A test of President Obama's popularity?

Prior to the elections in early November 2009, the buzz was all about whether the elections would go with or against President Obama. In the matter of just over nine months, he had rapid change of fortune. The opinions had changed from overwhelming popularity to something bordering on contempt. Everyone waited for the outcome of the election. If the Democrats did well, they would spin the election as an affirmative vote on President Obama's performance. If the Republicans did well, the Democrats would spin the election as being determined by local issues.

Unencumbered

At the nine month point in the Obama presidency, his popularity was at a low point. President Obama and his minions in Congress, had proceeded without concern about whether their policies either worked or were popular. Being unencumbered by such concerns, they were liberated from much of the conventional politics. They had blithely implemented the laundry list of progressive policy positions that were well-known to insiders in the circle of leftist policy theorists. The possible flaw in this strategy is that they seem to have not considered that they could lose control of Congress after the 2010 elections and lose the presidency in the 2012 elections. They had bet the farm that the Republicans were so hapless as to be incapable of opposing them.

Obama unmasked

By the fall of 2009, the American people were learning just who they had elected to the Presidency of the United States in 2008. Obama had showed himself to be a radical leftist with little experience. He was good at producing happy talk but was short on ideas or results. That revelation was disappointing to everyone, as even his opponents had hoped that he would have a chance at success. After all, everyone would benefit by positive results, even if you disagreed with Obama's political philosophy. Obama continued to benefit by the equal lack of solutions and political savvy on the Republican side.

Obama starts using Richard Nixon's playbook from 1972 and 1973

There were observers who were surprised when President Obama started using Richard Nixon's playbook from 1972 and 1973. They should not have been surprised, because the methods used by Nixon to do research about the opposition and to use organized force to discourage demonstrations. Nixon used union thugs and so that was a natural group for Obama to use as well. In Obama's case, he use the SEIU membership to pummel the "Tea Party" demonstrators against "Health Care Reform" (a plan to nationalize the health care system and to ultimately implement socialized medicine).

In six short months, Barack Obama's presidency was showing signs of unraveling

In his first six months, Barack Obama had started to turn his supporters away. We theorize that he was elected on the basis of unrealistic expectations by voters. They expected him to stop the fighting in the two wars, revive the economy, give everyone in the country the same health insurance as middle-class Americans, and create better relations with the countries of the world.

Little of that was ever a real possibility. Instead of taking the steps that would achieved some measure of that agenda, the economy was bad for the average person. They feared for their jobs and income. There continued to be many home foreclosures. There were still half a million workers losing their jobs every month. The stock market had rebounded, but that seemed to be based on either market manipulation or unreasonable hope, as large corporate revenues had plummeted in the last year. The price of gasoline was rising. The government had run up a record deficit in just six months. There was talk of rationing health care and degrading the health care of people who were happy with what they had. What would happen next?

Obama seemed too much like Hugo Chavez

There were many moving pieces in play by late June 2009. Many people were getting uncomfortable with how much Obama reminded them of Hugo Chavez, Communist dictator of Venezuela. Not everyone wanted to have a Communist dictator. Even in Central America, a friend of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro was overthrown in a coup on about June 28, 2009. America seemed to be stuck with their leftist president and congress, however. Obama, true to form, supported the deposed Communist dictator.

The entire world situation was very unstable, what with the North Koreans ready to launch a possibly nuclear-tipped missile towards Hawaii on July 4th and Iran continuing to be in turmoil.

Heaps of wreckage

Looking back, the amazing thing was how President Obama could do so much damage in just his first 4-1/2 months in office. He debased the currency, drove up real interest rates, destroyed the American automobile industry, and was well on his way to running record deficits. Already, by the end of May 2009, there were rumblings from Americans in the red state country that indicated a growing unrest. The more timid hoped that the unrest would not erupt into violence.

The first 100 days

Looking back on Barack Obama's first 100 days in office as president, we can see that he had been on a tear and had spent money faster than all the other presidents combined. As his chief-of-staff, Rahm Emmanuel had said: "Never let a good crisis go to waste". They took the opportunity with the "stimulus bill" to service all their constituencies, giving them a healthy shot of cash. The overall American economy didn't receive much benefit, but the important groups got what they wanted and needed. The amazing thing was that with the media in full-cry as Obama cheerleaders, so many people rated his performance as an "F" (almost have in two polls that should have been biased in favor of Obama).

There was increasing concern about Obama

By early April 2009, Barack Obama was showing his true colors. He was intent on implementing the dream agenda of the radical left and was meeting with the hitherto shunned Third World dictators, such as Raoul Castro and Hugo Chavez. Chavez may have actually been to Obama's left. Harder to understand were Obama's overtures to the leaders of Iran, who were anything but leftists. If America were ruled by men like those governing Iran, most of Obama's supporters would be dead. It was all very strange.

Early April 2009

By early April 2009, President Obama had spun a story that had caused the stock markets to rebound from their post-inauguration lows. They were really spurred by speculators trying to make money on commodities and the stock market before the world economy took an even worse turn. The President and his partisans had effectively used the panic in the country to allow a binge of wasteful spending that would do little good to restore the country's economic health. Time was working against the President, as events continued to move forward and there was increasing fear of civil unrest as more people were laid off from work.

Obama's first two months

In retrospect, the American populace should not have been surprised at the reaction to Barack Obama's actions in his first two months in office. At that early point, supporters were disappointed at his constant bumbling, far worse than that exhibited by George W. Bush. People were just starting to understand that Obama could not speak without a teleprompter and script. If he got the wrong script, he would say the wrong thing. His policies were a shock, as he was intent on implementing as quickly as possible, a far-left dream list of policies. Most people who voted for him had just assumed that he would give them a presidency similar to President Clinton, but with more style. Instead, they were getting another Jimmy Carter, with all the drawbacks of Carter, with a much more radical agenda, and even more inept than his role model.

As the country lurched into a depression, people were amazed

Six weeks into the Obama administration, in early 2009, people were amazed that President Obama seemed oblivious to the consequences of his far-left policies that he was bent on implementing. The man who could only speak with the aid of a teleprompter could only spin what was happening as being somehow positive. Events seemed to be beyond his control, however, as the stock market plunged faster than it had in the previous Great Depression. There was widespread talk, out of the media, about the country and world splipping into a new depression.

After only a month, the country seemed to be in a nose dive

Based on the stock market and economic metrics, the United States seemed to be crashing after only a month of President Obama's term in office. He seemed to be worried, but seemed bent on implementing the leftist agenda that had been discussed over the last eight years. The stock market and the economy seemed to be at the point of crashing, as the outlines of the Obama agenda became clearer. This was in late February of 2009. The Democrats could control the dialog, but couldn't control the country.

The fact that the Obama administration was off to a rocky start should not have been surprising

In early 2009, the new Obama administration brought new people into government and a group that had been out of power for over eight years. We should not have been surprised that they would make mistakes in the early days. Their one achievement was enacting the blank check spending bill that they used to funnel money to Democratic constituencies and into pork programs. They looked at the opportunity as license to pay off themselves and their friends. The label "Stimulus Bill" simply was available cover for the real purpose.

President Obama

While his leftist supporters must have been uneasy about Barack Obama's initial political appointments, they would have been pleased that he was enacting the dream liberal agenda by dictat. All the executive orders of Reagan and the two Bushes were quickly overruled by orders of the new president. He also ignored the wounded state of the American auto industry and enacted tough new standards that would have to be financed by the American public in the form of higher prices. So much for the moderate or centrist!

A new depression?

For the people living through January 2009, the world looked to be entering a new "Great Depression". At least at the beginning of the month, the situation still was not that dire. The new president seemed bent on doing whatever he could to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. Another wild card was the threat of Islamic terrorist attack on the inauguration of Barack Obama.