President Obama’s popularity rating in December polls has plummeted faster than former President Bush’s at the same juncture of their presidency. In his new book How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson predicted that Obama’s popularity ratings would drop fast. “The war, the economy, and health care reform were important in Obama’s popularity plunge, Hutchinson argues, “they aren’t the only reason for the drop.”
"Obama is a victim of his own rhetoric of hope and change," says Hutchinson in How Obama Won. Obama revved up people’s expectations of immediate change on everything from the economy to the wars. "The performance could never match the rhetoric," says Hutchinson
“The problem is that Obama tapped into the public’s deep seated frustration and disgust with politics and politicians,” says Hutchinson. “Once the tap was made, the public expected Obama to be different and act different than other politicians. The reality is that he’s no different and that’s a prescription for personal and political failure.”
Hutchinson further predicts that Obama’s popularity numbers will continue to plunge in 2010 and that the Democrats will be mortally hurt in the year’s mid term elections.
In How Obama Won, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.
* * *