A recent analysis from Sept. 3-28 by Real Clear Politics on President Obama’s job approval on the economy and on foreign policy demonstrates the negative trend that mirrors the negative effects of the economy and the lack of leadership on the world stage.
Obama’s domestic job approval for this period is an average 41.7 percent, with 53.3 percent disapproving. On foreign policy he’s at 35.5 percent approval and 56.7 percent disapproval. This tracking takes into account six polls.
{mosads}Longer-term tracking has the president’s approval ratings flat at best for the last several months.
In spite of his recent projected (though not really strong) stance on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Obama cannot overcome a big determinant factor. The economy is personal, and foreign policy is foreign to most Americans. Presidents often switch from domestic to foreign policy — and vice versa — when one approach fails. In any rational analysis regardless of party affiliation, Americans now know that we have had an absent president not only on domestic issues but on foreign as well.
He doesn’t attend half of his intelligence briefings. There is disturbing detail in a recent Government Accountability Institute report that Obama attended his daily in-person briefings barely 42 percent of the time. Could this be just more of the Obama plausible deniability that has been his modus operandi since his days as a state senator in Illinois?
Look at the track record and a few of Obama’s not so finer points.
As reported by factcheck.org, according to reports by The New York Times and The Associated Press, then-state Sen. Obama voted “present” 129 times.
This translates to a little more than 3 percent of the 4,000 votes he cast as a member of the state Senate.
Voting “present” allows lawmakers a way out when it comes to tough issues that could be politically damaging. But voting “present” is not what voters send them into office to do.
While president and during one of the worst recessions and tough economic times for more than one-third of the working population in America, Obama met with his Jobs Council just four times in two years.
Under Obama, the United States has not had a budget, working under continuing resolution after continuing resolution. Certainly his best ally in the Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), helps him in this effort. The only budget he ever produced was voted down 97 to nothing in the Senate, which Democrats control.
For those who support his promised immigration reform in his first 100 days, it was nothing more than political gamesmanship, and with control of Congress clinched, Obama never delivered.
Clearly his priority was not what he claimed on the campaign trail.
Willfully or deliberately ignorant, plausible deniability is no way to govern. The numbers may be fodder for political discussion but the human element — the Americans who are unemployed, underemployed or have left the workforce — are the true victims.
In spite of the left’s claims, we should not ignore the effect on businesses from Main Street to Wall Street and everywhere in-between, including global corporations. All of them make decisions that affect Americans in some manner. It could be the job that does not exist or does not develop from growth as a company. It is also an effect on the tax base that supports the very programs the Obama administration believes in. This should be alarming to Obama supporters because the money they need for their big-government programs will continue to disappear, especially at the municipal, county and state levels.
So what can be done about this? Tragically, not much. A large part — too large a part — of America will have to grin and bear the remaining two years of this presidency. Many will survive and some unfortunately will not. We face great dangers with radical Islam and the world faces the same danger without American leadership. This is a significant clear and present threat to our society.
We must steel our American will against the challenges we face at home and abroad. We cannot let President Obama on the domestic or the global stage bring this country to the point of not being able to recover. This is where the strength and creativity of the American spirit and our resiliency stands as our very real hope. In spite of all this, the great thing about America is her ability to recover from disaster, be it natural or — in this case — political and economic.
Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, a Fox News contributor and has appeared frequently on television as a commentator. Webb co-founded TeaParty365 in New York City, and is a spokesman for the National Tea Party Federation. His column will appear twice a month in The Hill.