That was <i>The Week That Was</i> for President Obama

NEWS & COMMENTARY

That was The Week That Was for President Obama

November 23, 2009
President Obama has been having a hard time catching a break. Last week was not a good week for President Obama. He returned Saturday (11-21-09) empty handed from his much ballyhooed trip to Asia. He came back with nothing really to show for his efforts except White House spin. No accords signed, no deals made, no breakthroughs on anything.

Nonetheless he chose to give China a tremendous victory in recognizing Tibet as a part of China. Now the Dalai Lama must know how Poland trusts the United States.

He learned from world leaders while he was traveling that the Copenhagen global warming treaty is dead. The best he can hope is to spin it as "delayed" but there is no sign that China, India and Brazil will budge in their refusal to jump on the bandwagon.

This has to be understood in light of an equally unproductive tour to Europe a few weeks ago when he failed to get anyone on board his World Economic Plan or even to get NATO to help out more in Afghanistan.

His lecturing to the Africans did nothing to help Darfur or anywhere else in Africa.

He must be wondering if the Nobel Prize can be taken back.

Then we learn that hackers stole thousands of emails of global warming scientists that cast doubts on the "scientific evidence" upon which Cap and Trade and the Copenhagen treaty are based. And the impact of this is just beginning.

He learned from the Chinese that his deficit spending has its limits as the price of gold continued to new highs and the value of the dollar continued to decline. We don't know exactly what the Chinese said to him behind closed doors, but it was enough so he came out and started talking about cutting the deficit--something that had not bothered him in the least before the Chinese got hold of him.

But cut him some slack because this hit him while he was reeling from appearing weak as he broke traditional and international protocols in a groveling bow to the Japanese Emperor, as what is left of the Greatest Generation must have done back flips.

And just as he was coming up for air from all that, he got hit by his Attorney General who decided that the 9-11 hijackers would be tried in Federal Court in New York, a decision that was blasted by the Republicans who had a field day with a bumbling and fumbling Attorney General before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Polls reported that the American people, except for diehard Democrats, were strongly opposed to not only trying these terrorists in Federal Court but to closing Gitmo which Holder and Obama have promised to close by January. They now admit they can't Get-R-Done.

But the possibility now exists of the terrorists trials going badly and coming back to haunt him, essentially putting Obama's presidency at risk with virtually no protections or control over the outcome of what happens once the process begins.

Apparently he could not focus on the long term because he had do do damage control for defending the Holder Bros. Circus by saying it would show the world America gives terrorists "fair trials" while he predicted the outome of even before the clowns enter the ring.

But the reaction to Gitmo was not nearly as harsh as was information released by Team Obama that the number of jobs created, (not) by the Stimulus Plan cannot be verified as accurate.

And his chief architect of the Economic Plan is on the ropes, even with Democrats, and faces calls for him to resign. And the President learns that his Secretary of the Treasury, who had tax problems of his own, has now picked another tax cheat for one of the top positions at Treasury.

Meanwhile unemployment bumped up to an all-time high for the last quarter of century, causing a revolt by some of Obama's strongest supporters in Congress who apparently are worried about what the unemployment will do to their chances of being unemployed after the next election.

The Gallup Poll reported that his "approval" rating fell below 50% for the first time ever, with approval (48%) and disapproval (44%) being within the margin of error. Gallup typically shows higher ratings because they poll a sample of all people, rather than "likely voters." So he knows it's probably worse than it looks.

Gallup also reported that for the first time more registered voters now favor Republicans over Democrats in their preference for the 2010 mid-term congressional elections. Most significantly, independents have grown increasingly more likely to vote Republican in 2010 than for Democrats as they did in 2008. The percentage of independents approving of Congress' performance hit its lowest point of the year. And that was before the Saturday Night Shootout, in which he paid $300 million for a vote.

The Rasmussen weekly approval index poll, which has the best track record of predicting election outcomes since 2008, reported President Obama's approval rating at minus 14 the lowest it has been since he took office. Rasmussen tracks sentiments of likely voters rather than total residents.

And while his numbers were tanking we learned that, in spite of his attacks on Fox News, Sarah Palin's and Glenn Beck's ratings are rising as fast as Obama's are falling. Her book Going Rogue sold more books in its first week than any of his did, and even more than Hillary Clinton's, although not as well as Bill Clinton's but it is reported that Palin's secrets are not sufficient enough to match Bill's.

Upon returning to Washington he watched his prima donna, the Health Care Bill, almost (within one vote) go down in flames and it is in serious trouble going forward. It would have failed had it not been for a $300 million quid pro quo for one senator's vote and he's got to know the line will form right behind her for more deals that will make him look bad.

And he has yet to be able to resolve the division in his administration about what to do about Afghanistan. Meanwhile, he is seen as waffling and weak as Commander-in-Chief as Iran thumbs its noise at Obama's "diplomacy" approach and he has failed to bounce back from the debacle of mishandling the Fort Hood tragedy.

And then he gets ridiculed on Saturday Night Live. (So badly, in fact, that our editor would not let us post the link to it here.)

It was not a good week. Wonder how his golf game went Saturday?

Reader Feedback

Click to view 2 Reader Feedback.