Obama’s Declining Poll Numbers: Not His Fault

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, The Institute for Black Public Policy

Recent polls are showing that 6 out of 10 Americans are losing faith in President Obama’s ability to run our nation. This decline in the president’s numbers is in stark contrast to where the numbers were at the start of his presidency. They are also reflective of the general fact that Americans are losing faith in government. While 60% of Americans polled say they have little belief in President Obama, 68% said the same thing about Democrats, and 72% said the same about Republicans.

I don’t agree with these assessments, since President Obama has proven time and time again that he is the most qualified candidate for the job. The broader challenge for the American people is that there are almost never enough good candidates available. The elitism that leads our officials to only consider Harvard and Yale graduates for the White House or Supreme Court nominations is disturbing, and such a limited set of selections is what causes us to choose incompetent individuals like George W. Bush or Clarence Thomas to run our country.

With that said, Obama has been asked to govern during a volatile economy, two wars and one of the worst environmental crises in American history. All the while, he has achieved the goal of reforming the financial and health care systems, which are each monumental achievements. This president deserves credit for having a vision for the nation and pursuing that vision relentlessly.

All the while, President Obama is not perfect. He has left the African American community in the shadows of American politics by allowing no direct attention to be paid to the terrible unemployment rates in major urban areas. He sold out black women by ignoring qualified black female candidates and nominating an inferior scholar, with a racially-discriminatory hiring record, for the Supreme Court (Elena Kagan) who happened to be his crony from Harvard. He even skipped out on the NAACP National Convention this year, perhaps to keep from appearing “too black” for America (but then again, the NAACP’s confusing Tea Party Racism resolution might have something to do with it – I’d keep myself away from that one too). I am sure that Obama’s consistent distancing from the black community is largely due to the fact that he wasted all of his racial political capital on the Henry Louis Gates debacle, which didn’t have nearly as much to do with race as it had to do with protecting his homeboy from Harvard (notice he didn’t speak up on the shootings of Sean Bell or Oscar Grant, which are more clear cut and damaging than the inconvenience Gates experienced on his front porch).

I don’t generally like politicians, but I dislike President Obama less than the others in Washington who are not doing what’s right for the American people. I also wonder if or how the president is going to mobilize voters to come out during mid-term elections or the presidential elections of 2012. While we can’t predict with certainty what will happen, we can guarantee that the momentum of the next election will not match what we saw in 2008.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.