Obama In Death Spiral
Jul 27, 2011 14 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Even here in bluest Massachusetts, some of President Obama’s stalwarts say their support for the liberal darling is slipping — as a new poll suggests the numbers are plummeting in the president’s base and a call has emerged from the left for a primary challenge.
“Our expectations were high, and the disappointment started happening early and often,” said state Rep. Denise Provost (D-Somerville), a big backer in 2008, now bothered by Obama’s snub to Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren and his extension of tax breaks.
“He needs to stop spending money on the war and sending our youth overseas, and stop spending our money to kill other people,” said Mel King, a progressive community activist and former Boston mayoral candidate, who said he has become disillusioned by Obama’s decision to continue the war in Afghanistan. “That’s one issue that I think he really needs to step up on.”
A Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests the promise of hope and change has soured amid high unemployment and a stubborn deadlock over the debt ceiling dragging on with no end in sight. Obama has lost in two key groups — progressive Democrats and blacks — who helped put him over the top in 2008.
The percentage of liberal Democrats strongly supporting Obama’s job record has fallen 22 points, from 53 percent last year to 31 percent now. And the number of blacks believing Obama has helped the economy has tumbled from 77 percent in October to just more than 50 percent, the Post reported.
One left-leaning senator, independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has even suggested it would be a “good idea” for Obama to face a primary challenger to pull him back to his liberal roots.
There was some good poll news for Obama: 65 percent of Americans disapprove of the way the GOP is handling job creation, compared to 52 percent for Obama.
And in Roxbury yesterday, many said the president deserves more time to turn around the devastating economy crisis he inherited.
“He’s fixing up a lot of stuff that was already messed up,” said Gregory Holder, 50, a cook from Mattapan. “. . . He’s only one person — he can only do so much. Everybody has to work with him.”
Serena Grooms, 46, of Roxbury, a hospital administrative assistant, said Obama was saddled with a “full load” upon becoming president.
“I still support him. I don’t hold him accountable,” Grooms said. “I think he has a tough situation that he’s dealing with and it’s a hard mouth to fill.”
Inez Pressey, 60, a high school teacher from Roslindale, said she thinks the country is healing. Her two grandchildren — one in Afghanistan and another in Iraq — aren’t staying for the extended overseas stints they once were, and her other grandchildren are starting to find summer jobs again.
“For any president coming after when the economy is bad, trying to build it back up, it’s going to take time,” she said. “It’s much better than what it was. Much better.”
The Rev. William Dickerson of Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester, who said he prays for the president to make the right decisions, is standing by Obama: “He’s leading in challenging times,” he said.
Provost countered that Obama bungled the economic recovery and now supporters are closely watching how he handles debt-ceiling talks: “Expectations about the state of the economy and nature of the recovery we could expect weren’t well thought through,” she said.
King added, “Nobody seems to be talking about the number of youth dying on our streets. It seems to me that we need to be focusing on that,” he added.
