An interesting development is taking place in the Obama presidency. The more Donald Trump attacks his policies, his temperament and his character, the higher president Obama's approval ratings have been climbing.
In a new CNN/ORC poll, President Obama hit an all time high mark for his second term with a stunning 55% approval rating.
As the article says, a year ago the president was polling ten points lower.
Gee, I wonder why?
Crime rates are very low in America and job growth has continued to recover after the disastrous Bush/Cheney global financial meltdown, but Trump continues to paint America as a country overrun by thugs and killers that are shooting you as you walk across the street.
Donald Trump has used the entire conservative playbook from right wing websites, Fox News and AM hate talk radio to advance in Republican circles and it is killing his chances in the general election.
Conservatives have been influenced for thirty years by the Limbaughs of the right and so in the GOP, Trump was able to win the primary by speaking to their fears that white America is dying, being overrun by Mexican rapists while ISIS has sent sleeper agents to kill you in your sleep.
Oh, and let's not forget that President Obama wasn't really an American citizen either.
His continued berating of the first African American President has not gone well. And his idea of reaching out to the black community was to paint their entire existence as one of crack, single moms, crime and unemployment
And for Trump's final pitch, he reached out to African American voters by saying, "What do you have to lose?"
Well, a lot!
America was in great economic shape during the Bill Clinton presidency, and even though Al Gore won the popular vote, George Bush, with the help of Florida and the Supreme Court won the general election.
How did that turn out for America? I think we'd all agree and say about as bad as it possibly ever could be.
Paul Waldman writes this in the WaPo:
Let’s think about the 2000 election as a comparison to this one. We remember that as a quiescent moment, when everything seemed fine and the public didn’t perceive that the election had enormous stakes. In that context, the Republicans’ argument boiled down to, “Let’s do things a little differently.” Bush portrayed himself as an affable guy who would come to Washington, institute some reforms here and there, and get along with everybody. He wasn’t promising radical change, even if in many ways that’s what he delivered. So just under a majority of the voters said, “Sure, why not give this guy a shot — what’s the worst that could happen?”
Unfortunately for President Obama, he was left with trying to dig out of a depression like economy and two failed wars in the middle east that has spurred the rise of terrorism in the world while being saddled with an obstructionist Republican Congress.
And that was just the beginning.
