For the last two years, Democrats have blamed George W. Bush for all of the nation’s woes — and that meme has had a surprisingly long shelf life. Even a year after Barack Obama passed his Porkulus plan that supposedly would keep unemployment below 8% and instead lead to a generational nadir in employment, voters still bought the idea that Bush was more to blame for the current economy than the people in charge of Congress for the past four years and the man in the White House for the last eighteen months. Rasmussen says the days of Obama’s whine and moroses have come to an end: For the first since President Obama took office, voters see his policies as equally to blame with those of President George W. Bush for the country’s current economic problems.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters now think Obama’s policies are to blame for the continuing bad economy, up three points from last month. Forty-seven percent (47%) say the recession that began under Bush is at fault.
With voters across the country expressing stronger belief that the economy is getting worse rather than better, these new findings spell potential bad news for Democratic candidates this fall. The president is already planning to limit his campaign appearances with candidates because of potential voter backlash.
The problem for Obama and the Democrats is that the even split doesn’t occur through the demographics. Men blame Obama by 13, 55/42, while women blame Bush 52/42. The biggest problem for Democrats will be independents, where a majority blame Obama, 52/44. Seniors blame Obama by the widest margin, 58/39, and they’re likely to turn out this year.
After eighteen months and a trillion dollars in spending have left us with lower employment levels than at any time in the past generation, Obama finally owns the economy. He bought it with our grandchildren’s money.
John Kerry, meanwhile, says that the furshlugginger press just hasn’t been nice enough to Democrats. Instead of covering the greatness of financial-regulation reform, the media chased Shirley Sherrod and missed Obama’s brilliance. Of course, Obama helped that along by hysterically cutting Sherrod loose and then having to backtrack to offer her job back, but Kerry seems to forget that part of the story.
