There’s an interesting article in the Cav Daily about President Obama’s declining approval rating across college campuses since his election and the effect this may have both on November’s midterm elections and the 2012 presidential race. I have to warn you that my personal politics may show up a little in this post.
The Cav Daily article refers to an Associated Press-mtvU poll that shows Obama’s approval rating among college students have dropped from 60 percent in May 2009 to 44 percent when the poll was taken in September. So what explains the notable decline? Young people aren’t very quick to forget promises, and that combined with a general demand among Americans to see quick results doesn’t bode well for a president who campaigned on a promise of change and hope. Since his inauguration the president has been successful in getting through the health care bill, but what else that he has done really qualifies as change? There is no question that Obama is an electric campaigner with charismatic speeches and a strong political team behind him, but you really can only run on a platform of change and hope once. The problem for the Democrats this fall, and the reason many are separating themselves from incumbents and the president, is that they’ve had power for awhile now (going back to 2006) and have done relatively little with it. It seems inappropriate to label a president with “lame duck” status over two years before the next election, but he certainly faces an uphill battle if the Repubs take back the House this fall, which would make it tough to get through much “change”-based legislation to fix that slow decline towards disapproval among his young voter base.-MA
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