More anxiety, less excitement; Obama and Republicans face a downbeat electorate

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — If President Barack Obama wants North Carolina in his win column again next year, he might have to count on Elliott Johnson’s quiet, even grudging, acceptance rather than the riotous enthusiasm that propelled him to the White House in 2008.

Johnson, a 23-year-old college graduate with a new accounting degree in hand, is an intern at a commercial real estate firm. He would like something more permanent. But many of his college friends aren’t finding work, either, and he’s counting on a breakthrough in the economy.

“We have to do something different,” he said, pausing at a downtown street corner on a sweltering afternoon.

Johnson supported libertarian-leaning Republican Ron Paul, a Texas congressman, for president in 2008, but he’s now open to giving Obama a try.

(...)

For the president, struggling against 9.1 percent unemployment and a sluggish economic recovery, that might be as good as it gets these days.

Nationally, his approval ratings hover around or just below 50 percent. But public opinion surveys find that a large majority disapproves of his handling of the economy and even more believe the economy is in a rut. That means the economy will be a dominant factor in determining how many people vote for president next year.

That will be especially critical in contested states such as North Carolina, which hadn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976 until Obama eked out a victory three years ago.

Full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/more-anxiety-less-excitement-obama-and-republicans-face-a-downbeat-electorate/2011/06/11/AGCGHLQH_singlePage.html