Six months ago, some critics said President Obama was taking on too many issues when he should be focused on the economy — a notion that drew scoffs from the chief executive.
“I’m not going to kick these problems down the road for another four years, another eight years, to the next president, the next generation,” he told supporters. “We’re going to tackle ’em now.”
Deeper into the first year of his presidency, a sense of confusion is apparent among an electorate that still says they like him and increasingly credit his work on the economy — but may not be sure about what else he stands for.
“The problem is that when they elected him, they thought they knew what he stood for, but now they are understanding that he does not quite fit into categories,” said Chris Reardon, a University of New Hampshire political scientist. “His strategy is that he is looking for a long game, looking for solutions, and those aren’t easily sold to the public.”
Obama started out sounding clear on a range of issues, including closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, passing health care, signing a climate change bill and sending more troops to Afghanistan.
But those issues and the politics involved turned out to be more complex than the new White House anticipated, and Obama’s former resolve has in several instances devolved into a more ambiguous stance.
A number of polls have shown Obama’s job approval rating lagging significantly behind his personal approval rating, suggesting Americans are giving him the benefit of the doubt, while not exactly embracing his policies.
Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, said the complexity of the issues make it harder for Obama to outline clear principles, and for Americans to easily grasp what he is saying.
“It’s not surprising that the average American looks up and says, ‘I am not exactly sure what is going on with health care,’ ” Jillson said. “I think while people are edgy and concerned, they are hanging in because they see him working hard on a lot of issues.”
Obama until recently has resisted getting too specific about what he wants in a health care bill. That reticence appears to have consequences: A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found just 39 percent said Obama’s health care reform idea is a good one, while 41 percent call it a bad idea.
The poll, taken after a recent White House sales pitch that included a prime time address to Congress, still showed a slight improvement over August, when 36 percent supported a 42 percent disapproved of his plan.
Obama lately has balked at pressure from military leaders to intensify troop deployments to Afghanistan, but so far has not made a decision on whether to do so. The administration has offered no exit strategy for the conflict in Afghanistan.
The increasingly unpopular war is an emerging political liability for Obama — the NBC/NYT poll found 59 percent said they are less confident the war will come to a successful conclusion.
