Economic Recovery Under Obama Creates Quandaries for 2016 Race

[DonViejo]

By JONATHAN MARTIN FEB. 22, 2015

WASHINGTON — When President Obama addressed members of the Democratic National Committee here over the weekend, he offered a glowing account of the economic recovery under his administration.

“America is coming back,” he said after rattling off an array of upbeat economic indicators. “We’ve risen from recession.”

But as both parties begin positioning themselves for the election to succeed Mr. Obama, the politics of the economy are far more complicated than the president would have them. Among Democrats, there are divisions over the degree to which Hillary Rodham Clinton, considered their leading contender, should praise the recovery and run on Mr. Obama’s stewardship of the economy. And Republicans — assessing falling unemployment and soaring job creation under a president with still-mediocre approval ratings — are grasping for the right way to frame their 2016 campaign message.

The coming debate over the economy, and by extension Mr. Obama’s legacy, is a particularly acute topic for governors, who are often judged by voters on their states’ economic performance and who spend much of their time on job creation. As the governors gathered here for their annual winter meeting, there was bipartisan optimism about the economy, but it was guarded.

“In many parts of the country, we are seeing increasing momentum in terms of recovery, but in almost every state, and certainly in parts of Colorado, we are still struggling to get the unemployment down,” Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado said, “and most importantly the wages still haven’t started rising.”

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http://popist.com/s/e6bb1be/

[mikekohr]

1. Until minimum wage is substanially raised wages will remain depressed

and that's how the Republican controlled Congress wants it.

[BlueCaliDem]

2. Intense and unprecedented Republican HATE is driving down Pres. Obama's approval numbers.

This is concluded by a Pew Research Center study:

Views of the president among members of the opposing party have become steadily more negative over time. Our 2014 report on political polarization documented this dramatic growth in partisan divisions over views of presidential job performance. Over the course of Obama’s presidency, his average approval rating among Democrats has been 81%, compared with just 14% among Republicans.

During Eisenhower’s two terms, from 1953-1960, an average of 49% of Democrats said they approved of the job the Republican president was doing in office. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, an average of 31% of Democrats approved of his job performance. And just over a quarter (27%) of Republicans offered a positive assessment of Clinton between 1993 and 2000. But the two most recent presidents – George W. Bush and Obama – have not received even this minimal level of support.

So I wouldn't put too much stock in that "low approval" rating bought-and-paid-for pollsters are regurgitating.