Obama's Popularity

Disclaimer: Some content in this post may be based on outdated or inaccurate polling.

There has been and continues to be a lot of talk about President Obama's popularity, and the constant drumbeat on news shows seems to be that he is in trouble. But is he really? While it's true that a lot of national polls place his popularity around 50%, this is a misleading way to present his true popularity. Even more misleading is the practice of some outlets that use an index of those who report strong feelings to represent his popularity as a negative number.

Outside of the South, Obama is actually quite popular. Among Democrats he remains overwhelmingly popular (~90%), and in general his approval rating outside of the South is stable around 55-60% of respondents. He has strong positive ratings with women, minorities, and younger voters. It is essentially the white, male, elderly southern vote that goes against Obama - and this is really not very surprising given the history of that demographic.

The demographic strength of the GOP has been their appeal to the most reliable of voters - those who are well off, well educated, well aged and, frankly, pasty white. But with the changing demographics of the coming century, is there room for a party that refuses to admit that real americans can be female, young, diverse and appreciative of diversity?

The Republican Party right now looks to me like a very dangerous animal. We have here an elephant with just enough life left in it to make a huge mess, and one that apparently has little or no interest in productively engaging in the legislative process. But the dynamics of elections being what they are, the GOP will be well financed and well positioned (with a hand from the media) to make life even more difficult for the People.

I'm no fan of one party political systems, but given the current state of our government, paralyzed by a GOP bent on total obstruction, I do believe there should be room for a Democratic majority to keep our nation functioning. What we really need is for voters to remember why they voted in 2008, and to take responsibility for moving forward with leadership that represents progressive values by voting D.