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Originally Posted by Phaneuf3
Regarding approval ratings, I would say that a decent chunk of that poor rating is due to expectations. A lot of people put very, very unrealistic expectations on him that he had no chance at being fulfilled. He came into power trying to deal with basically most major banks on the brink of collapsing, the entire global economy heading into the biggest depression since the 30's, America having an extremely poor global image around the world, two unwinnable wars that have no end in sight.... There is so much wrong that he's not going to be able to turn America into a utopia in 18 months like some people were expecting.
I would say the job he's done so far is adequate. He's dropped the ball thus far on a few things like restoring civil liberties, getting rid of the patriot act, etc. but I feel his biggest shortcoming is this health care mess. That one would be hard to pin on him alone. From what I've been able to tell, its not his fault that it hasn't been done. It seems the republicans are trying to stop any sort of reform without trying to reach any sort of meaningful compromise. It simply seems like a tactic to put up roadblocks everywhere to try to make him look bad rather than trying to work with Democrats to try to improve the country.
It's a gong show down there and I'll admit that I'm relatively young and haven't been as politically aware as long as some, but this seems like the most divided their country has been in some time.
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Being a person that lives in the US now I'd have to say that the biggest impact on his ratings right now is the reform of health care (aka Obamacare). The Democrats have enough votes in Congress and in the Senate to pass the health care bill, so I'm afraid you can't place the blame of it not passing at the feet of the Republicans. The Republicans are working to make sure that everyone is aware of what is in the bill but simply put don't have enough votes to stop it.
The majority of voters do not like the result of the health care bills floating around which has given some Democrats cold feet which has slowed the bill (thank goodness). The Democrats have done everything behind closed doors and is extremely partisan (despite Obamas promises all negotiations will be on C-SPAN). The blame for the healthcare mess rests solely with the Obama and the Democrats.