A few days after the midterm elections, Obama acknowledges the fact that he must make some corrections to the current policies back home if he wants to win over an irritated electorate and work with resurgent Republicans.
Currently in India, Obama visited a crowd of college students who were eager to ask questions. Obama said that "the midterms back in the states were a way for the electorate to express their unhappiness with me."
Even though Obama was not on the ballot last Tuesday, the Democratic party still took a beating. Republicans took control of the House, got rid of the Democratic majority in the Senate, and had major gains at the state level. This Republican take over could ultimately hurt Obama in the 2012 Election. According to the Associated Press, Obama said he will not change his determination to move America forward by investing in education, infrastructure and clean energy despite mounting pressure in Washington to cut spending. But he said, without elaborating, that the election "requires me to make some midcourse corrections and adjustments." It all depends on how Obama will plan to deal with the Republicans. Obama seems to the think the White House needs to undergo a change. However, in a news conference on Wednesday, he purposely was vague on how he plans to change his agenda for the next two years. How do you think the Obama White House will do in the next two years? Do you think the Republicans have hurt Obama's chance at re-election in 2012? Will anything ever get accomplished in Washington D.C. now that the Republicans control the House under a Democratic president?
2 comments:
Although the resurgence of Republicans will undoubtedly make Obama's job harder, I am not sure if that will affect his reelection. Interestingly, though public opinion of Obama is pretty low, public opinion of Republicans is even lower.
Since the public is clearly pretty disgusted with politics right now, I think the Republicans may win the 2012 election if they choose a candidate that is more moderate and that has a platform including the unification of the country. However, the parties have become so polarized, Republicans may choose a super-conservative candidate, which I think will make for a much closer race that may be in Obama's favor.
I think that this midterm election is not an indicator of how Obama will do in the 2012 election at all. First of all, the sitting president's party almost always does badly in midterm elections. Second of all, Obama has already brought many positive changes to this country including health care reform, Wall Street regulations, and even less well-known things; for example, according to this week's Time magazine, in 2009, "the number of illegal immigrants declined by an estimated 800,000." As the 2012 elections get closer, I think there will be a bigger effort to bring to light the successes of the Obama presidency. As for the fact that the Republicans have taken control of the House, it will definitely be harder for Obama to continue with his agenda, but now that the Republicans have more power, they can no longer be the "party of no." They will have to bring some real solutions and compromises to the table if they want to capitalize on their success in this election. Obama will have to find a way to pass his legislation and agenda with the Republicans, the same way that Bill Clinton had to.
Post a Comment