by J. Alan Beck

Created on: January 28, 2010

“Magic”? If you actually believe that any U.S. president has or can perform “magic”, the problem lies mainly with you my friend, not the politician.

Promises. Every politician makes them. In national campaigns they proliferate like lobbyists in your senator's office at tobacco company hearings-time. Candidates make optimistic, sweeping promises to advance their overall ideals and beliefs to the electorate. For the most part, it is not a true “laundry list” of what that politician is actually going to accomplish. The United States has three branches of government; a complete agenda could never realistically be implemented.

When candidate Barack Obama whipped audiences into an admiring fervor with his “Yes We Can” mantra (etc.), he was often speaking to numbers who were predisposed to give him a chance; to at least consider a “vote for change”.  For several reasons including the waning second-term of an increasingly unpopular administration, the time seemed ripe for change. (Recall your feelings when departing President Bush's helicopter flew over the still-packed National Mall? Or when scowling Dick Cheney was wheeled to his limousine? (A back injury.) )

Now we are a mere one year into the new administration and reality apparently is making a comeback. Big time. Have so many “turned on a dime”, from support to disillusion with this twelve-month president?

Yes and no. According to a recent Gallup poll (linked below), President Obama’s approval rating averaged 57% for his full first year, though it has clearly flagged of late. Many still claim to like the leader personally, but support for his programs has fallen off. That would be “fallen off a (low) cliff” with most Republicans, who's tepid initial support has largely vanished. (According to the poll 41% of Republicans first approved of the new president, but that rapidly fell to the current number around 20%.) Interestingly, Gallup concludes in its 1/25/10 article that, for various reasons, the way many Americans view their presidents has changed in recent decades: “…Americans evaluate their presidents and other political leaders through increasingly thick partisan lenses.”

But this is getting beyond the scope of the article. We were talking about “lost magic”. The answer to the question for debate is a qualified “yes”: In one sense President Obama has lost his “magic”,

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