American Missive

ATLANTA— In virtually every poll, Barack Obama has just reached a new low for the year.  All are still showing his approval at above 50 percent, but that number is dropping.

We have been predicting an approval collapse by early 2010 for Mr. Obama since well before the election.  That prediction was predicated on one major point: Mr. Obama’s policies would prove to be hurtful and not helpful for the economy, which would cause Americans to suffer enormous “buyer’s remorse.”  After the release of the jobs data late last week, we are seeing the beginnings of this unfold.

Everywhere people are now talking about the ineffectiveness of Barack Obama’s stimulus package.  The frothy-mouthed left is clamoring for more stimulus, while moderates and conservatives (that milder “other” 80 percent of the country) are saying: no more!

What is significant to me, though, in observing all of this is to reflect on the fact that Barack Obama seems to have done a really bad job of prioritizing since taking office.  Many people were lauding the breadth of his activism in his first 100 days in office.  But as Jay Cost has aptly pointed out at RealClearPolitics, Mr. Obama completely misread his mandate.

Barack Obama won the presidency because of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent unraveling of the world financial markets in September of 2008. Before that, the election was looking like anyone’s game.  But he demonstrated a cool, level-headedness that many pundits said translated into ”better judgment.”

But look at the judgments Barack Obama has made since taking office.  Facing a record-breaking recession, Barack Obama came into office clamoring for a stimulus package to sign into law.  Yet he and his team seemed to punt the responsibility for the package to Congress.  He involved himself only as a sales person, marketing the package as an economic cure-all.

Unfortunately there is little tangible evidence that the package has been effective.  Unemployment has exploded, and surpassed even the grimmest private projections of where it would be.

Mr. Obama’s biggest effort to address his mandate (i.e. the economy) is currently failing.

All the while, Barack Obama has personally invested himself in passing cap-and-trade legislation and health care reform.  Now word is out that the cap-and-trade legislation will represent a massive tax (with Obama himself acknowledging it will cause energy prices to skyrocket), with only limited benefits in terms of reducing carbon outputs.

Furthermore, early cost estimates on health care reform show the price tag at between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion, with many economists predicting that cost to go higher.  Health care reform will still leave a significant portion of people unisured, plus it will add substantial amounts to the national deficit. Democrats could try to offset the costs with a new tax revenue stream, but that will pummel middle class Americans in the midst of a recession.

Let’s take a step back.  In the midst of the worst recession since the 1930′s, why in the world is Barack Obama talking about two “priorities” that will pummel the budgets of most Americans by increasing the price of basic energy, stoking inflation, substantially increasing the likelihood of new taxes, and driving long-term interest rates through the roof?

It’s because Mr. Obama has misread his mandate.  He thought the country wanted to move to the left.  They don’t.  They want an economic recovery and they thought he was the man for the job.

So, in light of this, does this guy really have “good judgment”?

The direction of the polls may indicate what Americans are starting to think about that question.