By John W Lillpop
To paraphrase a popular saying, “If it quacks and acts like a lame duck, it MUST be… Barack Obama!”
Oh, how far and fast the mighty have fallen!
Just a mere six years ago, Barack Obama was being trumpeted all across America as The One who would eradicate decades of corruption, inequality, and unabridged evil from the body politic, thereby bringing Hope and Change to tens of millions of worthy Americans longing for a stake in the American Dream.
By the sheer force of his personal appeal and charisma, Barack would:
Replace war and conflict with diplomacy and non-stop talk as a means for resolving human differences;
Lead the world in efforts to disarm all nations;
Provide the most transparent administration in US history, thereby restoring the consent of the governed;
Heal frayed relationships between America and the Islamic world;
Through wealth redistribution and other government programs, transform America into a society where entitlements and utter dependency on government supplanted capitalism and individual responsibility as keys to economic prosperity;
Bring an end to bitter racial divisions plaguing America for centuries;
Replace the use of coal and fossil sources of energy with
affordable and clean wind and solar power;
Provide affordable health care insurance for all Americans;
End the curse of global warming, and
Eliminate borders and enforcement of immigration laws, thereby rescuing invading criminals from the shadows of American society.
So, how is The One doing, so far?
As reported at the reference, Barack Hussein Obama has fallen from the graces of the American people in a most dramatic fashion:
President Obama came into office promising to be the opposite of George W. Bush, but he is imitating his predecessor in one regard — his second-term slide in popularity is almost a mirror image of the Republican’s declining fortunes in 2005.Clearly, Barack Obama still does not get it!
Mr. Obama’s job-approval ratings in most polls this month were 40 percent or lower, down from 54 percent at the start of the year and the lowest of his presidency. Mr. Bush’s popularity in December 2005 stood at 43 percent, down from a high of 57 percent near the beginning of his second term and less than half the 90 percent-plus approval ratings in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Only Watergate-plagued Richard Nixon had a worse rating than Mr. Obama at the same point of his presidency, in 1973. Although presidents tend to lose some public approval after winning second terms, Mr. Obama’s numbers slipped more quickly than most others.
“The history of the presidency is like an hourglass with the sand running out,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential historian at the left-leaning Brookings Institution. “There is a little bump up at the start of the fifth year, and then the downward trend continues. The problem here is that Obama had such a terrible fifth year. He blew that one opportunity he had to put some things together.”
Almost from the moment of his reelection, Mr. Obama was sidetracked by scandals including the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups and revelations of widespread spying by the National Security Agency.
In October came the hapless launch of the Obamacare
web site and the public’s realization that Mr. Obama didn’t tell the truth when he assured consumers that they could keep their health insurance policies if that’s what they preferred. The president’s broken promise damaged his credibility and was chosen by an independent fact-checking group as the biggest political lie of 2013.
Asked about his plummeting numbers at a Dec. 20 news conference, Mr. Obama took refuge in the answer of all elected officials whose ratings are down: He is not worried about polls.
“I have now been in office five years, close to five years, was running for president for two years before that, and we have had ups and we have had downs,” Mr. Obama said. “I took this job to deliver for the American people, and I knew and will continue to know that there are going to be ups and downs on it.”
His lack of humility and brash arrogance all but guarantee a lame-duck legacy that rivals that of Richard M. Nixon!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/30/with-sagging-polls-barack-obama-follows-george-wbu/#ixzz2p4XFoQRe
