An Explanation of Obama Poll Numbers

The pundits keep talking about President Obama’s polling numbers falling and make it seem like the end of the world for him. He was elected by a wide margin and was mostly from the independents, the moderates and the Democrats. In order to achieve any changes in Washington, he had to find some balance within the system and to do so means moving to a more centrist viewpoint. You cannot achieve when the very Democratic Congress isn’t behind him.

So as he continues on a more centrist path, those people who are left of his views are not happy with his performance, because they wanted single payer health care, out of Iraq and Afganistan and other programs. They hoped he would be able to convince people to their viewpoint. So when a pollster calls these people and asks their opinion on President Obama, they will respond that they are not happy with his performance. But when that same pollster calls a right of center voter, they too will say they are disappointed for very different reasons.

Is the left truly disappointed in his performance? No. They are disappointed in the Congress, the Republican monolith and the fact that he has to compromise to get anything done. They would like to have President Obama fulfill his promises, but to do that he needs a Democratic Congress to stand with him. But the Democratic Caucus of the Congress is made up of many factions and I doubt any of them can agree on anything except their individual needs to be elected. The Republican caucus stands united and I’m not 100% sure why they are. I think it is because they understand power better than the Democrats and realize as the minority party that standing together will achieve their goal of returning to power.

So I discount the polling numbers because they won’t ask the question I want to ask. Are you disappointed in President Obama or are you disappointed in that he can’t get things done because no one, neither Democrats or Republicans, are willing to work with him. And in answering this, we might find that the people who voted for Obama are really still in favor of him. But in fact they hate that the Democratic Party cannot stand behind him. But pollsters don’t want to ask hard questions that lead to other questions. They are paid by people to get the pulse of the people, but to get the pulse they want to hear. Even the independent polling groups want explainable numbers and trying to tell people that the left really likes President Obama, but doesn’t like the way laws are made especially now is too difficult a message to get out.