I’m tackling this because since it’s the headline on Drudge it’s bound to start making its rounds through the conservative talk show and blog cycle this week, so I’ll make my own preemptive strike on the issue so I don’t have to worry about complaining about it this week.
Pew released a new poll that indicates a 61% difference between Democrats and Republicans in terms of how he is handling his job. A similar poll for Bush in 2001 had a 51% difference, Clinton had a 45% difference in 1993, and the first Bush had a 38% difference in 1989. Going back further for Reagan, Carter, and Nixon, the numbers are 46%, 25%, and 29% respectively. Written out in a list form so they’re easier to see
- 61
- 51
- 45
- 38
- 46
- 25
- 29
will show that just as a general trend, politics have been becoming more partisan since the late 1960’s during a president’s first term according to polls in the March-April timeframe. This is as much Obama’s doing as it is W. Bush’s, Clinton’s, Bush’s, Reagan’s, etc. I encourage you to try to place all the blame on Obama.
Every politician says they’ll try to work with the other side better to create fairer legislation. It’s hardly Obama’s fault that there are differences on how to handle an economic crisis, mind you that’s been really the only thing that’s been seriously dealt with since his presidency started. If it hasn’t been the economy, there’s been a way to tie it into the issue if he’s already tackled it.
Let’s also not lose sight that politicians have an agenda. President Obama has an all Democrat Congress. If he requests a piece of legislation that has x,y and z components, he’ll more than likely get it. Compared to Bush, who was so conservative we really don’t know what he was, he had a Democrat controlled Senate and Republican controlled House in 2001. Think anything could get passed in that environment very easily? Clinton had Democrats in both houses of Congress, so his difference was high, but HW Bush had to put up with Democrats in both houses during his first year too, so he had to be more bi-partisan, hence a lower difference. I could go on for hours, but for the purposes of pleasing my conservative readership, Reagan had to deal with a Democratically controlled House his first year in office, so, again, not a lot got accomplished, and the numbers are eerily similar to W. Bush’s in a similar situation.
My point? It’s all a matter of what a president is faced with and their ability to get things passed. Clinton’s first term was an all Democratic government much as it is now, the numbers being virtually the same in the House and Senate. I’m sure that if he were dealing with an economic crisis much like this at that time, he would be responding in similar fashion with a similar public response. This is by no means a reflection on Obama himself, just a reflection of how the Democrats are choosing to handle the crisis and that America is still America and not everyone agrees with their chosen strategy.
Sources:
Party Politics from 1945 to 2009: http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm
Pew Research Center Article: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1178/polarized-partisan-gap-in-obama-approval-historic