Obama losing favor with college students
The youth vote was a major factor in the election of President Barack Obama, but two years into his presidency, it seems he’s losing that support.
A recent AP/mtvU poll showed support for the president is waning among students nationwide. The poll shows he now has an approval rating of 44 percent among college students, down from 60 percent in May 2009.
Of those polled, 27 percent reported being unhappy with his administration, up from 15 percent two years ago.
“Voters aren’t happy with the economy and aren’t happy with high unemployment,” said Katherine Cook, chairwoman of the USC College Republicans. “Many who supported Obama two years ago feel like Obama hasn’t delivered on the hope and change he promised.”
However, the political director of the USC College Democrats, Micah Scheindlin, said Obama’s lagging numbers in the polls is normal.
“Politics is cyclical,” Scheindlin said. “You’re always going to see a president go down in popularity once they actually start governing.”
Expert’s say Obama’s support has decreased because of high unemployment rates, opposition to the economic stimulus and the healthcare overhaul, which might present Republicans with the chance to win back the majority in Congress on Nov. 2.
In an effort to prevent this, the president has hit the campaign trail, stumping on behalf of several Democratic candidates locked in close races. One of these stops will be at USC, where Obama will rally support for incumbent California Sen. Barbara Boxer.
These rallies, many of which are occurring at universities, might help the president, Cook said.
“[Obama’s university visits] may just be the deciding factor in several close Senate elections, and Obama needs all the Democrat seats he can get in order to continue pushing his agenda in Washington,” Cook said.
Though his approval rating is dropping, many USC students said they still support the president.
“People are losing trust in Obama because they want quick results,” said Felix Oje, a junior majoring in aerospace engineering. “It’s because people are looking at where we are right now and attributing that to who’s [in office] now, but [the recession] was bound to happen since four years ago.”
Christopher Pryor, a junior majoring in creative writing, agreed.
“He’s doing a solid job,” Pryor said. “There’s always going to be people who are cynics and people who are advocates.”
Although the economy and high unemployment continues to weigh on students’ minds, many USC students said they were most concerned about Obama’s healthcare reform.
“The healthcare bill surprisingly passed both the House and the Senate,” said Melanie Houselog, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering. “Unless the Republicans manage to take over Congress and change this bill from ever taking effect, I truly believe that Obama has royally screwed over the United States of America.”
She added that her main opposition to the bill included the allocation of money in healthcare and the lack of attention to seniors.
“I really don’t know if Obama won because he had so many candidates blindly following him or because people wanted to be a part of history,” Houselog said.
The insurance mandate will require that each adult American making over $15K per year pay between 8-10% of their yearly salary for the government approved health insurance policy. Those making between $15-32K (roughtly speaking it’s about 300-400% of the FPL) will have subsidies to help defray part of the cost. However, for college grads making over $35K a year you’ll have to pay that 8-10% on your own if you’re self-employed or freelancing. On top of a student loan and rent will you be able to pay that? Just think at $35000 a year your insurance will cost you over $3500 a year. Figure rent for an apartment is $1100 a month. And if you make more you’ll be paying more for the insurance. Once the bills starting coming in and the student loan payments are due you just might be thinking differently. We don’t know what’s going to happen but even if this reform morphs into Single Payer expenses and taxes will still go up and you’ll be rethinking things when you can no longer afford an apartment of your own. I recommend you read the Kaiser Family Foundation reports and check out their calculator to see what a policy might cost in 2014 and what subsidy you might get.
“The recession was already put in place by the Clinton Administration when he put forth the legislation that literally allowed folks to purchase homes they could not afford with those sub-prime mortgages”.
To be fair and balanced, the Glass/Steagle act was written by a republican, signed by a democrat. Both sides had a hand in the fall….BUT it was the pressure from the liberals who wanted everyone to have a chance on getting home regardless if they could afford it or not that made it possible….imagine that, liberals wanting people to spend more money then they have….lol!! Where have we seen that before? Oh yea…Obama.
“Christopher Pryor, a junior majoring in creative writing, agreed.
“He’s doing a solid job,” Pryor said. “There’s always going to be people who are cynics and people who are advocates.”
hahahhaahhahahaha….Christopher, have you been paying attention? Believe me, once you start working your butt off to make money (if you can get a job that is because companies are afraid to hire anyone becasue they become a HUGE burden to the company thanks to Obama care), You wont be saying he is doing a solid job then. Obama is an unmitigated DISASTER! He governs based on liberal/Socialistic agenda only….USA isnt what it is becasue of govenmental power, just the oppositie, in fact, it was founded on the premise of small govt with less power. Join the real world.
Micah Scheindlin is not very bright–“You’re always going to see a president go down in popularity once they actually start governing.” Micah, seriously. The president is not a king. Government is the servant, not the master.
Wow, first made boy Pat Haden turns Indymac Bank into the second largest fiasco in US history and then made boy Obama runs the united States of America into the ground. What are you boys going to do now? “We’re going to USC, and then Riordan’s Pantry for some chicken and waffles”.
When Sparta fell there were 25,000 elite citizens, 550,000 slaves and dozens of made infiltrators. Wake up and smell the….
“If you vote for a candidate that is pushing an extreme form of liberalism (the Progressives) or an extreme form of conservativism (The Christian Right, the Moral Majority, etc) you’re going to get folks in office who are not interested in governing for the best interests of the country. They are only interested in the best interests of their party platform.”
So what’s the pratical solution there Greg?
“I really don’t know if Obama won because he had so many candidates blindly following him or because people wanted to be a part of history” — Whoa, no way, blindly following is what I think of Republicans!! Man, bad choice on interviewing that girl. She clearly has no idea what the key provisions of the health care reform bill were. “Royally screwed?” She’ll be glad decades from now, when she needs Medicare that someone paid attention to the financial and medical needs of our senior citizens. “Obama losing favor with college students” “more young voters lean to the right”…I really wish these articles came with citations.
Obama and his policies suck.
Attention students!
Just wait until you get the bill for what he’s doing …..
Hope and Change, and transparency in government were key topics of Obama’s candidacy, none of which he has come through on. Young people can’t remember any of the rules of politics, becasue they’re young. Politicians, for the most part, will tell you just about anything to get elected, then you hope that they don’t totaly mess everything up.
Catering to special interests, both corporate and citizenry, in order to get re-elected is the main focus of every politician until we have reforms in place to limit carerr politicians in all areas of local, state and federal government.
As for the comment “…[the recession] was bound to happen since four years ago.” is misleading. The recession was already put in place by the Clinton Administration when he put forth the legislation that literally allowed folks to purchase homes they could not afford with those sub-prime mortgages. Everyone in the industry, financial and real estate, knew that the boom was going to go bust in due time, hence the hedge funds and other financial instruments that a select few on Wall Street bought that bet against their own company’s interest in purchase bulk home loans, in betting those loans would default, hence the term Credit Default Swap instruments.
The fall of the market started under George Bush’s Administration, and yes, they didn’t do much to realign the market until the last 2 years when it was obvious what was happening, but it wasn’t started by the Dubya Admin.
Young people and those voters who are not historically savvy, nor think on their own, must realize that when a politician tells you something that you “want to hear” it is a smokescreen for gaining your vote, at any cost.
If you vote for a candidate that is pushing an extreme form of liberalism (the Progressives) or an extreme form of conservativism (The Christian Right, the Moral Majority, etc) you’re going to get folks in office who are not interested in governing for the best interests of the country. They are only interested in the best interests of their party platform.
We need moderate candidates, with level heads on their shoulders, who want to take this country to new relams of prosperity, not “spread the wealth”, not tell me what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
Obama and his Illinois politics is destructive to the future of this country. Remember kids, Barak Hussein Obama, does not have any political experinece. He was elected to be an IL Sentaor by a fluke. He was a community organizer. He is a slick version of that guy running for Governor of NY, the dude representing the “My Rent is too damn high” party.
Be careful waht you wish for….. you may not see what is in store for you as young people, but us older folks have been there, done that, and we know that what is being forced upon us by this current Administration is not good for the soul of this country, nor good for our kids, that’s you, and our grandchildren, and not good for the properity of our future.
The future of our country is really up to you, the folks under the age of 35, as it will be your generation that shapes this country for the future.