What's the opinion of Obama in the US?

Forgive me if I sound very uninformed if I ask this, but I am very interested in knowing.

What does the general American public think of Obama? is it even possible to generalize it?

Pretty much all we hear in Germany ( and I think it is safe to say a majority of Europe) is very very positive. He is celebrated in all of the newspapers, I have hardly read any negative articles.

But on the US military post in my city, I have overheard people expressing their dislike for Obama on various occasions. I am not sure if I can take those opinions as the over-all opinion? Is this just conservatives/ hard core republicans speaking?
But then again I also stumble across a lot of hate towards Obama when browsing the internet...

So is Obama in reality far from the celebrity most newspapers here make him seem to be? Or what?
If he is hated...could you give me some examples of why?

I have yet to form my opinion of him. All I know is that he HAS to be a hell of a lot better than Bush ( I mean, it can't get a lot worse). And I do think that as the next president in line...he has a lot of Bush's messes to clean up.seems like a tough job if you ask me.

P.S. This is my first post here in CE. I have been on SG for half a year now, and I come in here to read CE a lot. So I sort of understand the general mood in here already...a lot of it is sarcasm, hehe. but I would really appreciate some serious answers thanks!

I think the opinions of Obama are all across the spectrum. The right loathes him. He's basically a baby killer in their eyes, mostly due to the right wing media whipping them into a frenzy.

People in the center are more happy with him. His ratings have dropped a bit since he was elected but overall he's doing okay.

A large percentage of the left are disappointed in him - mostly due to not following through on promises he made. From the numbers I've read about 50% of the young voters he brought into politics have been turned off by his governing.

I wouldn't read too much into what you hear on bases. They tend to lean a bit more toward the irrational hatred of Obama. Overall ,he's doing okay as far as most are concerned.

More Americans approve of him than disapprove according to polls. Gallup indicates a small drop in the past two weeks, but he has been around 50% approval and 43% disapproval this year (Note: those are rough numbers based on averaging out the points in my head).

pretty much everyone I come in contact with where I live has a positive attitude about him

apparently the German president had a rough few days this weekend though

It depends upon how you factor the numbers, but he's got pretty good public support overall. Basically, the United States is in the middle of a very deep recession, and as a general rule, when unemployment gets to 10%, people generally don't like whoever happens to be in office. Given this basic fact, his 50% overall approval rating is actually pretty good; it's several points higher than Reagan was in the middle of the '81 recession, to give you some idea. I expect that as unemployment declines, you'll see his numbers steadily tick upward back to about 55-60% approval ratings, which is pretty good.

That being said, while he has pretty decent overall approval ratings, his approval ratings in certain areas of the country, and with certain groups, is just abysmal. Regionally, he has pretty decent support everywhere in the country but in the states that were part of the Confederacy. It's important to note that he's pretty popular even in areas that have been hostile to the Democrats since the 60's; the Mountain West, for instance, has long been completely inhospitable to the Democrats, but Obama is actually fairly well-respected in that area even if his party is not. In terms of demographics, he does very well among the young, the urban, and minorities. In those groups that have none of those characteristics, namely white males above the age of 60 or so, his support is very very low. Interestingly enough, the strongest predictor of whether or not a person voted for Barack Obama in the last election was whether or not the person was above or below the age of 40.

The reports you hear from the base largely reflect the fact that the military has been a conservative institution since Vietnam.

Seems to me he's doing the best job of any president since I've been paying attention. Which is to say he still does plenty of things I strongly disagree with, but more often that not I think he puts forth the effort to do push the agenda he promised in his campaign, and he does it in a method that's a step back towards civility and away from the constant two party bullshit that has dominated American politics for as long as I've been watching. He's gone out of his way to appoint moderates in his cabinet and elsewhere, and even to give his opposition a voice there. For that, he has my respect.

I'm less wild about his breaking his promise to close Guantanamo within a year, and his continuation of prior administrations' secrecy. It seems that the differences between the two parties are largely illusory when it comes to certain issues. Let's not forget it was Clinton who built Guantanamo, and oversaw an administration that pushed unprecedented invasions of privacy culminating in the Clipper Chip. So I wasn't as disappointed as I could have been when Obama, upon getting into office, seemed to go the way of every other executive, regardless of party, and start siding with the FBI and NSA in wanting to be able to get away with black hat shenanigans. Disappointed, yes. Surprised and disappointed, no.

So yeah, I've got my complaints, but on the whole I think he's doing better than any other I've been around to see.

Compared to the last asshole, he could eat a fucking baby and I'd still give him a positive review.

He's triangulating, which in the end will cause more problems than what we had before. Now a sharp division has arisen amongst the left, which is what triangulation does. So, I completely disagree that he is doing it in a more civil manner, unless his Chief of Staff calling people like myself "Retarded" is more civil.

Pretty much this. I think he's got some things going for him beyond "not being a Republican and definitely not being George W. Bush", but those two things alone make me worlds happier.

I'm not happy with how our federal government has grown in size and power. And since Obama wants to take it further in a direction I don't agree with I'm not happy with him either.
I haven't been complaining because I see changes for the better at the state level. The 8 states trampling federal power on gun rights, California refusing to prosecute federal drug laws. These are examples of the direction I believe this country needs to go. Stronger State sovereignty and a weak federal government. This direction is also how it was originally intended in our Constitution.

Amendment 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.

I'll see your Amendment 10, and raise you Article One, Section 8:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;...To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

Emphasis mine.

I am curious about what you mean. Are you speaking to:
-- Growth in terms of employment (people required to run government)

-- Growth in the expenditures of government

-- Growth in the scope and societal penetration of regulation

And in the face of what you might define as growth, do you see any correlation between the demand for more government and the resultant increase in supply?

How would you define or measure the value or importance of that growth in government, which was brought on by some catastrophic economic event (war, depression, recession, etc)?

And finally, you seem to be advocating for increased state's rights in the face of what you must construe are acts of impingement by the federal government. If you are, how do you explain that from 1960 to 1990, the number of state and local government employees increased from 6.4 million to 15.2 million, while the number of civilian federal employees rose only slightly, from 2.4 million to 3 million?

It's a lot of questions;; take your time.

Well, a lot of people think he's a colossal failure.

Not just from the right wing people, I mean, the number of people who object to a black man anywhere near power is a total minority - but there are right wing people who don't agree with his health care ideas. What he is proposing is unconstitutional, and in the South, where they like the ORIGINAL ideas about Constiutionality, it's like Lincoln on steroids.

The right wing is starting to cut away from the Republicans and Democrats, and looking for people who will spend less. They're no happier with Bush.

They just voted for him twice, though.

Yeah, that argument is getting old. Fast. Actually it was old months ago. They treat it like a lot of Christians treat the bible - they only quote the parts they feel fit their needs, take things out of context and often just refuse to accept that the rest of the document exists.

Tea Partiers tended to vote for Ron Paul.

Ah fuck, we went through this already. There are those in this country who wanted States Rights. History remembers them only for their clinging to slavery and, and celebrates the boot-stomping they got and the unimpeded race to bigger and bigger government that followed.

Lincoln's lasting contribution to the American history problem was deciding there were powers in the Constitution that weren't there. Sooner or later some bright spark is gonna argue free housing, food and Nintendo is for the "general welfare" and it's all over.

A broken clock happens to be right twice a day, MDF. I don't buy that the motives of the CSA were as wonderfully pure as that, but I do agree with the notion that State, rather than Federal control, is what was originally envisaged.

Weird, because the Tea Party didn't exist until that black man took over.

People in the Tea Party NOW tended to support people like Jesse Ventura, Ron Paul, etc.

And most tea partiers aren't racist.

He's also wrong, members of the Tea Party are usually, white, male, over 40, and voted predominantly Republican. Fun Fact. It's an inconvenience that most Tea Party supporters look like hypocrites whenever their previous support for Bush is wheeled out.

From the same poll source:

Good luck with that.

Most of the tea types I've known thought Bush was another tax and spend liberal.

I have never supported Bush.

And interesting - tea partier types tend to be wealthier and well-educated, from the same poll.

Though I understand your position, believing that much has been made of a problem is NOT prima facie evidence of hatred towards a given race.

Though, I will entertain polls or facts that show this. Personally, if you can find racist teabaggers let the greater group know. They will be weeded out.

Can we get back on track?

What do we think of Obama?

NOT MUCH.

His own supporters are upset, too. They were expecting free universal health care. That didn't happen. They were expecting all manner of wonderful things, such as gays in the military, and gay marriage. Neither of those happened, in fact Obama staffers compared gays to people committing incest, to their horror.

The gays in fact have been heckling Obama to actually start implementing things like gay marriage and are raging against the insurance payoff that is his health care proposal.

TL;DR - his opponents hate him further destroying the Constitution, and his supporters are waiting for this miraculous hope and change that hasn't yet happened.
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Disclaimer: Dixie_Biker is using words like "we", "they" and other such plurals as to describe an opinion that mostly concerns himself. He is also speaking out of place for large groups of people that he has absolutely no right to speak for. In reality he should be using words like "me" and "I" and speaking for only himself, i doubt he'll understand that though. End Disclaimer

Am i shitting rainbows and unicorns with Obama's performance? No. I don't agree with every decision he has made, but i also know damn well that unless i personally run for President, no President will make decisions exactly in line with what I want.

He has brought the end to "Don't Ask Don't Tell" which is a huge advancement and Globally we aren't looked at like the moron kid in the corner picking his nose and starting fights. There are things i am satisfied with and things i am not satisfied with.

Understanding completely that the following post has nothing to do with the original topic & is contributing to thread derailment of the highest order, I apologize in advance, but not very deeply, because I simply do not fucking care.

You know how you can tell the Tea Party is racist? Anyone?

Easy: Because when it was a white guy in office pissing all over civil liberties, creating new & superfluous Federal agencies with broad powers & disregard for said (pissed on) civil liberties, ratcheting up the deficit like he had campaigned on doing just that, & incompetently managing two exercises in nation-building there was no broadly backed, national movement, which members of either party were falling over to gain the support of criticizing him. The Tea Party "movement" began in 2009 when Obama had yet to be in office for a full year. He hadn't rearranged the furniture in The West Wing, yet, or figured out to work the copier & the coffeemaker, & people were carrying pistols & rifles to protests shouting about "taking our government back".

From whom?

The party in governance which had just swept popular elections, often by large margins, & were now in control of two (electable) of the three branches of the Federal Government? That's who they felt were stealing their government? The people a great plurality of US citizens had just choose to run the fucking thing?

There should be zero discussion as to whether or not the Tea Party movement is grounded in fear, ignorance, & racism, but in following the principal that you don't want the argument of whether or not someone is racist, you should argue if their (in this case a large political movement's) actions or statements appear to be racist. I would argue that it's no fucking coincidence that all of five goddamn minutes after a black guy got sworn into the big job there were angry, largely illiterate, pear-shaped, white folk marching to "take back" their government. That didn't happen by some giant goddamn accident & anyone who thinks it did is either painfully naive or terminally stupid.

To jack a phrase, oh, white people, suck it the fuck up.

I spent eight years-- most of the first decade in which I legally had a voice in this country-- living under a President that often seemed this side of functionally retarded in public while putting Machiavelli to shame behind the scenes to basically rape the founding principals of my fucking country while giving everybody who fit into the highest tax bracket a monetary handjob, & you know what?

I bitched & moaned. But I paid my taxes, I voted, I didn't show up to protests armed with heavy weaponry, I didn't threaten to move to Auckland or Cleveland or some other foreign country. I didn't blindly accuse my President (because-- as a citizen-- I'm ultimately responsible to some degree for who is in charge of my country, whether I voted for them or not) of stealing elections, violating international law, or committing war crimes. Instead, I stayed informed, read the opinions & analysis of a great number of people from all positions of the political spectrum who are much, much smarter than me, & looked for consensus opinions & legal facts before making judgments about what my President may or may not have done in the name of me & my countrymen.

I may have built a bug-out bag with twenty thousand dollars in small bills, my passport & the passports of several other people altered to appear as mine, & an unlicensed, unregistered forty caliber semiautomatic handgun with the serial numbers filed off. And encouraged many of my closest friends & family to do the same*.

But comparing my reaction to a President-- whom I despised as deeply & passionately as the Trolls on CE despise reason, logic, & fact-- to the way the Tea Party folks have reacted to the first black President? I deserve a goddamn medal. And I want my medal.

Given all that, I am moved to ask of the Tea Party leaders & supporters...

Go to bed, would you please?

Dear god. I've never advocated that people shouldn't vote or should be legally barred from voting, but I'm nearly ready to advocate that the mouth-breathers who are trying to take back their stolen government from the party democratically elected to lead it to be denied oxygen.

Go to bed, now.

Please.