Obama's Approval Rating Drops To 43% For Good Reason
Gallup polling tracks the percentages of Americans who approve and disapprove of the job President Barack Obama is doing as president, daily. It wasn't long ago – April 24, 2012, as a matter of fact – that I wrote an article about Obama hitting a 50% approval rating. It didn't last long.
During that particular week, gas prices dropped slightly and the only negative headlines about anything in Washington, D.C. was Obama complaining things are former-President Bush and Congress's fault.
However, shortly thereafter, gas prices quit going down and Obama's approval rating quit going up.
Now that the prices have become stable after the decline, and now that people understand that the small decrease in gas prices still leaves the cost too high, people have turned to other concerns. Americans have plenty to pick from. The concerns could be about the high 8.2 unemployment rate, uncertain and unpredictable foreign affairs, or gnawing domestic policy problems.
People are obviously tired – make that sick and tired – of the same headlines with no solutions in sight. Everything seems to be on-hold and has been on-hold since Obama became president. The proof is in the numbers – the approval rating numbers.
Right now, people wonder: how long will the "Fast and Furious"controversy drag on before all parties finally come clean and tell what happened so we can move past it? More appropriately: will all parties involved ever come clean? The story has dragged on for two years with no end in sight.
Stories with alleged wrongdoings from the Oval Office on down aren't the only concerns Americans have about their government since Obama has been in office.
There's the concern of Obama's health care plan. How long will Americans be in limbo regarding the health care fiasco? Will Americans have to buy insurance by 2014 or get a fine or not? Will it make a difference, depending on which state you live in? Are we going to end up paying inflated payments to help cover everyone who can't afford insurance? Americans have so many unanswered questions since Obama got elected and turned everything upside down. Nearly four years later, the questions and confusion remains. Nothing of vital importance is ever resolved with this presidency.
Remember how Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said we'd understand Obama's health care plan after it passed? Someone needs to tell Rep. Pelosi that it passed a long time ago and most people still don't have a clue.
Granted, part of the confusion and apprehension can be attributed to the court battle surrounding the law. That will now come to an end as the Supreme Court will announce its decision on Obama's Affordable Health Care Act any day now, but that will only lead to more confusion. A poll released Wednesday indicates that regardless of what the Supreme Court decides on Obama's health care plan, a whopping two-thirds of Americans want the entire law scrapped and restarted from scratch. In other words, after nearly four years of discussion, debate, threats, and frustration regarding Obama's health care plan, nothing has been solidly accomplished.
Aware Americans realize that not much of anything has been accomplished in the past four years under the Obama presidency and his administration. Major catastrophic controversies have been caused at every turn because most every suggestion is so "off the wall". The stagnancy in government and lack of solutions under Obama's administration is getting to Americans.
The most recent polls show America's frustration with all of Obama's endless talk and non-results. His current Gallup poll approval rating is a dismal 43%. Of course, it makes some aptly wonder what those 43% who approve are thinking.
Five months before the presidential election, this rating is disastrous for Obama – almost as disastrous as the lack of any results for America these past four years.
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political news and commentary for CBS Local and Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
