OBAMA THE LAME DUCK PRESIDENT AFTER ONLY 6 MONTHS IN OFFICE~BOOT HIM OUT NOW, WHY WAIT ?

Is the American public getting steamrolled by a lame duck president?
By: J.P. Freire
Associate Commentary Editor
08/04/09 12:57 PM EDT
While every president gets a honeymoon in his first hundred days to push legislation he deems important, no one told that to President Obama who's been pushing a wide variety of unpopular measures in the hopes he can get away with it. It seems that every initiative he's taken up has either soured in the public's mind or meets with public indifference. At this rate, Obama may become a lame duck mere months into his presidency.

Here are a few examples:

Just today a new Rasmussen poll finds that 54 percent of Americans oppose giving more money for the "Cash for Clunkers" program, while only 33 percent support it. The additional funding was approved by Congress on Friday.

In June, Gallup found that the majority of Americans did not want to shut down Guantanamo Bay, despite it being one of Obama's main campaign promises.

In mid-July, most Americans felt that cap-and-trade would hurt the economy, contrary to a fierce push by Obama and Democrats in Congress. In fact, Democrats needed to grease the wheel among their own party to get support for the bill. In an all-too-weird coincidence, yes-voters wound up getting a nice bit of campaign cash in the days prior to the vote.

Gallup's Frank Newport writes that Obama's efforts to push a health care fix are met with skepticism by most voters because they don't see it as that great a crisis, though they do recognize that costs are a problem. Part of the problem? The American public is very concerned with fiscal restraint. "The push for healthcare reform is occurring in an environment characterized by high levels of concern about fiscal responsibility, government spending, and the growing federal deficit. Americans are being asked to approve major new healthcare expenditures at a time when they are not yet convinced that the last massive outlay of government money -- the stimulus -- has made an impact."

Another poll shows that 41 percent of Americans expect their taxes to go up under Obama, despite Obama's consistent promises not to hike them. That may be because Obama has already raised taxes -- on cigarettes -- and just this past weekend, both his own Treasury Secretary and economic adviser refused to go on record ruling out a tax hike.

People are so frustrated with bailouts that 46 percent of Americans said they'd be more likely to buy Ford because it didn't get a bailout.

Public support for the stimulus is tepid, given that, according to Rasmussen, 25 percent say it has helped the economy while 31 percent think it has hurt. Gallup finds a similar problem, though it chalks many of these issues up to partisanship: "Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say the stimulus has made and will make both the economy and their family's financial situation worse, and Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say the opposite. Independents are evenly divided about the economic stimulus' effect on the economy, for better or for worse, to date or in the future. They are slightly more negative than positive about its effect on their own families." So much for the post-partisan presidency.
How is it that every item on the President's agenda has met either strong disapproval or sheer indifference from the American public, when this was the presidency glorified as a realigning moment? Heck, when Obama came into office, CBS/NYTimes ran a poll showing that most Americans were happy to see government grow. Now, even the rabidly Pro-Obama bloggers at FireDogLake are wondering what went wrong:

President Obama is not very new anymore. We have all seen him operate, and he has so far not produced legislation that is “change we can believe in." But, rather, legislation that seems to reinforce the trend away from democracy and towards plutocracy. So, how can folks trust him to deliver this kind of change with health care reform?

Better question: How can folks trust him to deliver any kind of change whatsoever?

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