Why is Obama so unpopular?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Obama is a black, you see.

We have a winner.

[Landslide Lyndon]

It's a good thing that at least Wulfric doesn't accuse Obama like Ron Fournier of not implementing a moderate health care reform law like the one Romney did in Massachussets.

[Landslide Lyndon]

I think his biggest problem was in what he did when he got to Washington. His strategy was to peel off some Republicans in passing massive bits of legislation, rather than splitting legislation to allow some opportunities for bipartisan votes. You can make an argument that if that happened, unpopular elements of legislation like the Affordable Care Act would never be passed, although that would be part of his unpopularity.

Obviously you lived in an alternate reality since January 2009 where McConnell and Bhoener were possessed by the spirits of Everett Dirksen and Bob Michel.

[Landslide Lyndon]

4. When he was passing his health care bill, Obama/Reid simply used strategic voting tactics (senate held a vote during a brief 60 democrat majority period, and did the rest through the vile tactic that is reconciliation), and correct me if I'm wrong here, but to my knowledge, Obama/Reid/etc. did not make truly serious attempts to get even a single republican vote in the house or senate for the bill. All that effort they did to get the vote of Ben Nelson, they should have been working equally as hard to get the vote of republicans such as Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, but they did no such thing (to my knowledge).

That's false. Obama and Baucus spent months watering down the ACA to try to attract Republican support in meetings with Enzi, Grassley, and Snowe, among others. That's why the bill ended up being a national version of Romneycare, which the GOP constantly touted as a "market based solution that works" until the black guy supported it. Hell, Snowe even voted for the bill in committee. But the Republicans decided in a secret meeting on day one of Obama's presidency to obstruct everything he did in an attempt to win in 2010, and at the end of the day even Snowe gave in to the pressure to vote against Obamacare/Romneycare.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/robert-draper-anti-obama-campaign_n_1452899.html

ACA was always basically Romneycare plus a lot of additional regulations. That wasn't a matter of it being watered down.

So you admit that whole "Obama wasn't bipartisan enough" crap is revisionist history.

[Landslide Lyndon]

"Bipartisan enough for whom?" I guess would be the question. The main focus of Obama and the Congressional Democratic leadership regarding the passage of the ACA was always getting their members on board.  There was some outreach to Republicans, but they were always going to be a harder sell on it than the Democrats and so less effort was spent in that direction.  The resulting partisan divide on the bill didn't help with its perceived legitimacy, but that was far less important than the fact that they didn't come up with a bill that they could adequately defend and explain before the public. If they had managed to sway public opinion, they might well have earned a few Republican votes. As it was, they made the deals they felt were necessary to pass it, took a few shortcuts on process, and prayed that it would turn out good for them in the end.

That's another load of bull. Immigration reform is popular even among Republicans voters but the congressional leadership will never even allow a vote on it.
The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't tell was popular but the Republicans bitterly opposed it.

McConnell said it plainly, for anyone willing to listen: their goal wasn't to help governing or legislating. It was to make Obama an one-term president. 

[Landslide Lyndon]

"Bipartisan enough for whom?" I guess would be the question. The main focus of Obama and the Congressional Democratic leadership regarding the passage of the ACA was always getting their members on board.  There was some outreach to Republicans, but they were always going to be a harder sell on it than the Democrats and so less effort was spent in that direction.  The resulting partisan divide on the bill didn't help with its perceived legitimacy, but that was far less important than the fact that they didn't come up with a bill that they could adequately defend and explain before the public. If they had managed to sway public opinion, they might well have earned a few Republican votes. As it was, they made the deals they felt were necessary to pass it, took a few shortcuts on process, and prayed that it would turn out good for them in the end.

That's another load of bull. Immigration reform is popular even among Republicans voters but the congressional leadership will never even allow a vote on it.
The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't tell was popular but the Republicans bitterly opposed it.

McConnell said it plainly, for anyone willing to listen: their goal wasn't to help governing or legislating. It was to make Obama an one-term president. 

I never said the Republican Congressional leadership would have supported it.  nice try though.

The Republican Congressional leadership pulled out all the stops to prevent individual members from even considering to support any Democratic initiative. Just go back and read what happened with Snowe and Cao.