As Obama's popularity hits an all-time low, it reminds me of past presidents at this stage of their terms. During my lifetime, I've seen three presidents enter and exit office, from start to finish. I was relatively small during George Bush Sr.'s run, and not paying attention to politics in the slightest, so I don't consider myself knowledgeable on his administration or the atmosphere of the people while he was in office.
Bill Clinton arguably had the most successful run in terms of simply getting positive accomplishments through. Although people will always debate over what can actually be attributed to his direct involvement or what he inherited, the general perception is that Clinton and his team are responsible for having the strongest economy of recent memory and eradicating the federal deficit. Neither of which are the legacy left behind that most people will remember him for.
What people like me, regular folks who go to work and write bullshit on the internet, will remember Clinton for is being disgraced by impeachment and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Although his approval rating was relatively high when he left office, the controversy surrounding his presidency will always remain.
George W. Bush's approval rating completely tanked toward the end of his second term. After what many interpreted as failures in managing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, his popularity was never able to recover.
That being said, I am not much of a political person. I watch what goes on and have my own thoughts, but I choose not to vote and I don't tend to side completely with either party. I lean republican when it comes to gun control and democrat for equal rights. However, what I'm beginning to wonder is if a president in the overly sensitive world we're entering can leave office with the popular vote.
Think about it. In this environment where the majority of people jump on every news article they can with the backlash they do, destroying celebrities careers over one wrong statement, or because the situation doesn't agree with their own politics, can a president still remain popular until the end of his term? Unlike Clinton or Bush, who had the mishandled war or Monica Lewinsky, I don't believe Obama really has that one large fumble that we'll point to ten years from now and say that one moment left a shadow over his entire presidency. Sure, Republicans can probably find 50,000 issues with him or his policies that they dislike for their own reasons, as Democrats could Bush, but I don't think he has one singular situation where the whole world took notice. Still, he's as unpopular as ever.
Is this just the nature of his job, being the most powerful man in the free world and having everything he does scrutinized by the public on a regular basis? Is it the environment we now live in, where everyone is watching every word you say and prepared to burn you at the stake if you make a wrong move? Is it because he's black? I don't know. At the end of the day, I'm just an asshole in an armchair.
"People used to complain that selling a president was like selling a bar of soap. But when you buy soap, at least you get the soap. In this campaign you just get two guys telling you they really value cleanliness." - David Brooks
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