NEW YORK CITY-Polls continue to paint a dim picture for President Barack Obama, and GlobeSt.com’s latest is no exception. Asked last week “Will Obama’s job plan create jobs?” the overwhelming majority--77%, in fact--responded that it would not.
David Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Strategic Vision, an Atlanta-based public relations and public affairs firm, tells GlobeSt.com that he’s not at all shocked that the 461 readers who weighed in don’t expect the plan to yield results.
“If you look at the number of Americans who feel that the country is moving in the right direction, who are optimistic about the future, they basically correspond with these numbers,” Johnson says. “The other problem for Obama is that he is losing a lot of his magic. We’re seeing this in his job approval numbers.”
Johnson says that this “magic” was along the lines of the groundswell of optimism that carried JFK, FDR and Reagan into office. Without significant improvement in unemployment numbers and other key areas of the economy, however, the GlobeSt.com poll shows that optimism abating.
“No president could live up to those expectations,” Johnson says. “But people also believed that by this point the economy would be getting better and it’s not. There’s fear of a double dip recession and people are beginning to question whether he’s up to the job.”
Only 23% of readers who responded indicated confidence in the job plan, choosing, “Yes. It cuts to the heart of the problem.” With these poll numbers, and others, indicating that confidence continues to slip in seemingly any initiative the administration comes up with, Johnson thinks that reelection hopes lie in moving the needle on unemployment.
“I think it will tighten once the republicans have a nominee,” Johnson says of the election ahead. “But if the economy remains the way it is now--if unemployment is above 8%--I don’t see him being able to come back and recover.”
Click here to vote in this week’s poll.
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