secrecy about his finances, when you know damn well they'd be calling for a special investigation if Obama withheld his. In referee, explain to me where the uproar from the Democrats is regarding Guantanamo or the drone planes killing Americans? They'd have asked for McCain's head on a platter!

Or was it the comment regarding my prediction of the election hinging on one simple fact? Romney releases his taxes for at least 4 years...they're relatively clean...he wins. He doesn't...or their dirty...and he loses. Open up your mind...stop fooling yourself...and pretend your a blue collar worker in Penn or OH. Do you think for one damn second they're going to vote for the unknown over the known?!

Does that help clarify?