Obama Negatives

Obama gets low ratings on handling of economy and fuel prices:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gas-prices-sink-obamas-ratings-on-economy-bring-parity-to-race-for-white-house/2012/03/11/gIQAuhYO6R_story.html?sub=AR

 

That STILL doesn't prove that infringing on civil liberties was the reason for it.

 

That poll was pretty eye-opening. It also had that Santorum and Romney were both within 2 or 3 points in the poll.

I wonder if that's all based on gas prices.

I still think Obama's numbers will go up considerably once he hits the campaign trail.

 

The sooner that The Republicans can pick a candidate, the better off they will be. Instead of shooting each other, they can focus on Obama. The economy is his possible Achilles heel. It's the one issue the resonates on main st. The metrics are concrete.

It's the economy that did George HW Bush in.

 

I wonder if Obama would dip into the gas reserves to make sure prices are around $3 for the month or so before the election.

 

If the Israel bombs Iran we could have $6.00 gas by fall and he would be forced to dip into reserves.

 

Just read several poli sci blogs citing research on the impact of gas prices on elections. Overall finding: By themselves, price increases have a relatively small negative effect on an incumbent's approval ratings and vote (the projection I saw was $4 gas would shave about .7 percent off Obama's total). BUT, as Boom's post indicates, rises in gas prices are often associated with other indications the world is going to hell which do seriously affect the incumbent.

 

$4 gas is one thing. If it gets over $5 people are going to freak the fuck out.

 

Since the law of supply and demand does work, economists believe that $5 gas is a point where demand destruction kicks in, people rapidly change their driving behaviors and prices fall again.
Once again, the American people, by blaming the President for any and all economic bad news, even when the bad news stems from good news (best way to have cheap gas would be 12 percent unemployment), are creating an incentive system SOME president is going to use to justify seizing total power. If people assume he or she has the powers of a despot, he or she will eventually say, I want the game as well as the name.

 

Yeah at $5 people will be paying $40 more to fill up from where they were at beginning of year. That would cost a lot of
votes.

 

Gas was the centerpiece story in Sunday's Dallas Morning News... reporters did a good job illustrating the cost of higher gas in terms of other spending. Also, since Dallas/Fort Worth is such a huge metroplex, it talks about commutes and the pitfalls higher gas brings to a family's pocketbook.

This could be a big story. Most economists don't see gas going above $4 a gallon. I'm sure they mean average national price, but here in Michigan it's $3.99.

 

The GOP is the party of Big Oil and Wall Street speculators.