Fall elections may hinge on Obama
Most Americans don’t actively dislike President Obama; they just think he does not know how to bring the economy back to life. And that’s why the upcoming elections are going to be riveting. The White House denies November will be a referendum on Obama; the White House is wrong. The most telling poll question is always: Do you think the country is on the right track or the wrong track? Two out of three Americans now emphatically say, “Wrong track.”
Giving his version of the “war-is-now-over-in-Iraq” speech, Obama promised to plunge full-speed into improving the economy. Too little. Too late. Too clueless. And our soldiers still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, now referred to by pundits as “Obama’s war.” (Obama says nothing about capturing Osama bin Laden. He did say, “No challenge is more essential to our security than our fight against al Qaeda.” He added, “And because of our drawdown in Iraq, we are now able to apply the resources necessary to go on offense.”)
Then Obama went into marathon negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority working full-tilt on trying to bring peace to the Middle East.
Yes, presidents must be multi-taskers, but voters understandably are angry. The Obama administration promised the stimulus package would bring unemployment down from 10 percent to 8 percent; it’s stuck at 9.5 percent. The housing picture is a mess. Auto sales are not growing sufficiently despite the bailout. The stock market gyrations make investors and retirees nervous wrecks. But, mostly, we want jobs.
The departure from the White House of Christine Romer, Obama’s top economist, was telling. She left basically admitting that about the only solution she sees to a more robust economy is another big chunk of federal stimulus spending. That’s not going to happen; Congressional Republicans – and some Democrats – will block it.
In Romer’s farewell-to-Washington speech as she headed back to academia in California, she said her tenure has been “scary as hell” and “terrifying” and “uncharted territory” and that this is definitely not your father’s recession. T he cheeriest she seems to capable of being is insisting Obama helped prevent another Great Depression.
One big problem for the White House is that voters are right – Obama is out of options on handling an economic crisis, which, obviously, he didn’t start. Economists agree the crisis would have been far worse if he had not acted. But now he doesn’t know what to do to get employers to start hiring. Short of the fullness of time, nobody does. Republicans are jumping up and down demanding tax cuts for the rich and less spending; Democrats are jumping up and down demanding more spending and tax hikes on the rich.
The big winners in November are going to be “Washington outsiders” who want to come to town and raise, pardon the expression, hell. (Two “hells” in one column – we really are in a bad period.)
It now looks almost inevitable that Republicans will win control of the House and gain seats in the Senate although not the majority. Come January, with several dozen new legislators all trying to make names for themselves and Obama trying to be heard above the din, we can be fairly certain chaos will ensue.
Another wrinkle in 2011 is that the 2012 presidential race will commence. I know. Aarrgghh. And then we will be engaged 24/7 in debating whether Sarah Palin is running for president or is content becoming wealthy and putting fellow Tea Partiers into office.
There is little Obama can do now to influence November elections. There will be no economic miracle before November. Voters are too upset to do realistic evaluations of out-of-the-woodwork candidates they don’t know much about but who, at least, are not incumbents and vow never to compromise. Unfortunately, effective governing remains the art of compromise.
(Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House and national politics since 1986. E-mail amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.)