warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Obama Policies That Will Hurt Him In The Election

Jackie Mansky |
October 30, 2012 | 2:41 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

(Neon Tommy/Dawn Megli)
(Neon Tommy/Dawn Megli)
Obamacare, the state of economy and the bombing of the Libyan embassy are all words that have been repeated multiple times throughout the campaign season, meant to attack policies created by President Barack Obama during his four years in the White House.

In hopes of hurting Obama's re-election chances, Mitt Romney has repeatedly attacked Obama's policies on Medicare and Social Security, the economy and foreign affairs in the Middle East.

“The president's campaign falls far short of the magnitude of these times. And the presidency of the last four years has fallen far short of the promises of the last campaign,” Romney said, criticizing the president in a recent speech. 

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The bill, popularly known as Obamacare, has been criticized by opponents for its cost, for inserting government into the doctor-patient relationship and for potentially allowing for one-size-fits-all regulations and price controls.

When Obamacare was first passed by the House of Representatives in 2010, likely voters supported its repeal by a margin of 13 percentage points. The bill has become less popular over time, according to newly released polling from Rasmussen Reports that shows that likely voters now support the repeal of Obama’s centerpiece legislation by a margin of 15 percentage points, an increase of 2 points from 2010.

The News Tribune wrote that President Obama's reelection campaign's lack of emphasis on Obamacare shows that even the president has tried to distance himself somewhat from the unpopular policy. 

“The evidence is found in the current campaign. Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment is a relatively minor theme of his re-election effort," The News Tribune wrote.

The economy

"Are Americans better off then they were four years ago?" is what Romney has repeatedly focused his election campaign on.

While acknowledging that the president did inherit a weak economy, Romney has said that the White House's policies have made the bad economy even worse, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“Slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take-home pay,” Romney said at a recent rally. “That’s what four years of President Obama's policies have produced. Americans are ready for change. For growth, for jobs, for more take-home pay, and we're going to bring it to them.”

Obama introduced The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate the economy in 2009. Although proponents have credited the bill in increasing GDP, those critical of the policy have pointed to the decline in median household income, the decline in the dollar and the unemployment rate as figures to show that the policy was not as effective as some might suggest.

The unemployment rate has been the main point in the attacks. The number which stood at 7.8 percent when Obama first took office, but rose to a high of 10 percent in Oct. 2009, and remained at or above 9.0 percent for all of 2010 and most of 2011 now rests at 7.8 percent, which is the same percentage it was before Obama's policies went into effect, NBC News reported.

A Republican super PAC just debuted a new ad focused on attacking Obama's first-term record on the economy. The ad, "Flatline," uses an EKG monitor as an analogy to what Obama's policies have done to the American economy.

"If you saw this line in the ER, you'd be panicked. Well this flatline is Barack Obama's economy. Twenty-three million looking for full time work. Middle class incomes falling. Spending and debt, exploding."

Foreign policy

Before the assassination U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, most major political pundits said that foreign policy would not be a factor for voters in this election, the Huffington Post reported. However, following the anti-American sentiment brought out throughout the Middle East, Obama's foreign policy decisions have been put into the spotlight.

According to the Pew Research Center, in 2009, 78 percent of Europeans approved of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy. Now, only 63 percent do. Among Muslim nations, his average approval rating has plunged from 34 percent to 15 percent.

And although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "took the blame for the security lapses in Libya," as the New York Daily News put it, the attack, which celebrated the 9/11 attacks, and its aftermath still represented to some a failure of leadership at the highest levels, U.S. News and World Report wrote.

Read the counterpoint, Obama Polices That Will Bring Him Victory, here.

 

Reach Staff Reporter Jackie Mansky here.



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness