Public perception and official pronouncements seem, increasingly, to be at odds. We are told by the administration, for instance, that the economy is improving and in recovery. The public thinks not with almost half believing we are still in a recession.
This week, we have been hearing from the new Secretary of HHS that Obamacare is “working.” Which would seem to predict an increase its anemic approval ratings. No so, as Sarah Ferris of The Hill reports:
Public approval of ObamaCare continued to sink this summer, issuing the latest warning for vulnerable Democrats who will face voters this fall after backing the law. Just 35 percent of voters now support the Affordable Care Act, down 3 percentage points from May, according to a monthly poll by the Kaiser Health Foundation released on Tuesday. Support for the healthcare overhaul law once stood at 50 percent, just weeks after it was signed in 2010.
And, then, there is the matter of foreign policy …
As Peter Baker of the New York Times (repeat: New York Times) reports:
As he seeks to rally Americans behind a new military campaign in the Middle East, Mr. Obama finds his own past statements coming back to haunt him. Time and again, he has expressed assessments of the world that in the harsh glare of hindsight look out of kilter with the changed reality he now confronts.
The title of Baker’s story is: “A President Whose Assurances Have Come Back To Haunt Him.”
A thesis supported by the polls.
