SIMON MALOY
June 19, 2014
Attention, Chuck Todd and Ron Fournier: Presidencies are killed by bad policies, not bad polls
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“This poll is a disaster for the president,” said MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on “Morning Joe.” “Essentially the public is saying, ‘your presidency is over,’” he added, referring to the finding that 54 percent feel Obama is not able to lead the country.
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OK … let’s maybe take a deep breath or two. No, the Obama presidency is not over. Obama’s approval ratings have been bouncing around in the low- to mid-40s for basically the entire year, so it’s not clear why this poll is any more of a “disaster” than the six months of polling that preceded it. Obama doesn’t have to worry about reelection, so the real concern over his low popularity is whether it will drag down Democrats in November. The same poll found that the public would, by a slight margin, prefer that Democrats control Congress following the midterms.
As for questions of legacy and “failed” presidencies, it’s tempting to confuse popularity with effectiveness. George Bush would love to have left office with an approval rating like Obama’s, but he launched two terrible wars and presided over the near total collapse of the economy. His low popularity was a symptom of the terrible things he did, but the failed policies ultimately resulted in the failed presidency.
Obama’s ledger is actually looking far better than a lot of observers give him credit for. Healthcare reform, preventing economic disaster, sweeping regulations on carbon emissions – it’s a substantial list. “If the point of being president is to do things with lasting effect,” Paul Krugman wrote recently, “Obama has delivered.”
read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/06/19/pundits_disaster_fetish_behind_the_rush_to_declare_obamas_presidency_over/
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