Tag Archive for 'Obama'

2nd term - the curse of presidents

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on June 6, 2013
in Politics
. 0 Comments

The Question:
What do you think about the numerous scandals the Obama Administration is facing?

12% - It’s just politics - these things happen to presidents of both parties.

82% - Obama Administration abuses are finally being uncovered.

6% - These are just Republican witch hunts.

My Comments:

Almost every U.S. President in recent memory who was re-elected had a dicey second term. Even the venerable Ronald Reagan had his 2nd term issues, like the Iran/Contra scandal. It is now evident that President Obama will not be an exception to this ignominious trend.

We wanted to know what our small business audience thought about what has quickly become a trifecta of scandals (Behghazi, IRS, AP/Fox) for the Obama administration, so we asked this question: “What do you think about the numerous scandals the Obama administration is facing?” Less than one-in-five of our respondents attribute Obama’s problems to “just politics,” or “a Republican witch hunt.” The remaining 82%, however, lay the president’s problems at his own feet.

You will remember that the Watergate scandal, which was associated with Nixon’s 1972 re-election, ultimately led to him becoming the only president in U.S. history to resign. People called Reagan and Bill Clinton a lot of names, but I don’t remember anyone comparing either one to Nixon.

There is one thing that makes Obama’s scandals different from those of Reagan and Clinton - they all seem to be associated with his 2012 re-election. It’s not good news for the president when political thought-leaders and members of the media, including those who are in no way aligned with the Republican Party, have invoked the name “Nixon” or the term “Nixonian” when discussing what we’re learning about the Obama scandals.

Amid Reagan’s second term scandal he accomplished many things, including landmark tax reform. Even the Lewinski scandal of Clinton’s second term didn’t prevent him from negotiating landmark welfare reform.

Obama’s scandals are serious. But he will not be impeached, nor will he resign. But he has almost four years left on his second term and the more his unfolding scandals sound, smell and/or look Nixonian, the less he will be able to accomplish any of his goals or secure a desirable legacy.

Regardless of what has gone before, what will be said about President Obama in 10 or 20 years will depend upon what happens from this moment forward.

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Small Business Advocate Poll: Game-changer?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on October 8, 2012
in Government and Politics
. 0 Comments

Debates between presidential candidates aren’t always game-changers. But sometimes they are, like the one just competed.

It’s difficult to gauge whether people are surprised that Romney performed so commandingly, or that Obama came in third in a two-man debate. Either way, in terms of being a game-changer, this debate is being scored as one of the top three in more than a half-century.

We wanted to know what our audience’s expectations were for this debate, so in our online poll last week, we asked this question: “The first of three Presidential debates will take place this week. How will these events impact your vote?” Here’s what we learned:

Only 12% said the debate results would not change their plan to vote for the Obama/Biden ticket. The big number from our survey - 73% - said the debate would not change their vote for Romney/Ryan. Just 15% admitted that they thought the debates would influence their final decision.

If our audience is representative of the small business sector, it’s a solid Romney/Ryan constituency, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all the Obama campaign. But with his poor debate performance this week, it can’t be good news for President Obama that 15% of our folks were looking forward to the debate for something to help them make their decision.

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Last week on The Small Business Advocate Show, I talked about the first presidential debate with Rich Galen, Republican strategist, publisher of the popular cyber-column, Mullings.com and frequent political talking head. Click on one of the links below to download or listen to what we had to say.

Who won the first Obama-Romney debate?

The Obama-Romney debate was beautifully unstructured

Was the first Obama-Romney debate a game changer?

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Watch Jim’s videos HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!

Small Business Advocate Poll: Is Obama Watching the Same Ballgame?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on June 22, 2012
in Economy: National and Global and Politics
. 2 Comments

The Question:
In a press conference recently, President Obama reported that, “The private sector is doing fine.” What do you think about this appraisal?

0% - He’s right. The economy is fine.

68% - He’s wrong. What game is he watching?

32% - It’s not all bad, but it’s not good, either.

My Commentary:
We’ve all said things we would like to retrace, perhaps as soon as the words clear our lips. No doubt this happened to President Obama last week when he said, now famously, “The private sector is doing fine.”

I was watching his speech as he said those words and, frankly, my jaw dropped. Was it just an ill-phrased, extemporaneous thought? Were those words written for him to read? Does he really believe that?

For the past two years, periodically we’ve polled our audience about the condition of the economy. The results have pretty much been the same every time: less than one-fourth are doing well, less than one-fourth are not doing well, and the half in the middle are doing just okay. That means about three-fourths of our respondents have consistently reported less-than-desirable business conditions.

But when we polled our online audience recently about their response to President Obama’s appraisal of the private sector economy, not one person agreed with him. Not even, apparently, the one-fourth of our respondents who have consistently reported favorable business conditions. Almost seven of ten of our sample said, “He’s wrong. What game is he watching?” And the rest, 32%, said, “It’s not all bad, but it’s not good, either.”

There are only three reasons why the President would say something like this at this point in time: 1) He misspoke; 2) his remark was out of context; or 3) he is out of touch with the economic reality. Frankly, since he is very smart, a pretty good politician and has a world-class political team around him, it’s difficult to imagine that he would misspeak or not avoid being taken out of context on THE issue that is likely to decide the election.

One thing is certain: President Obama has now burned the first two excuses. From now to November 6, voter scrutiny regarding the economy will be based on one question: Is he watching the same ballgame as the rest of us?

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!

Small Business Advocate Poll: Who will you elect to be the next president?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on May 4, 2012
in Economy: National and Global and Presidential policies
. 0 Comments

The Question:
In about six months either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will be elected as the next president. At this moment, who will you vote for?

12% - Barack Obama

83% - Mitt Romney

5% - Neither

My Commentary:
The Republican primary process is practically, if not technically over, and all signs point to a contest this November 6 between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Every day, one or more national polls are being released showing how these two are doing against each other either in general, or with regard to one group or another, such as independents, for example.

We wanted to know how Obama and Romney were doing with the small business electorate, so last week we asked this question of our audience: “In about six months either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will be elected as the next president. At this moment, who will you vote for?”

As you can see, if our poll is any indication regarding small business politics, President Obama has some work to do with those who create over half of America’s GDP, employ over half of all workers and create most of the new jobs. Can he close the gap?

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I have talked to several experts on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, about the 2012 election, why it’s so important, and the prospects of the two parties. Click here to see the list and download or listen.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!

Small Business Advocate Poll: Who’s responsible for gas prices?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on March 23, 2012
in Economy: National and Global and Presidential policies
. 2 Comments

The Question:
The price of gas is going up. How much, if anything, do you believe President Obama contributed to this increase?

18% - None - Market force, not politics are to blame for gas prices.

31% - 100% - Obama’s policies have directly or indirectly caused this increase.

51% - 50-50 - Markets are in play, but presidents have ways to influence gas prices.

Jim’s Comments:
As noted in Tuesday’s post, the condition of the economy, with emphasis on unemployment, will play a big part in the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. One other component that hits every American in the pocket is the price of gasoline, which right now is very high. Our question this week was designed to find out what small business owners think about who or what contributes to such high prices.

As you can see, more than eight of ten of our respondents think President Obama has caused or influenced the high prices. If you like politics, it will be very interesting to watch the President respond to the politically charged economic element of gas prices over the next eight months.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!

Small Business Advocate Poll: Who will be the GOP nominee?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 26, 2012
in Government and Politics
. 0 Comments

The Question:
Regardless of the political party you belong to, which of these GOP candidates do you think would be the most likely to defeat President Obama?

16% - Newt Gingrich

77% - Mitt Romney

5% - Ron Paul

2% - Rick Santorum

Commentary:
As you may know, over a year ago I predicted that Newt Gingrich would be leading the polls by the end of 2011 among the GOP hopefuls for president. This was not an endorsement; just an instinct. All during the year I took a lot of grief from my political experts about that forecast. But, as you know, my 2011 vision was vindicated.

When it came time to make my 2012 predictions, my gut told me to stick with my original instincts and not underestimate Newt Gingrich. But then my head intervened.

Everyone knows that Obama has the most formidable national re-election organization - and war chest - in the history of America. Then I learned that Mitt Romney has a formidable national campaign organization that can go the distance with Obama and that Gingrich has virtually no national organization and is week-to-week financially. And Romney, it seemed to me, would be the best at coalescing independent voters over to the GOP side of the ballot. Therefore, I went with my head instead of my gut, and predicted Romney would be the 2012 Republican nominee.

My reasoned prediction was in pretty good shape for a while, until a tectonic shift happened in South Carolina on Saturday, where Gingrich accomplished nothing short of a smack-down. He won the state by taking 40% of the vote in the GOP primary to Romney’s 28%. Santorum and Paul split the rest.

Last week, Gingrich had a potentially devastating, roller-coaster week. So when you combine that with the considerable experience and instincts of so many political pundits favoring Romney, plus my prediction and our recent poll results (see below), perhaps at no time since Truman upset Dewey in ‘48 have so many professionals and regular folk exclaimed in national unison, “Whoa! Didn’t see that coming.”

Politically speaking, South Carolina is a long way from Tampa, Florida, where the Republican National Convention will be held in August. Gingrich has proven that his message resonates with conservatives. But he has two huge mountain ranges to climb before he moves into the White House: 1) win over independents; and 2) put together a national organization that can stay with Obama for all four quarters of this Super Bowl of politics.

If you love politics, it doesn’t get any better than this. If you love America, surely the raw beauty of this process is one of the reasons. God bless America.

Today on my radio show I talked with Rich Galen, Publisher of Mullings.com and Republican strategist, about which GOP candidates had the best chance to become the nominee and defeat Obama in November. Take a few minutes to click here and listen to our predictions.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!