Obama Leaves America More Divided Than Eight Years Ago
http://ktrh.iheart.com/articles/houston-news-121300/obama-leaves-america-more-divided-than-15421425/
President Barack Obama, who entered office in 2009 promising to be the unifier in chief, is leaving the oval office with the nation more polarized than ever.
Obama is leaving the White House with a 67-point partisan approval gap between Democrats and Republicans -- compare that to George W. Bush's 59-point gap.
“There are a lot of people who look at President Obama as being not only somebody who couldn't manage the problem of partisanship, but also somebody who is part of the problem, so in a way he gets negativity from both directions,” says Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston.
Rottinghaus says this year's election drove the wedge even deeper.
“You're still going to see a significant degree of opposition to the Republican party, you're going to see the Republicans push back in some ways, potentially overreaching, which also exacerbates partisanship just like it happened for the Democrats,” he says.
Even President Clinton left office with only a 52-point partisan approval gap, George H.W. Bush left behind a 38-point gap.
“We definitely see in polling when asked the question about legacy issues, it ranks President Obama fairly high on those lists, so we definitely see the president leaving office with people having greater partisan divisions than when he came into office.”
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I have long said that Obama was divisive, now it that besides common sense, we have more proof of it. |
