State of the Union
January 25, 2010
With President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Tuesday evening, his performance over the course of the first year is under scrutiny.
James McCormick, chair of the political science department at Iowa State, said the health care debate has cost Obama a good deal of his public support.
McCormick said Obama has lost a some of his public accountability due to a lack of focus on public itself. “This is partly due to the hubris of the Obama administration,” McCormick said.
Obama has erred in the multiple programs he attempted to tackle at the outset of his term, at the cost of focusing more strictly on the critical issues of economic recovery and job creation, McCormick said.
Despite the involvement of the anti-tax Tea Party movement in the recent Massachusetts Senate election of Scott Brown, McCormick said populist disappointment with Obama’s handling of central issues was to blame for his declining popularity.
The president’s support among independent voters is slipping, according to a CNN news poll. Fifty-three percent of independents questioned in the poll disapproved of Obama’s performance, with 43 percent in approval.
Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science, said that the Tea Parties may become a more central issue than just a visible symbol of discontent. The Tea Parties may burn out or morph into a new third party, Schmidt said.
Schmidt pointed out examples of Tea Parties turning against the Republican party, such as in the New York state special election where the Tea Party movement’s ire cost Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate was viewed by Tea Party attendees as not conservative enough.
Tea Parties may also draw more money to the campaigns of conservative candidates or scare away moderate voters from staunch conservatives, Schmidt said.
McCormick said the general trend of independents to move away from Obama can best be reversed by a focus on economic issues for the administration.
“The irony is that Obama must now change,” McCormick said.
The reality of the political environment must now override the ideology and overenthusiastic policy agenda that Obama has pursued prior to now.
Schmidt said the election of Scott Brown is regrettably forcing Obama to change course. “One Senate race in a highly Democratic state is throwing the whole Democratic party into turmoil.”
Throwing health care reform into an already packed executive agenda that attempted to cure every ill at once was folly, Schmidt said. Health care reform has been bouncing around the legislative branch without sufficient executive leadership.
Schmidt said the only way for much of the health care bill to pass now with two divided versions between the House and Senate is for the bill to be agreed upon by the House and Senate on a piece-by-piece basis to avoid a legislative war.
The fight on health care has divided even liberal and more conservative Democrats, Schmidt said. He said it has shown that even when in power, the two sides of the Democratic party don’t get along very well.
McCormick said that Obama’s health care legislation will not be passed after Brown’s election. Ultimately, Obama’s ambition must be turned to the central idea of economic recovery if he hopes to regain his public support.
To see McCormick’s or Schmid’ts interviews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Mlzonp27Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62JCJfoZGcY (part 1)
