Jobs row, polls a new blow to Obama

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]



WASHINGTON: A new Republican rebuff and a miserable set of opinion polls cast new scrutiny on President Barack Obama's drained political authority Thursday, as a pivotal fight loomed over the economy.

A row over an issue as mundane as the timing of Obama's big jobs speech also suggested that hopes for a Washington truce for the sake of the sickly recovery will likely be consumed by the usual partisan stew.

Obama staked out a bold gambit on Wednesday by asking Republican House Speaker John Boehner to host a rare joint session of Congress to debut his new economic plan on September 7 -- the same night as a Republican debate.

The White House insisted that the timing was "coincidental" though few Washington observers buy that, reasoning the president wanted to steal the spotlight from candidates vying to turf him out of office.

But Boehner, fresh from outpointing Obama in a debt showdown in July, refused to budge, and in what Capitol Hill sources said was an unprecedented move, said Obama should come the next night instead.

The White House insisted Boehner's camp had raised no prior objections to the date, but the speaker's aides said he had never given the go-ahead as the recriminations flew between the two sides.

Eventually, knowing that a president lacks the authority to simply show up at Congress and give a speech, Obama backed down and agreed to Boehner's date.

The spat will likely be soon forgotten when the two sides squabble over the meat of Obama's jobs package, likely to contain a call for infrastructure spending and tax hikes on the wealthy which Republicans oppose.

But Obama once again appeared to come off second best in a row with Republicans who control the House of Representatives, playing into a narrative that he lacks dexterity in the Washington power game.

Liberal pundits were scathing of Obama, who spent only four years in the Senate before becoming president, most of which he spent running for the White House.

"He just stumbled into this problem and then stumbled out when he let Boehner dictate when he could and could not have his speech. That looks so sad," said Cenk Uygur on the Huffington Post website favored by liberals.

"O changes date of his big speech because Boehner complains. Another cave. Not a good omen of what to expect," said president Bill Clinton's former labor secretary Robert Reich on Twitter.

The White House denied Obama was politically weak.

"He fights every day, I know this sounds corny, for the American people," Obama's press secretary Jay Carney said on MSNBC.

"He doesn't fight for partisan advantage, he fights for the American people."

Another senior White House official, communications director Dan Pfeiffer, dismissed the row and said Americans were really concerned not with Washington game playing in leaders who would get them back to work.

"The whole thing is silly," he told MSNBC.

"Right now we're focused on the speech next week and the president's plan to grow the economy and create jobs."

There was new evidence however on Thursday of just how perilous Obama's position is, heading into his reelection year, a factor which may be adding fuel to the Republican attacks on the president.

A Quinnipiac University poll found that Obama's job approval rating had dipped to an all time low with voters disapproving of him by 52 to 42 percent.

"Ominous for him is that the share of voters who think he has strong leadership qualities has dropped from 64/33 percent in January to 50/48 percent now," said Peter Brown, assistant director of polling at the university.

A CNN/ORC International poll meanwhile found that with unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent, Obama's approval rating on the economy had dipped to 34 percent.

The president hopes to set about reversing those numbers with the speech on a range of measures to jolt the recovery back to life and to create jobs.

But as criticism of his leadership grows, he needs to show voters he resembles the portrait painted by his wingman, Vice President Joe Biden.

Obama's decisions, including ordering the special forces raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden, were proof of a "backbone like a ramrod," Biden said.

"People knew Barack was really bright, they knew Barack was straight, they knew Barack was a different kind of politician," Biden said in Oklahoma Tuesday.

"What they didn't know was just how strong he was. Republicans spent a lot of time trying to tag him as a follower, not a leader. Well, he's put that to bed." (AFP)