OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
It’s official: Barack Obama is the worst president ever. Worse than Richard Nixon, who resigned from office to avoid impeachment. Worse than Jimmy Carter, who blamed Americans for their “malaise.” Worse than President Clinton, who had sex in the Oval Office with an intern half his age and actually was impeached.
Well, not the worst president ever. Just the worst in your lifetime. And your parents’ lifetimes. He is the worst president since World War II, according to a poll published Wednesday.
The Quinnipiac University survey that found 33 percent of Americans named Mr. Obama as the worst. Just over a quarter named his predecessor, George W. Bush.
“Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.
Nixon, who resigned in disgrace, got just 13 percent of the vote, while Jimmy Carter, president when interest rates topped 20 percent, was named by 8 percent of respondents. None of the remaining eight presidents received more than 3 percent.
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But there was something else interesting in the poll. Asked about the 2012 presidential race, nearly half — 45 percent — said the country would have been better off under the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. Just over one-third — 38 percent — said the country would have been worse off.
“Would Mitt have been a better fit?” Mr. Malloy said. “More voters in hindsight say yes.”
Mr. Obama has become a real bummer lately, a Gloomy Gus. He’s depressed, like Debbie Downer. His glass is always half empty. His “Hope and Change” is long gone, replaced with a cynicism rarely seen in America’s highest elected office — and certainly not since Mr. Carter declared that the moribund economy was the fault of lazy Americans.
And he’s taken his bilious act on the road ahead of the 2014 mid-term elections. “I know sometimes things get kind of discouraging. I know that our politics looks profoundly broken, and Washington looks like it’s never going to deliver for you,” he said last week in Minnesota.
“It seems like they are focused on everything but your concerns. And I know that when I was elected in 2008 and then re-elected in 2012, you know, so many of you were hoping that we could get Washington to work differently. Sometimes when I get stymied you think, ’Oh, maybe not. Maybe it is just too tough. Maybe things won’t change.’”
That’s right, he’s hopelessly given up on change. Why? Because it doesn’t fit his campaign strategy. Mr. Obama is all about division, splitting Americans by race, class, sex, sexuality. And to him, Republicans are to blame for everything he’s failed to achieve as president.
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“They don’t do anything except block me. And call me names. It can’t be that much fun,” he said last week. “It would be so much more fun if they said, ’Let’s do something together.’ If they were more interested in growing the economy for you and the issues that you are talking about instead of trying to mess with me, we would be doing a lot better. That what’s make this country great, when we work together. That is the American way.”
What’s more, the president actually blames Republicans for the endless scandals that have mired him throughout his second term.
“We’ve got a party on the other side whose only rationale, motivation seems to be opposing me They’re fabricated issues, phony scandals. It makes people cynical, and it makes people turned off from the idea that anything can get done.”
But didn’t you just say that things won’t … ? Oh, never mind. It’s all part of his plan. With even the most liberal political pundits now predicting the Democrats face a bloodbath in November, the president’s only hope is turn out the few remaining supporters, the hardcore leftist base.
Which is dwindling fast.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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