Obama’s next worry
U.S. President
Barack Obama is thinking about jobs: looking for jobs for more than 14
million Americans and protecting the jobs of Washington lawmakers at
the same time.
“To every American who is looking for work I promise you we’re going to keep on doing everything we can,” he said.
“I will do
everything in my power to help our economy create jobs and opportunity
for all people.” The United States elects a president every four years,
but schedules congressional elections on two-year cycles. So just as
the president settles into the Oval Office, he has to lead his party in
another round of campaigning mid-way through his term.
Those ‘midterms’
are coming up on November 2 and they will be a preoccupation for
American politics for the next four months. Obama was out this week
looking for support in two western states and he has more campaign
travel coming.
Usually, the party
that controls the White House and Congress expects a protest vote to
push back against it in the midterms. Many Democrats fear serious
losses this year, because polls suggest voters are so angry.
The most recent
CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that 73 percent of
respondents think things are going badly in America – nearly three
times as many as respondents who said things are going well.
Democrats believe
the country’s 9.5 percent unemployment rate is partly to blame. If
Obama could lower that number, a lot of Democrats think it would help.
Republicans see a
much darker picture of the national mood. They believe that the
economy, the oil spill disaster off the U.S. coast and a host of other
concerns as well have convinced Americans that their government is
failing.
“Americans don’t see an economy in recovery,” said Republican Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas.
“They see a White
House seemingly incapable of protecting our beaches or getting people
back to work.” President Obama has a just a few months left to spur job
creation in time to have an impact on the midterms. Once they’re past,
candidates for the presidency will begin organising their campaigns
for the election in 2012. It will be Obama’s own job that will be at
stake.
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