Moderate Voters: We've Been Punked by Obama

Yikes, it looks like the bloom is withering off the Obama fairytale of change. Many Americans are starting to feel “punked” by this president and want their vote back. That’s what Chris Ann Cleland, a real estate agent living in Prince William recently told the Washington Post in the article “Is Race for Governor More About Obama?"

“He’s just not as advertised,” she said. "Nothing’s changed for the common guy. I feel like I’ve been punked.”

Cleland said instead of helping regular Americans, Obama spent billions of dollars bailing out the banks and General Motors, and she believes the country, particularly the middle class, will be worse off because of his policies. As a real estate agent handling short sales for Long & Foster, Cleland viewed the foreclosure prevention program, Hope for Homeowners, as the president’s biggest failure. Cleland said she’s not seeing anything different coming from the president and is very open to voting for a Republican in this year’s Virginia governor’s race.

Cleland isn’t alone in her frustration with Obama’s agenda. The president’s polls are down all over the place. Americans aren’t happy with the economy and lack of jobs. Obama’s audacious costly agenda has actually shocked and awed people into an unhappy reality. Public support for a government run healthcare system is evaporating by the day. Reporters describe angry mobs of Americans crowding town hall meetings on healthcare reform, shouting: No Obamacare! Americans also can’t fathom how the president wants to keep on spending with the deficit growing dangerously out of control and expected to reach $1.8 trillion this year.

An increasing number of independents, moderate Democrats and Republicans who voted for Obama, are very uncomfortable with his radical left of center agenda.

In a letter to the editor published August 2, 2009 in the Greensboro News & Record, David Pulliam wrote:

If I knew then what I know now, President Obama and Gov. Perdue would not have gotten my vote. Since Perdue has taken office, it is nothing but taxes just about every day. And Obama, what can I say that everyone else isn’t finding out about him?

I will never vote Democrat again. Never.

Even among die-hard Obama supporters confidence is waning. This weekend a friend who is a Democrat told me she felt like Obama is still in campaign mode and she was “sick of seeing him on TV all the time.” “Enough already,” she commented, “he needs to stop with all the television appearances and work on getting the country together.” She then referenced healthcare reform, rolled her eyes and said the president “should just give up.”

President Obama misinterpreted his historic election. Swing voters and moderate Republicans alike voted for Obama not only because of his charisma and promise of change even though they didn’t fully embrace his policies but also because the McCain/Palin ticket was so pathetic. In electing Obama the nation’s first black president, voters weren’t giving him a license to spend out of control or re-design America. It appears the president didn’t fully understand that the election wasn’t a complete denunciation of conservative policies.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that 31% of people surveyed thought Republicans could do a better job managing the deficit compared to 25% who believed Democrats could. As Americans get more agitated with the president’s out of tune agenda, perhaps a perfect storm is brewing for Republicans to rebuild their relevancy with voters and resurrect a new "Contract with America.” The question is what will the Republican strategy be?

Trying to make a comeback is clearly on the party’s mind. This weekend the Wall Street Journal ran a very intriguing article about the Republican Governors Association meeting in Idaho for a three-day pow-wow to plot for winning state races in 2010. In the article, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said the party will be more focused on addressing the concerns of the average American and offering practical solutions on issues such as jobs and healthcare. He also seemed to suggest that “social wedge issues” like abortion and gay marriage wouldn’t be a part of the GOP’s new and improved agenda for 2010.

I think that is a positive step forward because making these two issues cornerstones of conservative campaigns doesn’t sit well with today’s moderate voters, whom the party needs to win elections. In July, a couple in their 70’s who are life-long Republicans from Richmond told me they wished the party would remove abortion and gay marriage from their agenda. The wife said that while she doesn’t believe in abortion, she thinks a woman should have the right to make her own choice.

I was also quite surprised to hear her angrily explain to me that “if two gay people want to get married then we should let them. Why does it matter?”  In referencing both these issues, she said “they just need to give it up!” This woman also told me she and her husband receive calls and information from the Young Republicans all the time but she was unimpressed with their message.

Voters from both sides of the political aisle are trying to tell the Republican party something. They are tired of Obama’s skillful oratory and charm offensive and want to see things change in Washington and their states. Anxious voters are drawing Republicans a roadmap on how to regain their support but the party must listen to what Americans are saying. The presidential election also made it clear voters want to see fresh faces in the GOP.

Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, commented in the Wall Street Journal article that the problem with many of the Republican candidates running for governor in 2010 is that they are OLD relics of the past. “This is not a reflection of a youthful and vibrant Republican party.”

There is a growing opportunity for the GOP to seize upon and make some political gains but as I’ve said once, twice and I’ll say again: the messengers of the Republican agenda have got to change. The old white guys just aren’t going to get the GOP back into the majority in the governors’ mansions, Congress or the White House. The Republican Party should be seeking more youth, more color, better messages.