2 September 2010, 12:17 pm
The Barack Obama that most Hoosiers remember voting for can still be found on YouTube. He stands before a cheering Elkhart high school gymnasium in August 2008, tireless, aspirational, promising a new America of jobs and hope. "We can choose another future," says the newcomer with the funny name. "So I ask you to join me." Today that view of Obama is harder to find in Indiana. A couple of weeks back and a dozen miles west of Elkhart, hundreds gathered in another school gym - except this time it was for a job fair. With the local unemployment rate above 12% and rising again this summer, about a third of the employer display tables stood empty. Julie Griffin, who voted for Obama in '08, sat down at the room's edge, well dressed and discouraged. --- This shift in perception - from Obama as political savior to Obama as creature of Washington - can be seen elsewhere. When Obama arrived in office in January '09, his Gallup approval rating stood at 68%, a high for a newly elected leader not seen since John Kennedy in 1961. Today Obama's job approval has been hovering in the mid-40s, which means that at least 1 in 4 Americans has changed his or her mind. The plunge has been particularly dramatic among independents, whites and those under age 30. http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201562900;_ylt=Am_IDnw02A6ntWhwRX2Dl2da24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTM1YzV1MzZxBGFzc2V0A3RpbWUvMjAxMDA5MDIvMDg1OTkyMDE1NjI5MDAEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMzBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDaG93YmFyYWNrb2Jh Has Time finally figured out that Emperor 0baama, the boy in a mansuit, has no clothes?... Read More »
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