Apocalypse Not: Are the Dems Really Facing Doom?

By Joe Klein Thursday, Jul. 22, 2010
TIME

In the midst of the mid-July doldrums, Barack Obama suddenly was beset by a zeitgeist tornado blowing in — hard — from the media and the opposition. A Washington Post headline blared that "6 in 10 Americans Lack Faith in Obama." The Drudge Report, rippling off the poll, screamed, "CREDIBILITY CRISIS." The New York Times asked 15 brilliant people to give the sinking Prez advice on its op-ed page. Charles Krauthammer, the neoconservative columnist, argued that the worst part of Obama's failure was that he was succeeding — he was reversing Reaganism, with legislation like the health care and financial-reform bills. The President's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, noted, accurately, that the Democratic Party might lose the House of Representatives in the coming elections. This droplet of candor rendered the Speaker of said House, Nancy Pelosi, inexplicably apoplectic. Various commentators began to speculate that it was possible that the Democrats could lose the Senate as well.

Yikes. With all the hyperventilation, it was easy to gain the impression that something was actually happening. In truth, not much was. Take that Washington Post poll, for example. It was true that 57% of those surveyed had only some or no faith in the President's ability to solve the country's problems. But that was pretty good compared with, well, everyone else in town: 67% lacked faith in the congressional Democrats, and a mere 72% felt that way about the Republicans. By the way, the lack of faith in the President's ability to fix the economy seems entirely rational to me: another short-term stimulus burst is needed, and so are long-term deficit-reduction fixes, but both seem beyond the Administration's capability right now. On the other hand — in the midst of a fierce recession and the oil spill and a massive Republican smear campaign — Obama's approval rating stood at a buoyant 50%, which was slightly higher than most other polls had him, all of which were higher than Ronald Reagan's at a similar point in his presidency.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2005663,00.html

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