First, sorry I’ve left Steve hung out to dry for the past few weeks. I don’t want to go into it right now but I’ve been working on a “special project” here in MN for the past few weeks and just haven’t had the time to spend on the blog end. More on the special project later.
Now, on to our regularly scheduled program.
To my surprise, President Obama has managed to keep his net favorable ratings above the zero level into May. With the way things were going early in April, I would have bet that he would have dipped below zero by now. However, not all is good news in the Obama camp.
First, Rasmussen continues to show an eroding net positive rating for the President. For the past two weeks the net positive, according to Rasmussen Reports, has been bouncing around in the low single digits. Saturday, the net positive had dropped to just +1. While the President’s personal popularity remains high there are continuing indications that support for his policies are not. Which brings me to…
Second, also according to Rasmussen Reports, one of the bluest states around, New Jersey, appears to have an incumbent Democrat Governor who is in real reelection trouble. Depending upon the poll, current Governor, John Corzine is down by as much 15 points to a potential Republican challenger. The main issues in the campaign seem all related to the economy in New Jersey. In fact, Rasmussen makes the statement:
this race could come down to a referendum on the first year of the Obama administration. The economy clearly has hit New Jersey as hard as any other state, with many New York City commuters across the Hudson River being decimated by the financial mess on Wall Street.
I have to say I’m surprised that any Democrat is feeling pressure as a result of Obama’s economic policies. After all, just last week, President Obama, in his most recent preemption of prime time television in which he answers questions that have as much relevance to the country’s challenges as Simon Cowell does to men’s fashion trends, told us that his economic plans were working. In fact, he had already identified 150,000 jobs that had been saved or created since the stimulus bill was passed.
The stimulus bill was signed February 18th, just 10 weeks ago. With 150,000 jobs already saved or created, that’s 15,000 per week. At that clip, we’ll see nearly 500,000 more created or saved this year and another 650,000 created or saved prior to next year’s election for a total. With a total of 1.3 million jobs saved or created by next year’s election, it’s hard to imagine any incumbent being concerned about the President’s economic policy. 1.3 million is a lot of jobs is a lot of jobs! A lot of jobs; if any of them really exist. Maybe Corzine should start worrying!
I guess I’ll have to recall the milk cartons with you on them :-)
Seriously, those jobs aren’t exactly staying in Wisconsin. Since the
stimulusPorkulus, we’ve lost jobs to Louisiana, Iowa, Michigan (yes, THAT Michigan), Mexico and the ether.Even if the 1.3 million jobs created/”saved” wasn’t a bullshit number, it’s a very expensive proposition at close to $1,000,000 per job “created/saved”.