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The issues of jobs and the economy are now far and away the most important issues for Americans when choosing a president.
A New Washington Post/ABC News poll asked Americans “What is the single most important issue in your choice for president?” The poll found that the economy or jobs dominated the responses with 51 percent. No other issue came close to breaking double digits.
In a distant second is honesty/corruption issues at just 6 percent. The two issues of the federal budget deficit and taxes, which dominated much of the political debate in Washington over the past year, were each ranked as most the important by just two percent of the population! The war in Afghanistan is the most important issue for just one percent and the issue of immigration/illegal immigration didn’t even register.
With the economy in a multi-year slump and unemployment still very high, one would expect jobs and the economy to be very important factors. But the degree to which they dominate every other issue for Americans right now is truly remarkable. For the American people every other political issue has taken a back seat to the economy.
If President Obama can’t win on the issues of jobs and the economy, he simply can’t win re-election. That is why his job approval numbers on the economy, 41% approve – 57% disapprove, and on creating jobs, 45% approve – 51% disapprove, should be very concerning to the Obama campaign.
35 Comments
In a normal election cycle, you would be 100% correct. But Obama has absolutely nothing to fear from Romney.
maybe, but they better be nervous about the fucking dumb half of this country.
Which half? The ones who may vote for Obama or the ones voting for Romney?
What about the young people? The middle-aged people who are about to lose their retirement funds in the coming stock market crash? The Socialist Party, the Greens, and other left-wing third parties will look very enticing, and for good reason.
Zing! My sentiments exactly.
The repubs are making a big thing of the loss of jobs on the keystone pipeline.
But they would be silent should it be built and the construction jobs evaporate the moment it is completed.
Kucinich is having a hard time defending this. Thousands of jobs lost and he refers to the environment. Agree with him or not, that sort of argument won’t win the election if jobs is number one.
Obama just killed real non-Government jobs. That will be headline #1 until the election.
I think Kucinich is having a hard time defending the fact that he caves whenever it becomes politically advantageous. He talks a big game tho
We might as well rename America to the United States of Costa Concordia because by the time this ship turns around we will be sunk. And the first class passengers will be the ones that get on the lifeboats. Start practicing your Australian Crawl cuz it’s your only hope. America I knew ye well.
Boner says Obama rejecting the pipeline will cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. Jobs will go to China, they say. Obama better have a response. The environment won’t work as much as most of us think that is a critical consideration. So Obama’s will likely say he is just really considering it and try to kick the can down the road. Won’t work.
Plenty of work available if we just let corporations poison us and foul the nest permanently.
Rrright. The Chinese will build the pipeline.
No the Canadians will sell it to them they say.
It’s the argument about Keystone jobs that’s wrong. The propaganda says that millions of middle class jobs will be created from the construction and the job multiplying effect. In reality it will create work and short term job security for about 12,000 skilled workers
Well, if so, then the O team ought to get out there and say so. Kucinich was babbling.
And when it gets refined in America after fouling our heartland, that oil will be sold to china and others as a fungible asset.
I realize I stepped in it. However romney had the edge on sucking.
I understand the environmental concerns but most people who will vote do not. They see only the lost jobs and the oil being sold to China. For those who want O to lose, this could be good news, like to Newt or Mittens.
I want Obama to lose, so what does that make me?
And most people do not understand the environmental concerns?
I am glad you can sweep with so broad a brush.
Following this logic, President Al Gore would have soundly defeated the son of George H. W. Bush ( also named George, as I recall ).
Romney and Obama are Tweedledum and Tweedledee, so far as polices and character are concerned. The number of bigots who oppose Obama because he is black will be offset by the number of bigots who oppose Romney because he is Mormon.
Obama is a known factor, while Romney is untested. The prospect of all three branches of the federal government being Republican will cause more liberals to turn out than presently expected.
Once the Chinese cease funding the federal deficit, however, whoever may control what would be left of it will be academic.
This pipeline will be built no matter which one of the two parties claims title to the presidency this year. What would make anyone think the delay in approval is anything but a tactic for some political gain. Short term goals for election year politics where everyone is a friend to every political faction but $$$ and power wins in the long run.
So, so many choices. Vote for the man who took stances in 2008 to get him elected, or the man who takes whatever stances he thinks will get him elected in 2012.
If you were to go to Slate and the MSN home page and look at the comments regarding this pipeline you would see that the majority of comments are pro XL Pipeline, proving that the label “American Idiot” is redundant. Haven’t checked the comments at HuffPost, but I’m willing to bet those comments are similar.
Well if you look at the polling Jon referenced, the economy/jobs were 51% and the environment didn’t break 1%, so I guess that’s pretty broad. So O would have to sell it to make the environment work. Can do it, but tough.
Whether he gets elected or not, I suspect in the end the pipeline will get built, but more likely if Mittens or Newt is elected.
I don’t have any big wish for Obama to get elected. But I am concerned what any of them will do/not do to help this economy. I am part of the 51% I suppose.
On that score, I’ve lately come to think the economy may be recovering and that will help O, like it or not.
Who listens to polls? Certainly not the 1%.
The pipeline will not be built unless oil prices stay above $90 or so a barrel.Not economically feasible since you insist on ignoring environmental concerns.
Where’s the demand gonna come from? Greece will default in March sending the Euro to shit, China is on the slowest growh projection in a decade,
B of A will fail soon, and our housing market is shit. Where do you see the stimulous for this recovery?
He did kick the can down the road.
He said that if a new route was submitted, it will be considered.
Now that he’s seeing the blowback about jobs, do you still think it’s a done deal?
Do you think oil will fall below $90 a barrel for a long period of time?
Why?
Here’s a mind game for you: if former President George W. Bush had been able to run for a third four-year term in office, would he have won re-election in November 2008 following 1) the Republican-caused financial disaster that came to a head, reaching critical mass, in the immediate preceding months, 2) gasoline in mid-2008, peaking at over $5 a gallon before the financial crisis hit and 3) unemployment shooting through the roof in early November 2008 due to the financial crisis and high fuel costs adversely affecting jobs across America? And what about the Bush bail-out of the Wall Street gamblers before the November 2008 election, a bail-out to the tune of $700 Billion? And we’re only now learning about the Federal Reserve pumping trillions of dollars into the pockets of the Wall Street gamblers, instead of pumping money into the pockets of ordinary working-Americans on Main Street. So, would GW Bush have succeeded in winning a third term, or would enough American voters have still voted the way they did in electing President Obama, saying enough is enough where GW Bush and his criminal Vulture Capitalist administration was concerned?
This is why Republicans are trying to falsely paint President Obama as being responsible for what he inherited from the previous GW Bush administration, with Republicans even falsely stating that President Obama has made matters worse. Yes, things aren’t good for millions of Americans, but things would be much, much worse if not for the efforts of President Obama and Democratic Party leaders in 2009 to address the economic horror bequeathed to them by GW Bush and “crack” Republican administration as they slithered out the back door of the White House.
All President Obama’s re-election campaign needs to do is runs ads through November laying out the charts showing what GW Bush left him and how things have improved since he entered the White House. Facts are facts. And if Obama’s re-election campaign has any sense, it will also run ads showing how House Tea Party Republicans and the Republicans in the Senate have strangled Democratic Party attempts to improve our economy even more. Facts are facts.
The economy is not recovering.
Will Obama finally offer some kind of WPA public works jobs to the unemployed?
Would Republicans pass any such legislation?
Get real, unless the Left puts in their Congress very little will get done except to prevent the Right from doing kooky things.
The economy is and will continue to recover, but we don’t know how fast. A lot depends on external events like the European economy, Iranian craziness and natural events. Cross your fingers.
As if they won’t be importing Mexican, Honduran, and Chinese to build that pipeline. It will all be contracted out. Ever see Verizon “contractor” crews in your neighborhood? Remember the crews hired for N.O. after Katrina? That is how they do business. I recall they promised jobs when NAFTA was being negotiated and the Obama Admin trumpeted jobs with his latest FTD. I don’t see any new jobs. I see more places laying off.
The election with real consequences will be that of Congress and the Senate. Obama has shown us how utterly powerless the office of the Presidency is. In order to advance any legislation you need the Congress. We are probably at least 20 years of work to get actual progressive leaders that aren’t paid off lackeys and that doesn’t account for recidivism.