Obama's Job Performance on the Economy

1/16/12

July 5, 2009: Biden says "We misread the economy". August 6, 2009: Cash for Clunkers. Aug-Sep, 2009: Readjustment from July. Feb-Jun 2010: Affordable Care Act and HIRE Act in Mar. May 6, 2010: Flash crash of US stocks. Unaffected. July 2011. 1st time below 40%. Debt limit talks. Aug-Oct 2011: Climbs after signing of debt limit increase.

Huge drop in July. On July 5, 2009. "We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package,” he said. “The truth of the matter was, no one anticipated, no one expected that that recovery package would in fact be in a position at this point of having to distribute the bulk of money."

Readjustment. August 2009 to Sep 09 - The slight trend upwards could have been due to the Cash for Clunkers program that was enacted in August 6, 2009 OR just a readjustment back to normal since they had lost a lot in July.

Health Care Act and HIRE. Feb 2010 to Jun 2010 - Health care law was passed in March 2010. Also the HIRE act. Feb 2010 unemployment rate was 9.8%, in June 9.4%. A small climb.

Unaffected from Flash crash. May 6, 2010 Flash crash of US Stock market. Obama's approval rating on the economy was unaffected.

Debt limit talks hurt Obama. July 2011 Below 40% and has stayed there.

Readjusted back up. August to Oct 2011 - signing debt limit climb back up a little bit.

One cannot ignore the fact that the graph here shows a steady decline. My analysis above was to only point out the times that it deviated from the normal downward trajectory. Nobody can escape the fact that the economy is in trouble and that as time goes on, President Obama's approval rating on the issue will be affected.

As you can see from this graph and the one on his overall approval rating, a) bickering between Congress and the President and b) political in-fighting between Republicans and Democrats do very little to impact Obama's approval ratings on the economy. At least when looking at the overall picture. The one major exception, however, was back in July to August of 2011 when the US flirted with default when the Congress and President argued over whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. This caused all-time lows for Obama overall and on the economy.

Some analysts have said that the US may need to raise the debt ceiling twice before the next election.

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