“After 6 Months, More View Obama’s Presidency as a ‘Failure’ Than Bush’s

A rather surprising finding from the newly released CNN poll. Question three on the national survey of 1,136 adults (which includes an oversample of African-Americans) asks, “Do you consider the first six months of the Obama administration to be a success or a failure?”

Thirty-seven percent (37%) said they believe the Obama administration is a “failure,” while 51% consider it a “success” and 11% say it’s still “too soon to tell.”

An identical question was asked of the Bush administration in an August 2001 CNN/Gallup/USA Today survey. At the time, 56% said the Bush administration was a “success” while only 32% considered it a “failure.”

President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 53.6
Disapprove 39.3
Spread +14.3

Congressional Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 30.6
Disapprove 60.8
Spread -30.2

Direction of Country
RCP Average
Right Direction 38.6
Wrong Track 54.6
Spread -16.0

Generic Congressional Vote
RCP Average
Democrats 43.3
Republicans 42.5
Democrats +0.8

http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2009/08/06/after-6-months-more-view-obamas-presidency-as-a-failure-than-bushs/

I can understand why Jay would rather talk about “irrelevant” Republicans instead of addressing the challenges facing his party.

In relation to the fair tax the base question really becomes if we should use taxes to effect some kind of behavioral change. Just because we have in the past doesn’t mean that it was the right thing to do or to keep doing. Sadly, the behavioral changes are generally undertaken by Congress in response to lobbying and campaign contributions. This has allowed big business to change the behavior of Representative and Senators to vote for favorable treatment of businesses instead of voting for the greater good. Implementing the fair tax takes away the ability of Congress to reward industries or businesses with favorable tax treatment and sticking it to citizens who have no lobbyists in D.C.

I really, truly believe that taxes were/are/always will be imposed not just to collect revenue but to effect some kind of behavioral change.

That’s why I can’t stand the pious intonations of the flat taxers and fair taxers–they’re so freaking hypocritical and clueless about history.

I accept that taxes are intended to effect these changes (whether it’s a right, left, or centrist kinda change), and choose to advocate for humane tax policies and, well, worthwhile changes.

Without claiming to know the ins and outs of this minor-league football organization–er, I mean, collegiate athletic association! that’s the ticket–based on what I’ve observed here in Jah-Juh my presumption is that this example I’ve cited is tied very, very tightly to all kinds of publicly funded enterprises. The manner in which we permit coaches and, for that matter, college presidents to be compensated by grotesquely corrupting interests would be a national scandal if Americans actually gave a good crap about their future world standing.

August 3rd, 2009
8:41 pm

We need the revenue!

August 3rd, 2009
2:23 pm

Needed, or wanted, or not, good reform will benefit us all and swing public opinion back his way. But I can’t see it happening at this point.