Media
Related: About this forumPBS NewsHour USAToday writer and pollster can't figue out why Obama is beating Rmoney in polls
PBS Newshour Monday, Aug 20, included an interview with USAToday columnist and a pollster about Obama's poll numbers. The USA Today columnist remarked how people in the poll were not at all happy with the economy but still Obama outpolls Rmoney by a good margin. They were all quite confused. Why is it that people are not pleased about the economy yet prefer Obama by a good margin over Rmoney?
They theorized that Rmoney just doesn't connect well with people. They couldn't imagine one other possibility...THAT MAYBE DESPITE CORPORATE MEDIAS UNTIRING EFFORTS TO NOT REPORT ON THE GREAT EFFORTS OF THE GOP TO SABOTAGE ANY RECOVERY THE DEMS AND THE PRESIDENT HAVE INITIATED (SINCE OBAMA ENTERRED THE WHITE HOUSE, FILIBUSTER IS A TABOO WORD ON CORPORATE MEDIA 'NEWS' PROGRAMS)... MAYBE, JUST MAYBE MANY PEOPLE STILL KNOW THAT THE GOP HAVE BEEN DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO DOWNSIZE AND UNDERMINE ANY RECOVERY THAT THE PRESIDENT AND DEMS CAN GET GOING.
And knowing this they don't blame Obama for the meagre recovery that he's been able to produce despite the efforts of the GOP.
Obama had to downsize the original stimulus bill (ARA) by about 38% converting that much of the stimulus from stimulus to tax cuts in order to buy Republican cooperation and to get them to let the ARA pass through the Senate. As it turned out, it passed the Senate (61-37) with 3 Republicans voting for it. The Republicans demanded tax cuts instead of stimulus because they knew that going into a Depression people would not spend any tax cuts they got because when people are fearful of whether they will have a job in 6 months they won't go out and spend any additonal take-home pay they get. They will save it or use it to pay down debt. And that's what people did. Thus the stimulus bill was reduced in scope about 38% and was not as big as it should have been.
The GOP in raising the threat of a Government default on its debt threw the business community into a panic and made businesses much too cautious to hire people like they would have otherwise. Businesses are sitting on a $3 trillion hoard of liquid assets (cash and 'near' cash) rather then add new full-time employees, even though sales have been up over the last several months. Businesses are fearful the GOP will actually cause a default on the US debt so they don't hire.
Warpy
(113,131 posts)and alienating blacks, Hispanics, and every other minority group in the US could possibly have had a negative effect on their poll numbers. How could it be? They only said out loud what everybody really thinks, right?
Even among older white males, their only reliable voting bloc, there have been massive defections ever since Stupid pissed the pool.
Businesses are absolutely terrified they'll get back in. Oh, they want the Democrats stymied. However, the last thing they want right now is another round of right wing Reaganomics. They know a lot of them would go under in the ensuing full blown Depression.
still_one
(96,779 posts)Problem