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Enthusiasm about voting in the upcoming election among Democrats continues to remain flat and anemic according to Gallup latest polling.
There’s been a lot of talk about how President Obama’s new more aggressive rhetoric was expected to get his supporters engaged again, but so far the data shows it has done little to excite the base. It seems images that built up during three years of Republican capitulation and disappointing governance can’t be totally turned around with a few tough sounding speeches.
Looking at the crosstabs, the Obama campaign should be particularly concerned that his 2008 surge voters are simply not enthusiastic about going to vote to re-elect him. While there has been a large 15 point across-the-board drop in enthusiasm compared to the historic 2008 election, enthusiasm is down by more than 25 points among both non-whites and young adults. These two groups make up the core of the Obama 2008 surge vote. From Gallup:
The one silver lining for Democrats is that this Republican Presidential primary hasn’t made regular Republicans all that excited about this upcoming election either. Republican enthusiasm is on par with what it was at this time in the 2004 and 2000 election.
38 Comments
Hard to get excited about a guy who has used you as his personal punching bag. Exhausted with the whole party.
For the last few years it has appeared that Obama’s biggest strength was going to be, “Yeah, you might not like me, but I’m not as crazy as the other guy.”
I think that will be his saving grace. Democrats holding their noses while voting for him.
Despite all of the hopes, this President has been one of the biggest disappointments in my lifetime (64 years).
Every time I think he gets it, he does something else that leaves me aghast.
Last time I felt like “this” was when I got roped into attending my wife’s 30 year high school reunion. Nothing there for me and somebody ate all the shrimp.
I don’t ever remember being so un-enthusiastic. Although I am definately NOT a fan of Romney, I feel like you, too many body shots from the incumbent. The banksters/housing settlement and lack of prosecuting any of the hundreds of crooks involved in that scandal was the last straw for me. If they have an episode of NCIS that Tuesday night I haven’t seen yet, I might not vote at all.
GOP’s Employer/insurer refusal of health care because of conscience defeated 51-48 in the Senate today -
I doubt even that will get a 100% Democratic Party vote out of the female population.
Your third sentence says it for me too.
Stopped listening to what he says after watching him do what he does.
Seems after Wellstone, Kennedy and Byrd there is nothing left of the former democratic Party.
Dennis was democratically neutered on AF #1 so he don’t count.
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can’t get fooled again.”
No, It’s fool me one, it’s a shame. Fool me twice….no that’s not right. …….???????? Fool me once, you’re a fool., No, I’m a fool. Fool me twice and you’re the fool. No that’s not right either.
OK, OK, OK…..” A bird in the hand is worth two Bushes.”
I suppose that one could categorize me as “enthusiastically apathetic”.
WOW: Nine comments and three of them are MINE.
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I guess you’re right Jon.
There’s been a lot of talk about how President Obama’s new more aggressive rhetoric was expected to get his supporters engaged again, but so far the data shows it has done little to excite the base.
Democrats are not stupid, and they know the President is just blowing smoke. Actions speak louder than words. If he wants to fire up the base, perhaps he should stop siding with the banksters, et al.
Hard to get excited by an assassin/disappearer/torturer -in-chief killing people at wedding parties with drones and signing the NDAA that went into effect today.
https://www.stopndaa.org
Anyone can sign support for this national and global lawsuit. US signers will have the associated letter with the above link delivered for them to their Congressional representatives.
I think most people who vote for Democratic candidates know that Obama will complete his corporatist/militarist takeover in his second term.
Here will be some of the “highlights” in voting for the lesser of two evils
1. Keystone will be greenlighted
2. Obama will finally get what he was creaming for all along: massive cuts to the safety net: 67 for Medicare, 70 for Social Security, chained CPI
3. More use of Homeland Security to squelch Occupy, Wikileaks and Anonymous
4. Tens of thousands of more dead Muslims
5. Bombs over Tehran
6. More fascism, less civil liberties
7. Consolidate the Imperial Presidency
8. No one held accountable on Wall Street, Afghanistan, mortgage collapse, domestic espionage, Murdoch walks away scott free
9. More fracking
I am not worried about Democratic enthusiasm because every time a Republican opens his mouth more Democrats realize how crazy their opposition is and then gird their loins for the 2012 election fight.
So I say let the GOP run their mouths, it will only hurt them.
My principle worry is that while national/congressional Democrats seem to be okay, many of the state level Democratic Parties are weak, which cedes the state legislatures attorneys generals, and governors mansions to the Republicans. That is where the mischief occurs.
gee… think it’s because, as Bobbylon noted at length, many voters of obama from 2008 feel utterly betrayed by his corporatist policies, his ‘liberals are fucking retards’ CoS, etc etc etc…
we have one group of corporatists who want to totally fuck us and rip out the social safety net all at once whilst enriching their 1% masters versus theother group of corporatists who want to totally fuck us and dismantle the social safety net over 10 years whilst enriching their 1% masters…. both groups want to continue the imperial wars, destruction of civil liberties, expansion of the ‘unitary executive’ (aka – the Dictator President)…
so – bottom line: why get ‘excited’ and vote?
also: EVERYONE (at least anyone really paying attention and not listening to the static from the blogs and the ‘media’) can see the rethuglicans have totally capitulated this election season (or have been instructed by the corporate masters to sit this one out) and are running a cartoonish group of totally unelectable clowns as straw men against the ‘landslide’ of Obama in 2012…
so, again – why get ‘excited’ and vote? we’re still going to get fucked
10. More Gestapo smash downs on Marijuana dispensaries
“It seems images that built up during three years of Republican capitulation….”
“Republican capitulation”? Wonderful, simply wonderful.
My principle worry is that while national/congressional Democrats seem to be okay, many of the state level Democratic Parties are weak, which cedes the state legislatures attorneys generals, and governors mansions to the Republicans.
That is a feature, not a bug. When Obama took office, the party mandarins wasted no time running Howard Dean out of Washington, D.C. and, in an immense fit of pique, dismantled Dean’s 50-state strategy. And, for good measure, the mandarins consolidated power in the bloated Organizing for America, whose chief accomplishment was winning the Arkansas primary for the unelectable Blanche Lincoln for the sole purpose of teaching the progressive wing of the party a lesson.
Lesson learned: I will never again give a nickel of my money or a minute of my time to the Democratic Party.
Jon Walker,
I would watch out for Gallup’s polling. It’s been leaning Republican, which is okay if turns out to be accurate, but Gallup has presented reports of President Obama’s job-approval rating in the mid-40s% while others stated that he has reached 50 percent. Real Clear Politics‘ aggregation has shown Obama above what Gallup reports. (And RCP is Republican leaning.)
The one silver lining for Democrats is that [...] Republican enthusiasm is on par with what it was at this time in the 2004 and 2000 election.
Because the Democrats made out so well in 2000 and 2004.
That’s your silver lining? Sheesh.
When the dems decided not to primary “an assassin/disappearer/torturer -in-chief” who kills “people at wedding parties with drones and sign(ed)the NDAA” why then any enthusiasm I had for them (which wasn’t much I admit) died on the vine. They’ve been telling me to piss up a rope and I say “rubber, glue.”
Jon meant to say “capitulation to Republicans.” That kind of writing construction occurs when you eschew using prepositional phrases. Jon does this a lot. So does David.
Now, to the substance: There are many of us who don’t believe that Obama is actually capitulating to the Republicans. We believe, at least as to some issues, that the “capitulation” is really phony. That Obama was with them all along.
Key case in point: The health insurance cartel bailout that comes right out of the Republican playbook of c. 1994. Obama lied and lied and lied about trying to preserve a public option, which Rahm dealt away to the cartel at the get-go, and about fighting to avoid imposing an individual mandate on consumers, which is the cornerstone of this bailout that guarantees the cartel a captive market forever.
The phony national debt crisis is another.
(I could comment all day on this stuff, but I need to get back to work.)
Does it really matter which puppet is (s)elected to be the titular head of the corporatocracy?
It’s interesting to me that only seniors remain in the (apparently) optimistic Democratic camp. I don’t know what that says about seniors or anyone else, but, really, how much enthusiasm can you muster for a me-myself-and-I politician whose only concern, bedsides himself, of course, is his re-election. Remember the old joke, “But enough about me. [Pause] What do you think of me?” And like all of his kind, Obysmal is impervious to critique. How could anyone criticize his perfect self?
This is a fascinating round table discussion: http://coreyrobin.com/2011/08/01/572/ And do try the various links. Adolph Reed is scorching.
I’m trying to imagine an alternate universe where I am a Republican. I don’t see how I could possibly be excited about voting for Shittens or Savonarola or the other two. Hating the other tribe, I could understand, voting against the other guy, I could understand. But voting FOR these piles of offal?
John, okay for percentages but how about actual numbers of people? For instance, I did hear a radio report about one of the primaries recently that said only 2 percent of all eligible voters actually participated. That gives some idea of enthusiasm, whilst the grand 45% or 53% may not. Surely, a poll is a carefully calibrated sliver, and yes trends by party ID are mighty interesting, but how many people outside these party ID folk could, if they would, vote? And has the ratio between party ID voters and the enlightened (sorry, couldn’t resist) risen or fallen since 2008?
I guess I already know the answer.
“For the last few years it has appeared that Obama’s biggest strength was going to be, “Yeah, you might not like me, but I’m not as crazy as the other guy.
I think that will be his saving grace. Democrats holding their noses while voting for him.”
I think your right. I said just that this morning to a Repub. friend of mine. He sucks but put him up against Ricky boy or even Mitt the Corp. shit and he looks ok. Nevertheless, I’ll have to hold my nose to vote for BO this time, he really does stink. He’s a terrible gut wrenching disappointment.
A vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil. Given another term, Obama will institute policies that will resemble Bush on steroids. He’ll be able to do this without any meaningful objection because he sports a “D” next to his name.
There is American’s Elect. If they get a candidate on the ballot I might just vote for him or her.
The Dems and the Republicans have lost their way. There are few sane people in either party. Neither party has enough sane people to prevent us from losing our civil liberties and spending all our treasure on war and bailouts for big corporations.
We are a corporatist country unless we take it back from these bozos. Neither of the two main parties are helping with this.
Americans Elect is a con game.
i agree.
Agree, Sanctimonious Purist. If memory serves, during the primaries, Obama ran against Clinton’s mandate health plan. FDL had a couple of diaries about Obama’s Hamilton Project appearances, speeches he gave way before the presidential campaign. Obama’s cat was out of the bag, if not very visible, long ago. I’ve seen accounts of his run for and tenure as Harvard Law president that describe a classic bait and switch there.
And, yes, pronouns without antecedents or descriptors are befuddling.
Try http://coreyrobin.com/2011/08/01/572/. Nothing new, but Adolph Reed is worth the read.
I’m all eyes. How so? I read the site and I wasn’t convinced it was something I should sign on to. Smells like hidden agenda, especially as I looked over the backers.
I so totally agree.
I’d also note that I have two recent college graduate kids who [particularly the older one] were enthusiastic Obama supporters in 2008. Neither will lift a finger for him, let alone donate or even vote.
Could be the influence of their rabid mother, or just their own good sense.
They report that all of their friends feel the same way.
Perhaps on a macro level, but I’m a “senior,” and I hate Obama. Most others my age range from dislike to “but the Republicans are so crazy.” There’s not an iota of enthusiasm.
Of course these fools will go to the polls & vote, probably for Obama. But I think there’s a slice that really pushed to get themselves to the polls in 2008 that will be finding something else to do in November 2012.
It’s not just because he’s got a “D” next to his name, but because he will again successfully squash any opposition from “real” Democrats. He controls the money and the people of what was once the Democratic party. No one will stand up to him.
“Real” Democrats have been extinct at least since Bill “Corporate” Clinton appeared on the scene, if not before.