Gubernatorial Races Mark Change
This past Tuesday the people of both New Jersey and Virginia spoke. The voters expressed their dissatisfaction with the direction the country is headed by voting for their own brand of "change".
Last November, President Obama surprisingly won the swing state of Virginia in the presidential election. Virginia has not voted a democrat into presidential office since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Now, a year after the presidential race, GOP candidates swept previous democratic held state houses in both Virginia and New Jersey.
The Republicans dominated in Virginia by winning the election of the governor, attorney general, and lieutenant governor. The voters vehemently voiced their opinion on the decisions made in the past couple of months by the Obama White House, causing many to question whether similar responses will come in the near future from other states.
The voters, as usual, are looking for someone to blame. Some blame the Democratic party for their poor leadership in Washington. Others blame outside the party, whether it is the Republicans, for spinning the story to gain a victory. or the independent voters who were previously democratic leaning and are now leaning conservative. However, better yet, why not blame President Obama?
Many believe Obama's message is losing steam. Yet America has not decided what their relationship with the President is, and last Tuesday emphasized this.
The resounding victory by the Republicans provides more than enough proof that Obama's talk is growing tiresome. Yet, polls on CNN.com , FOXNEWS.com, and independent pollster Rasmussen Reports, show that since April 2009 Obama‘s approval ratings have maintained at around 55%, affirming the idea that more than half the country approves of the job he is doing.
The rollercoaster is never ending. The people believe in Obama the public figure, however, Obama the executive decision maker is harder for the public to trust. The impatience of the citizens is nothing new, especially in a difficult economic period. Yet, the stubbornness of Americans is self evident in how they voted in the polls. It isn't realistic for the American public to assume that a President, no matter how gifted, can turn a country around in 9 months, when he has 8 years worth of problems, caused by the previous administration, to fix.
Since Obama has been in office the public has been indecisive on many of the President's policies. There are many who believe there is a lack of clarity in the messages being disseminated by the President and his advisors.
Many of the voters expressed their disdain for the condition of the state they live in and how the still-struggling economy is impacting them. For many of the independent voters, the issues America is facing is a direct reflection of Obama. These voters have reacting more favorably to Republican ideologues than the governmental philosophies of the Democrats.
Obama's relationship with the American people is so delicate, it seems any issue that occurs is another tight rope Obama has to straddle.