Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why President Obama's poll is sinking

paul krugman wrote a good column on this a day or so ago. he argues that presidential ratings are very much driven by economic circumstances. so, right now they mostly stink; the recovery is too slow; unemployment is very high, etc. until and unless the economy noticeably improves, his poll numbers won't be great.
a small note from michigan on this: we have lost a million jobs in the auto industry in the last decade, and our population is 10 million. the actual unemployment rate is around 12.5 %, but if you add underemployed and long term unemployed, it is over 20% which is depression levels.
no one on earth could survive numbers like that. michigan is the worst in the country, and any improvement in auto profits have been at the expense of jobs.
other states are better.
ken

At 03:08 PM 7/22/2010, you wrote:

Its sometimes difficult to know why president Obama's approval rating keeps going down. He has passed some historical bills like Health care and  financial reform. He has helped to restore the economy that was almost sinked, he has reshaped the auto industry etc but still his approval rating is nothing to talk about... http://nairasource.com/index.php?topic=4379.msg5708;topicseen#msg5708

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Kenneth W. Harrow
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
harrow@msu.edu
517 803-8839
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