White Voters, Easy Marks For Controversy Stokers
Obama’s numbers are in free fall in the “crucial bloc” of white voters.* It’s the fault of controversy-stoking conservative conspiracy theorists. LA Times explains all:
New surveys show steep declines in Obama’s approval ratings among whites — including Democrats and independents — who were crucial elements of the diverse coalition that helped elect the country’s first black president.
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.
“While Obama has a lock on African Americans, his support among white voters seems to be almost in a free fall,” said veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse.
Strategists in both parties blame Obama’s decline on growing discontent with his policy agenda, particularly after a month of often-rowdy debate over his proposed healthcare overhaul, in which some conservatives accused him of socialism. Obama’s ratings seem likely to rise again if he wins passage of healthcare legislation this fall.
But the drop in support among whites also comes as some conservatives have stoked controversies that have the potential to further erode Obama’s standing among centrists — including some controversies that resulted from White House stumbles.
One such episode came to a head Sunday when Van Jones, Obama’s green jobs czar, resigned after a week of criticism over past inflammatory statements and for signing onto conspiracy theories questioning whether the U.S. government played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks. A White House official acknowledged Sunday that Jones had been vetted less rigorously than other officials.
In another episode, some conservatives have criticized a White House dinner invitation issued to the lead lawyer in the American Civil Liberties Union lawsuits that have forced the government to disclose Bush-era interrogation techniques. The lawyer was invited to an event for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
And Obama’s plan to address the nation’s schoolchildren Tuesday has prompted an outcry among some conservative parents and GOP officials. Some of them have accused the White House of trying to infuse “socialism” into the minds of young people.
If only the conservatives would stop accusing him of socialism, he’d be able to pass the wealth-redistributing, government-dominated, private health-care demolishing health care reforms Americans are demanding. If only the conservatives would stop accusing him of socialism, he’d still have an avowed communist who believes our own government perpetrated the single worst act of terrorism in history running a cockamie plan to boost the economy by decimating industry. If only the conservatives would stop calling him a socialist, he’d be enlisting the nation’s bright-eyed schoolchildren this very morning to help him do whatever he wanted the nation’ bright-eyed schoolchildren to help him do. If only conservatives hadn’t criticized him for inviting the ACLU lawyer who sought to undermine the nation’s war on those terrorists over for Ramadan dinner … um … he wouldn’t have been criticized for inviting the ACLU lawyer who sought to undermine the nation’s war on those terrorists over for Ramadan dinner.
After that, the LA Times starts warming over the secret Muslim, born-elsewhere stuff, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers stuff, which seems a bit unfair, seeing as that was as thoroughly aired before the election as the Obama-adoring press lets any of this stuff be aired, and it obviously didn’t work then.
Pew first identified a slippage in white support immediately after a news conference in July, when Obama surprised many by saying that a white police officer had acted “stupidly” in arresting a black Harvard professor.
Hang on, I thought that one was about what a regular guy Obama is, has the guys over for beer, rolls his sleeves up, hashes it all out man to man. OK, he did come off as a kneejerk racist and glaringly unpresidential at first. Especially when, the next day, the newspaper I work for reported that the white cop in question had once thrown his all into saving a black man’s life and is a highly regarded racial sensitivity instructor. It was kind of sad watching Obama and Prof. Henry Louis Gates mouthing off for the cameras the night before that broke, knowing what was going in the next day’s paper. If only Skip had returned our calls …
Still unclear is whether Obama’s slide in the polls is due solely to his policies, or questions about his personal background or allegiances.
I dunno, LA Times seems to be pretty clear on that point, seeing as LA Times waste any space examining how unpopular and bizarre some of the president’s policies are. Wait a minute, here it is. They buried some lip service under more of the personal background and allegiance questioning.
Surveys show that the vast majority of Americans like Obama personally, but that they are increasingly skeptical of policies that seem to expand the scope of government.
“We’re having an economic culture war,” (Democratic pollster David) Beattie said.
“The criticisms of Obama are about the fundamental role of government in our economy.”
That’s a good point. Distracted by its own heavy focus on questions about the president’s personal background or allegiances, LA Times overlooks the part when conservatives criticized Obama for letting the Democratic leadership in Congress run up a $1.3 trillion deficit comprised mainly of Democratic pork within weeks of his taking office. Also, that the socialized medicine he is hurtfully being accused of pushing is being pushed in the middle of the worst recession in decades, and would vastly expand the reach of government into the most personal aspects of our lives. And that on both scores, the president’s shown a disappointing lack of political and leadership skills, possibly the result of the lack of experience … which is another conservative flogging point the LA Times overlooks.
That’s before you get to the other bits the LA Times didn’t mention, like how Obama’s State Department invited Iranian mullahs over for hot dogs on the Fourth of July. (The mullahs were too busy smashing domestic dissent, developing nukes and mocking Obama. They couldn’t make it.) Then, there was the secret letter he wrote to the Russkies offering to abandon our eastern European allies in exchange for help with the mullahs. (The Ivans thought that was so funny, they shared the joke with everyone.) Then, there were the bizarre slights to our staunchest ally. You know, Churchill’s bust in a box, DVDs and a sidelining for the PM, iPod for the queen. Then, there was the big Cairo Islamic suck-up/Israel under the bus-throwing speech. Help me out here, I’m starting to lose track …
In other unpopularity business, LA Times also fails to note that the far left … comprised in large parts of white voters … has been criticizing Obama for maintaining key elements of the hated Bush GWOT, or failing to move decisively enough to shut them down; and for failing to support the gay rights agenda when not acting against it. Then, there’s that unpopular war thing. Funny how a good war, the one everyone said had to be fought, can turn around and bite a president in the ass.
* Let’s see. White voters make up about 74 percent of the electorate. Fair enough, that qualifies as a “crucial bloc.” Given the LA Times’ observation that vast swaths of America’s electorate is so susceptible to conspiracy-theorizing and criticism of phenomenally bad policy and politicking, a key question unaddressed in this article is why black voters are immune to it.
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Topics: Obama
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:36 am Comments (3) on Tuesday, September 8, 2009
3 Responses to “White Voters, Easy Marks For Controversy Stokers”
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September 8th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Still unclear is whether Obama’s slide in the polls is due solely to his policies, or questions about his personal background or allegiances.
Um… I’m going with both. And or all.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:15 am
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September 9th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I’d say his slide is due to his failure to live up to the hype that got him elected. His celebrated communication skill has turned out to be reading a teleprompter well and what turns out to be a rather boring lecturing style. His fabled brilliance is showing a lot of cracks as he makes goofy arguments and misstates facts. And people who didn’t bother to check on his background prior to the election are belatedly realizing that he has the political philosophy of a Commie revolutionary intent on establishing European socialist state here.