Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/39044
Friday, August 12, 2011 – Daily News 7A August brings multiple jolts for Obama presidency WASHINGTON (AP) — It has been a lousy month for President Barack Obama. And August is not yet 2 weeks old. Running for re-elec- tion, he’s getting beaten up from the political left for making too many con- cessions and for abandon- ing the positions on which he campaigned. And he’s being attacked from the right by Republican con- servatives who claim his spending and taxing poli- cies are hampering the economic recovery. Over the past days, Obama has been con- fronted with humiliating blows on both the econo- my and in Afghanistan, while polls show deterio- rating public support for both him and Congress amid growing public dis- illusionment with the nation’s policymaking process. Usually, August is a steamy, lazy time in the nation’s capital when not much gets done and when both Congress and usual- ly the president go on vacation. But so far this month, the government avoided — just narrowly — a first-ever default on its financial obligations as it came just hours within beginning to run out of cash to pay its bills. A last-minute compromise with Republicans helped avoid the default but was- n’t enough to keep the government’s credit rating from being downgraded one notch from AAA to AA-plus by Standard & Poor’s. Americans want their presidents to be problem solvers. But polls suggest that a majority of the pub- lic has lost faith in the ability of both the presi- dent and Congress to fix the ailing economy. More than two years into Obama’s presidency, the nation’s unemployment rate remains painfully high, and the Federal Reserve warns there’s lit- tle chance of major eco- nomic growth over the next two years. ‘‘Obama’s trapped. He’s trapped by what hap- pens with the financial crisis in Europe. He faces a Congress where Repub- licans will stop him dead in the tracks on his eco- nomic and jobs propos- als,’’ said Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution. ‘‘And there’s a near consensus of pundits that he’s fundamentally flawed as a consequence of his personality.’’ ‘‘He should be glad it’s more than a year before Election Day and not next August,’’ Mann added. In its downgrade, S&P cited the inability of the political parties to find common ground on get- ting the U.S. financial house in order — and poor prospects for doing so anytime soon. James W. 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Main St. MCT photo President Barack Obama arrives to talk about the administration's efforts to prepare the nation's veterans for the workforce at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC, Aug. 5 of stock prices, along with slower-than-expected U.S. economic growth, has reinforced expecta- tions that the economy could be on the verge of slipping back into a new, or ‘‘double dip,’’ sion. reces- Obama spoke from the White House earlier in the week in an attempt to calm markets, claiming that ‘‘lack of political will’’ — not the nation’s financial status — led to the debt deadlock and the downgrade. But it did not have its intended effect. Even his comments A Washington Post poll released Wednesday showed that just 26 per- cent — barely one in four — have even some faith the government can solve its economic problems. And 71 percent see S&P’s political analysis in its downgrade — lambasting the nation’s policymaking process — as accurate. Obama’s restive Democratic base grum- bles about his concessions to Republicans. They cite his failure to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire at the end of last year for the wealthy; his failure to get more education and con- struction-project spending in the deal that averted a government shutdown this past spring; and his decision to drop his push for tax increases as part of last week’s compromise to raise the government’s debt ceiling. The stock market has plunged more than 1,000 points from late July as investors worried about the twin economic perils of a financial meltdown in Europe and political near- paralysis in Washington. Continuing its roller coaster ride of recent days, the Dow industrials were up more than 400 points at 3 p.m. EDT as Obama spoke. By closing an hour later the Dow was up 423 points, or 3.9 per- cent, to 11,143. The climb followed a 519-point drop in the Dow industrials the day before. The extreme volatility that ‘‘no matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and will always be a triple-A coun- try’’ drew some snickers and dismissive comments from both parties. To many, his perfor- mance reinforced fears that Obama has been doing too little to try to fix the economy and promote job creation. Trying to answer such criticism, the president went to a high-tech bat- tery factory in Holland, Mich., on Thursday to promote his jobs agenda. He reiterated his claim that the S&P downgrade was ‘‘self-inflicted’’ because of ‘‘the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock’’ in Washington. Still, Obama said, ‘‘Don’t bet against Amer- ican ingenuity. We are home to the world’s most dynamic, successful busi- nesses, both large and small. ... Even in this dif- ficult time, there isn’t a single country on earth that wouldn’t trade places with us. Remember that.’’ He said that the recent ‘‘wild swings, up and down’’ in stock markets make people nervous. He’s going to Martha’s Vineyard with his family on vacation at the end of this month. Shouldn’t Obama do something extraordinary, given the severity of the economic problem, such as cutting his vacation short or summoning Con- gress back into session? RED BLUFF COLLISION ✪Windshield Replacement $ starting at 200 ✪ Auto Detailing $ 50 off your 1st visit FREE Estimates 530.527.6160 915 Madison St., Red Bluff $10 OFF Mention this ad for SERVICE CALL Local news, relevant to you. redbluffdailynews.com Your community. Your life. With his smartphone in hand, he can quickly and easily get all the Tehama County news he wants. Adam gets in-depth coverage of local issues, news and sports and community events that are important to him and unique to where he lives. Luckily, he can get the FULL story at redbluffdailynews.com. Presidential spokesman Jay Carney, responding to that ques- tion at his daily briefing, said the president is ‘‘focused on the things that he can do that can be effective. ... When you say ‘extraordinary,’ mean ... if you’re talking about a stunt, I don’t think a stunt is what the Ameri- can people are looking for.’’ In his speech in Michi- gan, Obama also said he would not call Congress back into session at this time. He said, however, that he hoped lawmakers would come back to town in September ‘‘ready to compromise.’’ Carney said taking hits from all sides comes with the territory. ‘‘We don’t I spend a lot of time focus- ing on that. Because if you did, you’d spend all your time focusing on it.’’ As if the nation’s eco- nomic woes weren’t enough, Obama also had to deal with the nation’s single deadliest day of the decade-long war in Afghanistan. He flew to Dover, Del., on Tuesday to pay tribute to the 30 Americans who were killed when Taliban insurgents shot down their helicopter in Afghanistan. Adding to his econom- ic worries: It became clear this week that his former partner in trying to prod the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, couldn’t do much more to help. The Fed has now held interest rates that it directly con- trols at near zero percent for more than two years. Bernanke and Washington leaders do not have many arrows left in their stimu- lus quivers. Bernanke’s Fed, with three dissenting votes, issued a statement Tues- day saying it was leaving short-term interest rates alone for at least two more years. The decision at first lifted financial markets, but then caused them to drop even further by signaling how weak the Fed believes the econ- omy to be, further fueling fears of a new recession. ‘‘Apprehension about the future stems not mere- ly from the constant bick- ering between Republi- cans and Democrats on spending and taxes, but more fundamentally on the growing realization that monetary policy is spent — the Federal Reserve has some ammu- nition left, but it is not likely to be very potent,’’ University of Maryland business economist Peter Morici said. Allan Lichtman, a presidential historian at American University, said the pundits and politicians pronouncing Obama dead ‘‘aren’t any better than flipping a coin. You absolutely cannot judge a president’s prospects by events of the moment.’’ ‘‘Anyway, the left isn’t going anywhere,’’ Licht- man said. ‘‘They may be disappointed with Obama, but they find the Republicans impossible.’’ This is Adam. He just missed his son’s baseball game.