# Poll finds Obama is the worst president since World War II **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 2, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186 "2014-07-02T13:08:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/261 "2014-08-20T09:23:31Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The article addresses that too. Congressmen always gripe about Presidents. Just usually not in such a way that it goes public. No, mostly unnamed third-hand reports always go public. > [@](#): > > Glad to see that you consider the Senate Majority Leader a “random political whiner”. At least we agree on something. Wrong again – it wasn’t Reid, it was someone on his staff. > [@](#): > > At this point, you’re just in denial. HAHAHAHA! Thanks for that, Mr. Pot. > [@](#): > > I don’t look for “snippets”. All I do is post the major, front page or near-front page stories that come out about his incompetence and disengagement. And you ignore all the rest. Like the many, many stories about the success of the ACA. > [@](#): > > Plenty of cites, plenty of reliable sources. After all, this is the “poll finds Obama is the worst President” thread. Since very few anti-Obama threads get posted on SDMB, it’s the best place to compile the reasons why he’s so poorly thought of by the public. I mean, you do want to know the reasons, don’t you? I’d like to know the legitimate reasons, and the legitimate criticism – both of which exist. Obama is very far from perfect. But you’re just terrible at criticizing him. Very, very, very bad. Awful, awful stuff. > [@](#): > > Oh wait, you think his unpopularity is just a passing phase that all Presidents go through. It is a phase that pretty much every President goes through, so it’s not terribly surprising. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/262 "2014-08-23T07:43:13Z")
> **[Obama's Biggest Problem: Political ADD](https://newrepublic.com/article/119144/obamas-political-add-president-cant-focus-single-issue)** > > The president's inability to focus on a single issue is hurting him with voters > [@](#): > > Why has Barack Obama—one of the most eloquent and thoughtful of recent presidents—become such a terrible politician? Midway through his sixth year in office, his ineptitude is pretty clear. He frustrated and demobilized the huge base he built during his campaigns and, unless the polls turn around quickly, will be watching from the White House as the GOP takes full control of Congress this fall. On Tuesday, the Times offered some new evidence in an article about his frosty relationship with Senate Democrats. > > Obama is governing a nation full of discouraged, sometimes angry people, and he seems unable or unwilling to address their discontent in any sustained or effective way. Worse, except for those deluded souls who believe he’s a tyrannical socialist, the president has become a rather boring and insignificant figure. His response this Monday to the outrage in Ferguson, Missouri—"Let us build, not tear down. Listen, not just shout”—neither persuaded nor mollified. Keeping calm is not a political strategy. Is this criticism from the left more to your liking? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/263 "2014-08-23T07:44:44Z")
Also, Ezra Klein offers some explanation of why Obama’s relationship with Congressional Democrats is so poor: > **[Why congressional Democrats don’t like Obama](https://www.vox.com/2014/8/20/6045891/why-congressional-democrats-don-t-like-obama)** > > Obama sees socializing with Hill Democrats as a chore. Worse, he sees it as a useless chore. The upshot is, it doesn’t matter. I don’t know, I prefer the “sucks at diplomacy” explanation. But I notice that the liberal media is treating the NY Times article as accurate, while iiandyii just dismisses it as third hand whining. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/264 "2014-08-23T11:55:02Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > But I notice that the liberal media is treating the NY Times article as accurate, while iiandyii just dismisses it as third hand whining. I don’t dismiss it, and the article may be fine. You just mischaracterize it, as you do most things. You’re incapable of reading an article without being overwhelmed by your bias against the President. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/265 "2014-08-25T15:14:26Z")
Oh, adaher. You made me actually read that article you linked. It does not say what you think it says. > [@](#): > > This is ridiculous. There are no issues erupting at home or abroad where the problem is that House or Senate Democrats won’t vote with the president. There’s no legislation of importance to President Obama’s legacy that would pass if only House Democrats had spent more time at the White House. **I’ve listened to a lot of Democratic members of Congress complain about Obama’s poor relationships on the Hill. Each time, my follow-up question is the same: “what would have passed if Obama had better relationships on the Hill?” Each time, the answer is the same: a shake of the head, and then, “nothing.”** [bolding mine] ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/266 "2014-08-26T13:38:38Z")
All I said about the Klein piece was that it accepts the authenticity of the NY Times article, and that the upshot of that article is that it doesn’t matter. According to Klein. Personally, I think Klein’s wrong. Partly, anyway. Political self-interest means that Democrats want Obama to succeed and so won’t torpedo his agenda the way the Democratic Party would have in the days when their control over Congress was assured. So there’s an interest in being united even if they don’t personally like the President. But Klein assumes this is just the “new normal” and I don’t think it is at all. It’s partly BECAUSE of his shitty diplomatic skills that he has to rely on Congressmen focusing on their own interests rather than loyalty to him. He’s lucky the health care bill was passed relatively early. There’s no way Democratic Senators would have laid down their careers for him today. As a matter of fact, by Klein’s own logic, the health care bill should have never passed at all. It is actually one piece of legislation that got through because Obama hadn’t ruined his relationship with Congressional Democrats yet. ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/267 "2014-08-26T15:02:44Z")
Judges, can we get a ruling? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/268 "2014-08-26T15:45:42Z")
The article says pretty clearly that Ezra Klein hears from a lot of Democrats about the President’s poor relationship with Congress. By now, that fact should no longer be in dispute. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/269 "2014-08-26T15:54:31Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The article says pretty clearly that Ezra Klein hears from a lot of Democrats about the President’s poor relationship with Congress. By now, that fact should no longer be in dispute. So you’ve latched onto this mundane, very predictable bit of political minutiae as a way to continue your ridiculously biased and fantasy-based one-man crusade to portray Obama in a bad light. By the way, reporters hear stuff like this from congressmen about _every President_, even from their own party. Congressmen will always be unhappy. They won’t speak up about it when the President’s popularity is high, but when his popularity is mediocre, they’ll feel more free. This was true for Bush, Clinton, and the first Bush. And probably for Reagan and Carter, though I was very young and don’t have any examples off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/270 "2014-08-26T15:56:21Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The article says pretty clearly that Ezra Klein hears from a lot of Democrats about the President’s poor relationship with Congress. By now, that fact should no longer be in dispute. That salts it- no way am I voting for Obama in 2016. I agree that Obama has not been the maestro with Congress that LBJ was. But with Republicans in lock step opposition, it hardly matters. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/271 "2014-08-26T16:07:44Z")
Would Republicans be in lockstep opposition if Obama was better at diplomacy? Personally, I think it’s childish to think that Republican are behaving this way because they just don’t like him for reasons having nothing to do with how he’s handled them. But like I said before, the only way to prove you guys wrong is for Hillary Clinton to win in 2016 and have a better working relationship with Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/272 "2014-08-26T16:16:19Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Personally, I think it’s childish to think that Republican are behaving this way because they just don’t like him for reasons having nothing to do with how he’s handled them. I’m sure they don’t like how he’s handled them, but they decided from the beginning how they would behave, and they’ve stuck to it. From the very beginning, immediately after the 2008 election, the Republican leadership decided that their top priority was to thwart Obama, whatever he wanted. So it hasn’t mattered what Obama has done – the Republicans made the decision early to oppose him at every turn. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/273 "2014-08-26T17:29:00Z")
So your argument is that the Democrats are just behaving the way Democrats always do, that there’s nothing historically notable about their dissatisfaction with the President. But on the other hand, the Republicans are acting in historically unprecedented ways to obstruct. What I see is the same thing we saw with Bill Clinton, only Bill Clinton established a positive relationship with Newt Gingrich. Boehner is much less of a hardass than Newt, yet he doesn’t trust the President as a negotiator. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/274 "2014-08-26T17:36:02Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Would Republicans be in lockstep opposition if Obama was better at diplomacy? Personally, I think it’s childish to think that Republican are behaving this way because they just don’t like him for reasons having nothing to do with how he’s handled them. > > But like I said before, the only way to prove you guys wrong is for Hillary Clinton to win in 2016 and have a better working relationship with Republicans. The Republicans met on Inauguration night 2009 and decided they would oppose every single thing Obama tried to do. Even LBJ couldn’t have swam against that current. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/275 "2014-08-26T18:37:00Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > So your argument is that the Democrats are just behaving the way Democrats always do, that there’s nothing historically notable about their dissatisfaction with the President. But on the other hand, the Republicans are acting in historically unprecedented ways to obstruct. Pretty much. Obama is a pretty standard Democrat. Pretty close to Gore/Clinton/Dukakis/Carter on the issues. His style is a bit different, but not his substance. The Republicans these days are _not_ ‘standard Republicans’, in either style nor substance. Bob Dole wouldn’t be welcome in this party, nor would Bush I, McCain of 2000, Reagan (the real Reagan, not the fantasy-Reagan they worship), or Nixon. > [@](#): > > What I see is the same thing we saw with Bill Clinton, only Bill Clinton established a positive relationship with Newt Gingrich. Boehner is much less of a hardass than Newt, yet he doesn’t trust the President as a negotiator. I don’t buy that Boehner doesn’t trust the President – Boehner is just too weak (and cowardly) to buck his caucus, and goes along with their “oppose Obama every time we can” mindset – a mindset that was set at the very beginning of Obama’s 1st term. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/276 "2014-08-26T19:45:40Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > The Republicans met on Inauguration night 2009 and decided they would oppose every single thing Obama tried to do. Even LBJ couldn’t have swam against that current. All the more important to preserve your Congressional majorities then, no? Instead, Obama asked them to vote for unpopular shit and then tried to console them by saying, “But you’ve got me!” on the campaign trail. No wonder they don’t think much of him. A lot of Democrats fell on their swords for him and he just hasn’t been there for them. Again, if the health are bill came up today, it couldn’t pass even if Democrats still had the HOuse and 60 votes in the Senate. I don’t think a single Democrat would take a bullet for him anymore. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/277 "2014-08-26T23:00:21Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I’m sure they don’t like how he’s handled them, but they decided from the beginning how they would behave, and they’ve stuck to it. From the very beginning, immediately after the 2008 election, the Republican leadership decided that their top priority was to thwart Obama, whatever he wanted. > > So it hasn’t mattered what Obama has done – the Republicans made the decision early to oppose him at every turn. > [@BobLibDem](#): > > The Republicans met on Inauguration night 2009 and decided they would oppose every single thing Obama tried to do. Even LBJ couldn’t have swam against that current. I’ll third this and offer as a cite my memory (such as it is) of the early part of Obama’s first term. I recall very well thinking that Obama was being too accommodating and was compromising too much. At least Obama eventually quit bending over backwards for the Republicans once he realized they just wanted him to bend over period. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/278 "2014-08-26T23:57:55Z")
Obama was not compromising, he was giving the appearance of compromising. We saw how transparent this was when the President and Republicans came to a debt ceiling agreement and then Obama turned “yes” into “no” by demanding more revenue increases after they had come to an agreement. Obama doesn’t want to get to “yes”, unless “yes” is give Democrats 90% of what they want. ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/279 "2014-08-27T00:17:50Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > We saw how transparent this was when the President and Republicans came to a debt ceiling agreement and then Obama turned “yes” into “no” by demanding more revenue increases after they had come to an agreement. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/280 "2014-08-27T00:45:17Z")
[http://abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/no-deal-debt-ceiling-talks-between-obama-boehner-break-down.html](http://abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/no-deal-debt-ceiling-talks-between-obama-boehner-break-down.html) > **[Obama: Debt Ceiling Talks Fell Apart, Boehner Walked Out](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obama-debt-ceiling-talks-boehner_n_907502)** > > Obama: Debt Ceiling Talks Fell Apart, Boehner Walked Out [http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/07/no-deal-debt-ceiling-talks-between-obama-boehner-break-down/](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/07/no-deal-debt-ceiling-talks-between-obama-boehner-break-down/) > [@](#): > > Boehner held his own press conference after 7 p.m. Friday night and said the talks broke down because “The White House moved the goal posts.” > > Specifically, he said the two sides had agreed on an unspecified amount of revenue to be included in deficit reduction, achieved by broadening the number of Americans who pay taxes and lowering general tax rates. But he said President Obama on Thursday demanded another $400 billion in revenue, which Boehner said “was going to be nothing more than a tax hike on the American people.” Watch Boehner Here > > It is clear, however, that Boehner and Cantor were ready to accept up to $800 billion in revenue measures as part of a grand bargain. But when that number jumped, in part because of pressure from Democrats, the talks broke down. They had a grand bargain, and Obama scuttled it by demanding another $400 billion at the last second. He never wanted a grand bargain. He just wanted to be seen as trying to compromise. Meanwhile, Bob Woodward explains how relationships do matter and were extremely important during the debt ceiling negotiations: > **[Bob Woodward on 'The Price of Politics,' Fiscal Fight Over the Debt Ceiling](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bob-woodward-on-the-price-of-politics-fiscal-fight)** > > Bob Woodward on 'The Price of Politics,' Fiscal Fight Over the Debt Ceiling > [@](#): > > JUDY WOODRUFF: And can you put your finger on what it was that President Obama didn’t have or didn’t do? > > BOB WOODWARD: He doesn’t have the relations with these people. > > For instance, specifically, Joe Biden has this relationship with Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader. He’s known in the West Wing, Biden is, as the McConnell whisperer, the person who can deal with McConnell. > > They have known each other for decades. They don’t agree on things, but it’s the kind of old deal-making philosophy, one for you, one for me. > > And at key points in this three-and-a-half year period, it’s Biden who comes and bails the administration and the president out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186.md?page=15)