Obama"s Broken Promises - How President Obama Has Alienated Liberals, Independents and Conservatives
In eleven short months, President Obama's approval rating has fallen so far that he now has the lowest approval rating ever for a President at this point in his term.
How did President Obama fall so far, so fast? In his first four months in office, President Obama enjoyed an approval rating approaching 70%.
In recent weeks, his approval rating has dipped below 50%.
This massive drop in approval rating cannot come from Republicans alone, but indicates that both independents and Democrats have become disenfranchised with President Obama.
In fact, recent polls have shown him falling as much as 12% among Democrats alone.
Through his first eleven months, President Obama has managed to alienate both the left and the right -- not an easy task.
To understand why more and more Americans are becoming unhappy with his leadership, we first need to look at some of the promises that President Obama made during the campaign and in the early months of his Presidency.
Some of Barack Obama's promises are:
They see his decision to increase the troop level in Afghanistan as nearly unforgivable.
They don't like the fact that he hasn't told congress that any health care bill without a public option is a non-starter, because liberals view the public option as the stepping stone to the ultimate goal, which is a single payer system.
Independents and moderate Democrats believed President Obama's promise of transparency and changing how Washington works.
They believed him when he said he would be fiscally responsible and when during the first presidential debate he promised that "absolutely, we need earmark reform and when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.
" Instead of transparency and bi-partisanship, the President joked, "I won" when asked why Republicans weren't involved in authoring the stimulus bill.
Instead of bipartisan negotiations on health care reform televised on C-SPAN, Democratic Senators and Congressmen held closed door meetings and negotiations that Republicans were not allowed to attend.
President Obama was not only aware of these negotiations, but attended some of the sessions.
His promise of fiscal responsibility and fighting earmarks now rings hollow.
The two budget bills and stimulus bill contain over 15,000 earmarks.
The US Government is set to run at least a $1.
9 trillion budget deficit, and the White House has asked Congress to pass a bill increasing the national debt ceiling by almost $2 trillion, bringing it to $14 trillion.
When President Bush left office, the national debt was $10.
8 trillion.
It is much easier to understand why conservatives are unhappy with President Obama.
In short, they view him as the fiscally irresponsible, partisan president that they feared prior to the election.
When left-wing sites like the Huffington Post start to call out President Obama, it isn't good news for the President.
David Sirota writes about the demoralized Democratic base, "destroying a political base often isn't only about one single issue...
it's about a set of issues and, even further, an overall feeling of demoralization -- one that can't be turned around a few weeks before an election with some cynical press releases and inspiring speeches.
" It is time for President Obama to stop campaigning, and start being the Commander in Chief, the leader of both our country and the free world.
On the campaign trail, you can get away with changing your position and promises, based on the group you are addressing.
As President, you are held to a much higher standard.
Many critics of President Obama said that the only real experience he had was campaigning.
His first eleven months in office are making those claims ring true.
How did President Obama fall so far, so fast? In his first four months in office, President Obama enjoyed an approval rating approaching 70%.
In recent weeks, his approval rating has dipped below 50%.
This massive drop in approval rating cannot come from Republicans alone, but indicates that both independents and Democrats have become disenfranchised with President Obama.
In fact, recent polls have shown him falling as much as 12% among Democrats alone.
Through his first eleven months, President Obama has managed to alienate both the left and the right -- not an easy task.
To understand why more and more Americans are becoming unhappy with his leadership, we first need to look at some of the promises that President Obama made during the campaign and in the early months of his Presidency.
Some of Barack Obama's promises are:
- Change the way Washington works
- Bring transparency to the White House
- Fiscal responsibility -- restore 'pay as you go' and tell Congress they can only spend a dollar if they save a dollar
- Have all health care negotiations televised on C-SPAN
- Work in a bi-partisan fashion not seen before
- Not allow federal dollars to fund abortion
- Require a strong public option in the health care bill
They see his decision to increase the troop level in Afghanistan as nearly unforgivable.
They don't like the fact that he hasn't told congress that any health care bill without a public option is a non-starter, because liberals view the public option as the stepping stone to the ultimate goal, which is a single payer system.
Independents and moderate Democrats believed President Obama's promise of transparency and changing how Washington works.
They believed him when he said he would be fiscally responsible and when during the first presidential debate he promised that "absolutely, we need earmark reform and when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.
" Instead of transparency and bi-partisanship, the President joked, "I won" when asked why Republicans weren't involved in authoring the stimulus bill.
Instead of bipartisan negotiations on health care reform televised on C-SPAN, Democratic Senators and Congressmen held closed door meetings and negotiations that Republicans were not allowed to attend.
President Obama was not only aware of these negotiations, but attended some of the sessions.
His promise of fiscal responsibility and fighting earmarks now rings hollow.
The two budget bills and stimulus bill contain over 15,000 earmarks.
The US Government is set to run at least a $1.
9 trillion budget deficit, and the White House has asked Congress to pass a bill increasing the national debt ceiling by almost $2 trillion, bringing it to $14 trillion.
When President Bush left office, the national debt was $10.
8 trillion.
It is much easier to understand why conservatives are unhappy with President Obama.
In short, they view him as the fiscally irresponsible, partisan president that they feared prior to the election.
When left-wing sites like the Huffington Post start to call out President Obama, it isn't good news for the President.
David Sirota writes about the demoralized Democratic base, "destroying a political base often isn't only about one single issue...
it's about a set of issues and, even further, an overall feeling of demoralization -- one that can't be turned around a few weeks before an election with some cynical press releases and inspiring speeches.
" It is time for President Obama to stop campaigning, and start being the Commander in Chief, the leader of both our country and the free world.
On the campaign trail, you can get away with changing your position and promises, based on the group you are addressing.
As President, you are held to a much higher standard.
Many critics of President Obama said that the only real experience he had was campaigning.
His first eleven months in office are making those claims ring true.