The Diminishing Growing Myth

It is almost beyond reason to see how the myth of Barack Obama has become so entrenched in the psyche of American politics and media. Over and over again I hear the talking heads on all sides of the political spectrum talking about how popular President Obama is. Before we explore this lets go back and look at a couple of previous Obama myths.

Out of The Shadows

First there were all the associations from his past that show his true background, which I touched upon here.

That is life. People are judged and evaluated by their records, or should be. There is this narrative out there about Barack Obama, but there is also a record. A voting record both in the Senate and the Illinois Legislature, a record of his past positions on certain boards he has served on and what he did, a record of what he did as a community organizer and a civil rights lawyer, a record of his college classes at Harvard, Columbia and Oxidental. There is also the record of his associations and political alliances both in and out of government.None of these have ever been out of bounds as far as a presidential candidate before.

In fact, in 1999 while running for president George Bush’s college transcripts were leaked to the press. He took quite a bit of abuse about being a C student at Yale. Of course after the election it was revealed that Gore was not any better at Harvard and in 2004 we learned that Kerry actually had a lower grade point average at Yale than Bush did. If Barack Obama were applying for a national security clearance, his entire background including associations and financial dealings would be scrutinized and evaluated by the FBI and other organizations. But because he is running for president, we are his security clearance; our votes say that he is a good security risk.

All these associations which as he moved up the political ladder he with adoring media complacency (at minimum) distanced himself from. This myth is the still the most troubling since we now have a President whom most people have no idea who he really is or what he represents. His entire background, both upbringing, associations and record is one of extreme left wing ideology conveniently smoozed over and reinvented into moderate liberal centrist.

Everybody Wants Him

Next we have the myth of the mandate which I wrote about here in which I noted;

It is doubtful that any presidential election since Reagan in "84" was actually a mandate and Regan's election in "80" was probably the only election since Roosevelt in "32" which was a mandate for change. Even the so called Reagan Revolution that started in 1980 was more a post election phenomena, people voted for change in 1980 as much to be rid of Carter as any profound acceptance of Reagan's policies.

In that respect Obama's election is more like Reagan's first victory than his second. Just as Reagan's victory was more the result of a repudiation of Carter, so too is the Obama election more a rejection of Bush than any overwhelming acceptance of Obama policies. After all, the main theme of Obama's campaign was almost exclusively based on tieing McCain to Bush and running against that image rather than any sharp contrast in policies. Americans were given very little depth as to what the change an Obama administration would bring, so the vote was more a vote for style rather than substance, not to mention the historic nature of the Obama candidacy. In 1980 Americans knew that Ronald Reagan's policies fundamentally differed from Carters, with Obama we are not so sure, he is either a pragmatic centrist or a far left liberal he is not well defined. Regan made no secret of where he stood on issues whereas Obama's campaign was sort of an election by subterfuge.

Money Talks

Not only the subterfuge of ever shifting positions, but the subterfuge of financing and money as I discussed here:

In Florida Barack Obama spent a total of $36.7 million to McCain's $8.3 million a staggering $24.4 million dollar advantage or as a per vote basis Obama spent $8.86 for every vote he received while McCain spent $2.11 for each of his votes. That number is even more staggering when you consider that includes almost 205,000 more votes for Obama out of over 8 million cast.

In North Carolina Obama outspent McCain $10.7 to $3.5 million or $5.04 to $1.66 for every vote they each received, basically a 3 to 1 margin to win a state by fewer than 14,000 votes or less than 1% of the votes cast.

In Virginia Obama outspent McCain $23.8 to $7.5 million or $12.15 to $4.35 per vote received.

In Ohio Obama outspent McCain $21.4 to $14.5 million or $7.90 to $5.80 per vote received.

The overwhelming money advantage allowed Obama to go after traditionally Republican states and compete. Take Indiana which borders his home state and where Obama was expected to have a very outside chance. Obama outspent McCain $11,800,000 to $428,895 or $8.63 to $0.32 for every vote received. This 25 to 1 advantage in spending helped Obama eke out a win by fewer than 26,000 votes or less than 1% of votes cast. With that large of an advantage in cash, an advantage that McCain had no chance of matching even if his campaign had been up to the challenge an outside chance at victory became a reality for Obama.

This is not to say that Obama would not have won with everything else this election cycle flowing his way, but it sure did not hurt. One is left to wonder though what would have happened had our next President not broken his promise and taken public financing.

At least the media mentioned it.

The Ever Popular

So here we are with a President who misrepresented who he was, raised and spent money to attain the office in highly unprecedented and perhaps illegal ways to get elected, proclaimed to have a mandate he never received at the polls and now is portrayed as immensely popular which he really is not. In fact he is growing more unpopular as the days pass. let's look at the numbers. First Gallup, as of this writing Obama has a 62% approval rating in the Gallup daily tracking poll with 27%of citizens disapproving. That is a spread of +35 points.

That sounds good 50 days into a Presidency, but has been pointed out it is nothing special historically for such a historic President. It is less popular than Carter was at this point, about the same as George H and George W Bush and slightly above Reagan and Clinton.

It is also exactly the same poll numbers that George W. Bush had after his first 100 days. Bush's negatives were slightly higher 29% compared to Obama's now 27%, but Bush's approval rating in the Gallup polls were steadily increasing from his election whereas Obama's are steadily decreasing.On election day Bush had a 57% whereas Obama's were 68% with 12% disapproval or +56 points.

Since election day Barack Obama favorability has dropped 21 points or a drop of almost 37%. Pundits explain to us that this primarily Republicans, true, but he is their President too I believe. Still a 37% drop in approval in your first 50 days is not exactly what I would call a honeymoon.

Then there is the Rasmussen Report. They actually do it a bit easier to follow by spreading not only the approve and disapprove but the strongly approve and strongly disapprove. On Inauguration Day Obama was 65%-30% approval rating or +35 points, as of this writing he is 56%-43% approval or +12 points. Based on the spread in his first 50 days he has dropped 23 points or about a 65% drop.

In the strongly approve versus strongly disapprove the numbers are equally stark. On his first day in office this historic President had 44% of Americans strongly approving of him and only 16% strongly opposed (I raise my hand here) for a margin of +28. Today the numbers are 37%-31% or +6 a loss of 22 points or a drop of 78% .

As has been the case from the beginning, Barack Obama is a mirage, a mirage that is portrayed to the American public as something he really isn't. He is not the person he campaigned as, he is not the overwhelming choice of the American people and he is not the immensely popular president that we are constantly told he is. Barack Obama is an ever diminishing growing myth courtesy of a corrupt media and an even more corrupt political system and a dumbed down American electorate.