Obama's Approval Ratings and the Angry White Voter (Again)

On the eve of one of the most crucial midterm elections in decades, a CBS poll again spells out what many have known from virtually the moment Barack Obama announced his run for president in 2007. A crushing majority of African Americans and white voters see Obama in radically different terms. The poll found that blacks are two-and-a-half times more likely than whites to give Obama a high approval rating. Conversely, whites are eight times more likely than blacks to disapprove of how the president is doing his job.

Blacks’ support is so rock-solid that they overwhelmingly give Obama an A for his handling of the economy. This despite near-record poverty numbers, sky-high foreclosure and unemployment rates, and the virtual freezing out of blacks from many of the major business and construction projects bankrolled by Obama’s stimulus program. In an almost surreal reversal of how blacks—who are suffering more during this recession—see the situation, a majority of whites give Obama a failing grade for his handling of the economy and express far more pessimism about the economic future than African Americans do. Even more troubling, if Obama’s overwhelming support among blacks was taken out of the political equation, his overall approval rating—hovering around 50 percent—would plummet. 

The indifference, ambiguity and outright hostility being expressed by many whites toward the Obama administration is not exclusive to Republicans or independents. White Democrats express antipathy as well. This was evident in the Democratic primaries. Hillary Clinton consistently (and, in some states, handily) beat Obama among white Democrats. During the general election, Obama prevailed in the must-win swing states largely because of the near–holy-crusade zeal of black voters. Despite the feel-good mood of the country in the weeks immediately after the election and Americans’ pride in making a black man the most powerful person in the world, the racial split did not evaporate with Obama's win.

Congressional Democrats in conservative-leaning districts get elected largely thanks to white votes, and they have been the least enthusiastic about Obama's policies. Meanwhile, the GOP, Tea Party leaders, and pack of rabid anti-Obama talk show jocks, bloggers and web sites have masterfully sold the idea that Obama is shoving the country down the path to socialism. The conservative attack pack harangues the federal government for giving the company store away to the poor—i.e., blacks and Hispanics. To many, the familiar equation is this: government programs equal handouts to undeserving blacks and poor people, which in turn equals money snatched from the pockets of hard-working whites.

That the conservative hordes play the race card comes as no surprise. It's a recycle of the angry white male narrative that dates to at least the 1960s. Richard Nixon stoked the fury of blue-collar, white ethnic, rural voters with attacks against Democrats for coddling criminals and welfare cheats, for fostering a culture of anything-goes permissiveness, and —with their big government/Great Society programs, for pandering to the poor. The crude, thinly disguised code words and racial cues worked. Nixon eked out a narrow victory over Democratic presidential opponent Hubert Humphrey.

That line of attack became a staple in the GOP playbook for the next four decades. With tweaks and refinements, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Jr. used the same arguments to ease their path to the White House. In the mid-1990s, Newt Gingrich and ultraconservatives recycled the strategy to seize Congress and pound out an agenda that made big government, tax-and-spend Democrats, and soft-on-crime liberals the fall guys for everything wrong with America. It touched the familiar nerve with many whites, and especially white males.

The 2008 presidential election was a near textbook example of how you can win an election and still lose a key voting bloc—in this case, whites. The GOP had a failed, flawed George W. Bush presidency to answer for. It was plagued by corruption and sex scandals. It was widely blamed for crashing the economy. It had an aged, politically disheveled presidential candidate and a laughingstock vice presidential candidate. It lugged the baggage of two unpopular wars. Yet its presidential standard bearer, John McCain, still got nearly 60 percent of the overall white vote.

The hard reality, then, is that a majority of white voters—out of fear, ignorance, and flat-out racial bias—have never accepted the Obama presidency. African-American voters sense that hostility and have once again rallied to his side. In the CBS poll, a decisive majority of blacks say that the media has been harder on Obama than on any other president. Don’t expect that belief—and the racial gulf that underlies it—to change.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a nationally broadcast political affairs radio talk show on Pacifica and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

Obama's Approval Ratings and the Angry White Voter (Again) - New America Media

Its the older white voters who they poll because the younger white voters speak highly of President Obama. The problem with these and other media outlets trying to show how many people disapprove of the President is simply because of MONEY. Most young white voters don't own most of the financial institutions nor the fortune 1000 businesess They are mostly owned by older white voters. If you really think about it, the President of the United States deals mostly with national and international issues. The president is not responsible for raising your property taxes, your water bill, your light bill, your telephone/cell phone, your internet, cable, the clothes you buy nor the food you eat. Yes, the IRS does tax your wages, however most major corporations don't pay any taxes. Most of these older whites who are really running the countries economy, have hidden money in offshore accounts and banks in foreign countries. President Obama is too close to finding and confiscating that money. They never expected him to do that. They expected him to go into White House and leave their MONEY alone. Who was it that allowed the manufacturing jobs to go overseas? Older white men. Who decided to invest in China and India and not in the American worker? Older White men. What happened to the money that the banks had when President Clinton was in office and who took it? Older White men. Who are majority of all banks, insurance companies, investment firms, securities companies, mortgage companies, and other financial institutions board members? Older White men. Those older white men now want to do whatever they can to stifle President Obama to keep him from locating and confiscating that money which many believe to be in the Trillions of dollars. Common sense will tell the average citizen that if the USA had a surplus of money 10 years ago and 8 years later we have a trillion dollar deficit, somebody has that money. Nobody burned any money, so it would have to be somewhere. The average worker does not have it because if they did, there would not be such a large sector of foreclosures and high unemployment. The money simply changed hands so whose hands do you think it's in? While the republicans, so called Tea party members and others who will probably control Congress, China will remain the major threat. The Chinese are secretely influencing many governments in North America, South
America, Europe and Africa by loaning money. There are more Chinese in Africa than any other foreign nationality. Isn't that how the USA use to be? Something is definitely going to happen, unfortunately, the average voter will never know until their children will have to learn Mandarin.

The idiot we have for governor is nothing more than a good puppet. Who do you think is pulling his strings? Older white men. Who will get over 90 percent of the billions of dollars in State Contract money? Older white men. Who is putting up the money for his campaign? Older white men. It's still run by the good ole boy network and as long as MONEY is behind it, Older white men will remain in power.

Yes, Obama is more popular with younger white voters than old. But, let us not gloss over the fact that those older white voters also happen to be the majority of white voters. Hence, it is not at all inaccurate or misleading to point out that the majority of white voters did not vote for Obama in 2008 and still do not support him today. The election of Obama in 2008 was not proof of how far America has come from a racist past. It proved the exact opposite -- which is that most whites still do not see eye to eye, politically, with most blacks.

Truth be told, if Obama did not happen to be black, most blacks would agree with most whites that he has done an abysmal job of recovering the still failed economy. At some point, I can only hope, considering how much harder this failed economy has hit blacks than whites, blacks will put their own best interest ahead of the urban myth about Obama being one of "us". 

Obama is not one of "us". He is, first and foremost, a politician and all that that implies. Goldman Sachs was not his largest campaign donor in 2008 because they thought he would focus on reducing unemployment. Goldman Sachs donated all those millions because they _knew_ the first thing Obama would focus on after he took the oath of office would be, not to reduce unemployment, but to bail out the banks, especially AIG who owed Goldman Sachs a serious grip:

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-goldman-sachs-wins-big-in-secret-bailout-via-aig-2009-3

What happened this week is that Obama, and the democratic party, paid the price for ignoring the needs of "us". What happened is Karma, what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:12.