Criticism Flowing Like Oil, but Obama’s Rating Is Steady

[babylonsister]

Criticism Flowing Like Oil, but Obama’s Rating Is Steady
By JOHN HARWOOD


Oil has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for eight weeks now — and sent a bipartisan wave of criticism crashing into the White House.

Allies and adversaries have accused President Obama of reacting too slowly, deferring too much to BP, displaying too little emotion and demonstrating incompetent management. Fans of historical analogy compare his performance to ineffectual responses by President Jimmy Carter during the Iran hostage crisis, and President George W. Bush during Hurricane Katrina.

In other words, the crisis in the gulf has become a first-class political crisis, too.

Right?

Maybe not — or at least, not so far.

Polls show that American voters give Mr. Obama the same mixed evaluation as before the spill. They like him personally but have reservations about his policies. Roughly half approve of his performance in the Oval Office, about where the president has remained since last fall, after his initial honeymoon with Americans faded.

“It’s hard to make the case that the BP oil spill has a substantial impact on Obama’s job approval,” said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster.

more...

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/criticism-flowing-like-oil-but-obamas-rating-is-steady/

[treestar]

1. People may be learning not to let the media manipulate them

Or maybe most Americans pay not attention to Tweety, etc.

[vaberella]

2. Most American's--I think Dems/Indie's who are not on DU don't really pay attention to the news.

They focus more on their daily lives to be honest. Like I think for instance when it came to Dems in Arkansas over the whole Lincoln thing. Only two things helped her----Clinton and her status as their Senator for so long. Obama lost that state badly----so we all know Obama did nothing for the voters there----if people were going to vote or not vote it didn't depend on Obama. And apparently it was not a Union state so they don't have much clout on what goes on there.

That being said..it's people who care mainly about what they feel Lincoln has done for them and of course Clinton lovers---since that's his home state. That is to say---no matter what the media says or does means nothing to them. If they hear it, it goes into deaf ears or one ear and out the other.

I think when it comes to Obama, the general public is looking at things they see benefiting them. Probably the healthcare--when seniors really start getting their money back from the government it will be totally high-- thing is working for Obama. The school financial aid is working for Obama, you'll see DADT is going to get a lot of Independents on board again. When Obama gets back to the Gitmo thing and when this environmental disaster thing is worked out---Obama will have increases and that's because people will be directly affected by this in a substantive way.

When Obama passes banking legislation----we all know he'll probably knock on the 70s at that point. <---And then it will only be sheer racism holding him back.

[vaberella]

3. Thanks Babylonsister. This is what I've been saying.

Many people on DU are saying Obama is going to face political fall out in this and from what I'm seeing that isn't the case. People in general blame BP and not Obama unlike right here on DU. On DU you see a concerted effort by many posters to pin the tail on the donkey so to speak. So all blame falls on Obama. While the general public seems to realize that Obama is not own an oil rig, was not personally drilling for oil, and are aware that in our energy consuming climate we need oil. And so...this lies entirely on the shoulders of BP. Even if we take into account of policy---Obama has effectively associated---all failures we're seeing (be it financial system or environmental disasters) to deregulation on the part of Republicans and the Bush admin, which is true. So I think this effective maneuvering has the general public seeing something else. DU on the other hand...well it has enough Obama haters or people who don't read all the details or take them all into account---to blame Obama. So the noise is a bit skewed. If I listen too much to the posters on DU---> At times I'm led to believe the President is a failure and an asshole. Then I remember all that he has successfully done which are normally ignored or hushed about. Much like the Student loan issue---that was basically a quiet policy change because it was in the same bill as health care. So Health care dominated and the financial aid thing was ignored.

[Jennicut]

8. DU is not the enitre Dem party.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. But overall, his rating is in the 80's with all Dems.

[ProgressOnTheMove]

4. Great to hear, we're still in the game as the Democratic party are still the mosr responsive in a...

difficult situation.

[impik]

5. I hope that he won't run in 2012

[babylonsister]

6. I hear you, and agree somewhat, for Obama's sake.

The abuse he's taking from all sides is unprecedented. People should be careful about what they wish for, they might just get it.

[Robb]

7. Only here, really. He's at 85% among Dems IRL. nt

[impik]

9. It's really unbelievable. All the anger that no one dared

to display towards the "president" who really destroyed the world over 8 years - is now being poured at the janitor.