Obama looks good for 2012, at least for now, analysts say

[azmouse]

Quote:The 2012 election is only 20 months away, and right now President Obama is looking like a good bet for re-election.


No Republican has formally announced plans to challenge Obama, and those who are talking about running aren't drawing rave reviews.

Expect a lot of analysts to make comparisons to 1995, a year in which Bill Clinton consolidated his hold on the presidency while Republicans struggled to find a candidate and eventually produced Bob Dole.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/...ysts-say/1

Take nothing for granted. We need to get out the votes but it's looking quite good for our President to be re-elected.

[There Is No Spoon]

That's all I see - an unmotivated electorate is a recipe for disaster...

[OptimistesMaddie]

(03-05-2011 12:51 PM)There Is No Spoon Wrote:  That's all I see - an unmotivated electorate is a recipe for disaster...

I don't think they are as unmotivated as they were before the Wisconsin illegal vote last night and all of the Repug states trashing their own supporters.

[Treestar]

President Obama being on the ticket will motivate more voters and more Democrats, so maybe we can get a shot at a Dem Congress again. Especially after the two year circus of the Republican House. President Obama is popular and their intransigence will not do them much good.

[DFLforever]

I've always believed Pres Obama would be a two- term president. Maybe I'm too confident but those are my feelings.

Of course, it will take a tremendous amount of work to re-elect him. But the necessity for hard work in national elections is a given. .

[Eponine]

The Republican field is weak. Gawd, Newt Gingrich? Mike Huckabee? Obama is looking great for 2012 and I can't wait to work for his re-election.

[jaxx]

The President will be in for a fight, but I think he will win the second term by a good margin. The teapubs have hurt their supporters with the Wisconsin madness, with Ohio and are trying to in other states. How stupid do they think the working people of this country are? They may have been dazzled by the tea party once, but I don't think that will happen again.

[The Capitol Punisher]

He can guarantee a second term if he can at least manage to get the unemployment figure to a flat 8.0% by next summer.

[OptimistesMaddie]

(03-10-2011 12:39 PM)The Capitol Punisher Wrote:  He can guarantee a second term if he can at least manage to get the unemployment figure to a flat 8.0% by next summer.

How does he do this without a House that refuses to present any jobs bills,? The Repugs have not sent any jobs bills to the floor....0...nada..."Where are the jobs Boehner"....goes after social issues....

[Andy823]

(03-05-2011 12:50 PM)azmouse Wrote:  Take nothing for granted. We need to get out the votes but it's looking quite good for our President to be re-elected.

Exactly! I know that in 2010 there were over a half million voters who DID NOT vote in my state, Washington, that did vote in 2008! We can not have that again. Other states were just as bad, like Wisconsin where I heard around 800,000 less voters turned out in 2010 than voted in 2008, and look what happened there!

People have to be worked up to vote, if not more states will be taken over by republicans and then things will "really" get worse!

I think the president can win, the other side has nothing but "clowns" trying to win their primaries, but as you said, we can take nothing for granted, we have to keep reminding voters what the republicans are doing to this country, and how bad it will be if they are not kicked out office in 2012!

[NYC Liberal]

The thing about Obama is that he's going to look very good next to some of the crazies the Republicans are thinking of putting up. It's not going to be an easy election...presidential elections usually aren't. But the whole "No Drama Obama" thing worked well for him in 2008 and it's going to work well in 2012.

The one thing he has to make sure he does it to get out in front of the lies. I'm confident he will -- his campaign had some excellent ads last time around and they produced them very quickly in response to developments in the campaign (the "celebrity" meme, McCain's "fundamentals of our economy are strong" gaffe, etc).

Another thing is that people are going to look at the first two years and see all the progress that Obama and Dems made and compare that to the two years of Republicans blocking everything in sight via control of the House.

[Capn Sunshine]

President Obama's policies are having the effect he said they would.... a jobs bill would probably get the UI down in the low 7's again.

[Drunken Irishman]

Pres. Obama will win for a whole host of reasons.

1) He's a good politician. Good politicians generally do well in elections. They convince voters to support them, even when there might be lingering issues. It's how Pres. Obama was able to bounce back nicely from everything that dogged him in the 2008 primary campaign. Bill Clinton was another master politician, who very good at turning a negative into a positive. Obama's handling of Rev. Wright proved this, as did Clinton's handling of the whole Gennifer Flowers disaster in 1992. Yes, both situations were dramatically different - but the outcome could have devastated both their campaigns.

2) He's likable. I guess this goes with the above, because generally good politicians are liked. But that isn't always the case. I think Nixon was a good politician, but his abrasive personality made him unlikable to a great deal of the electorate - which shows you just how good of a politician he was because he overcame that distrust.

Obama is very well liked. Maybe more liked and respected than any president in recent history. Clinton was well liked too, but Americans didn't trust him and certainly didn't feel he was an honorable man. They look at Obama as a great husband, a wonderful father and someone who actually seems like a very decent human being.

It's rare we get a president like that. Generally presidents are dogged by personal scandals or personal ineptitudes that dilute their overall appearance.

When you're a well-liked guy, Americans generally want you to succeed. I remember reading an article back in December that said Pres. Obama has the luxury of having most America on his side. They're cheering for him to do what is right and many presidents don't have that benefit. Clinton did and to a lesser extent, so did Reagan. But overall, Americans typically distrust the presidency and question whether they have America's best interests at heart.

With Obama, polls show most Americans believe he shares their values and is working for them - not for a certain entity or ideology.

3) No Republican can come close to the star power of Pres. Obama.

They might talk about up and comers like Chris Christie, but even he can't touch the Obama mystique. No one can and there is no evidence, even three years after taking office, that the mystique is wearing off.

It isn't.

Americans are inspired by Pres. Obama. They see hope and more importantly, they see leadership.

He is a Hollywood president - but in a good way. He's Michael Douglas in The American President and Martin Sheen in The West Wing. He's Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact and Bill Pullman in Independence Day. He's the president Hollywood directors and screen writers like to put in their epic films solely for the purpose of inspiration.

They're generally good looking. Passionate. Easy-going and honest men.

And we rarely ever get a president like that.

But we have one and no Republican can come close to capturing that feel. Mitt Romney is too dry. Sarah Palin is too extreme. Mike Huckabee is too flippant. Mitch Daniels is too boring.

4) Policy favors Obama.

Americans are tired of divisive politics and Pres. Obama has positioned himself as the candidate who will rise above that.

The Republicans are going to spend the next year attacking and attacking and attacking Pres. Obama to the point where Americans are going to be turned off by their empty rhetoric. Especially with them controlling the House now and absolutely doing nothing to advance much of what they promised.

Like creating jobs. They've been in power now for a few months and not once have Republicans tackled jobs. The voters know this.

Each Republican is going to have to walk a fine line. They have to attack Obama to get the support of their base, but they can't attack him too much to alienate swing voters who might not agree with everything Obama has done, but like him just fine.

When you're facing a candidate who is very popular personally (not politically), it's difficult to attack. Hillary found that out the hard way and so did McCain.

So basically, the only way Obama can't win this thing is if he screws it up.

And I think, though he gets no credit for this, that Pres. Obama has run the most disciplined administration in modern U.S. history.

There has not been a hint of scandal and I doubt there will be.