Barack Obama’s popularity plummets

Six months into his presidency, Barack Obama is less popular than George W Bush was at a similar stage of his period in power. A USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Obama’s approval rating has plummeted by some nine points since January to only 55 per cent, as the independents and disenchanted Republicans who voted him into office begin to think again. This figure is one point less than the 56 per cent who approved of Bush in the summer of 2001.

Obama's "new spirit of idealism" is still admired by the majority of Americans, but the economic problems that he inherited show no signs of abating. There are 15 states where unemployment is above 10 per cent. As Steve Glorioso, a Democratic strategist, told the Daily Telegraph: "People are scared. This is the worst economic time anyone under the age of 80 has ever experienced, and you can't discount people being afraid.

"Now that we are in July, the fear is turning to disappointment that the president hasn't fixed everything yet," Glorioso added. "I don't know why they thought he could change everything by now, but some did."

Just as they were with Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, expensive healthcare proposals, and the details of how to finance them, are proving extremely difficult. There are currently 47 million Americans without health insurance, but the USA Today/Gallup poll indicated that only 44 per cent were in favour of Obama's ambitious $1trillion plan.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Sam Donaldson, the Daily Beast: "In an effort to avoid the Clinton mistake of sending up a piece of 'take it or leave it' legislation, the president set out some broad goals and then left it to Congress. But he should have seen what Congress did with the stimulus bill, and taken that as a warning: Sometimes the one thing worse than herding cats is to wait for the cats to herd themselves. It is one thing to say let’s move forward together and trade ideas back and forth in the early stages of debate - always moving the cats forward - and quite another to wait until different segments announce different approaches as 'done deals' and then try to intervene. Rather than selling, you're haggling. On their turf, no less."

Sahil Kapur, the Guardian: "The panic is setting in on Capitol Hill. A coalition of six Senate centrists - Democrats and Republicans - scurried on Friday to postpone the legislation, citing no other excuse than 'There is much heavy lifting ahead'. A Republican senator said the delay was a manoeuvre to kill the legislation, winking that failure will be Obama's Waterloo, and 'will break him'."

David Leonhardt, the New York Times: "The United States now devotes one-sixth of its economy to medicine. Divvy that up, and health care will cost the typical household roughly $15,000 this year, including the often-invisible contributions by employers. That is almost twice as much as two decades ago (adjusting for inflation). It's about $6,500 more than in other rich countries, on average."