The Lonely President

An interviewer asks an American voter, “If I point a gun at you and order you to choose between the Democrats and the Republicans, what would you say?” The answer: “Shoot me!” This old joke is relevant again; the most expensive midterm campaign, the myriad of TV commercials and countless baby hugs were not enough to break the indifference of two-thirds of the voters and make them go to the polls on November 4. It is because Americans are sick and tired of their politicians — both the resident of the White House and the bickering congressmen sitting in Congress. They are worried about the present and skeptical about the future.

And if there is something that Republicans and Democrats, who have brought Washington to a stalemate with constant disagreements, can rally around, it is putting the blame for the American gloominess on one person — the president.

One of the main things the conservatives did in the election campaign was to attack their opponents for the number of times they had voted for the policies of the White House. On the other side, Obama’s fellow party members acted as if the president is toxic; electoral candidates did their best not to be seen around with him. As Jon Sopel, the North America editor for the BBC, puts it, Democrats “fighting in the key Senate seats tomorrow are treating him as though he were infected by Ebola.” They put him under quarantine. As an excellent example, Sopel quotes an interview with Kentucky candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes for a local newspaper, in which she is asked repeatedly if she had voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Awkwardly, but consistently, Grimes refuses to answer.

After election night, the attacks against the former seller of dreams accelerated. The triumphant conservatives, who won control over the Senate and strengthened their majority in the House, proclaimed the Obama government over. From [Obama’s] own camp, the blame for the electoral loss was thrown on him. Now the president looks more and more isolated. As David Rothkopf says, he may end his second term as the most isolated president since the era of Ronald Reagan. “Obama will reap the results of his political and policy narcissism in a way that will not only be difficult for him personally but will be bad for America and its role in the world,” wrote the editor of Foreign Policy. During the last two years of his presidency, Obama is going to face the growing power of the Republicans and the growing anger of his fellow Democrats. This is going to limit his ability to maneuver both at home and abroad.

Who Lost the Most?

“This was a vote against Obama and the disappointing inability of the Democrats to show a decisive record of success on domestic issues, such as the economy and health care reform (although the latter is in process), and on foreign affairs policies stretching from the Middle East to Russia and China,” Robert Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University, told [the Bulgarian newspaper] Capital. The victory of the Republicans was expected, but its magnitude was not. They not only took the Senate, but also reinforced their existing majority in the house with at least 10 seats and won governorships in Democratic domains such as Arkansas, Massachusetts and Illinois (the latter a humiliation for the president, who is from there). “The midterm elections were also a referendum ‘for’ or ‘against’ Obama, which is the case of all midterm elections in the U.S.,” Professor Michael Henderson from Louisiana State University told Capital.

Many outsiders, such as Europeans, likely don’t understand why Americans are so unhappy with their leadership. The American economy is growing with the highest rate in the last decade, unemployment has dropped, and consumer confidence has reached a seven-year high. Unfortunately for Obama and the Democrats, the voters haven’t noticed. Surveys show that two-thirds of Americans believe their country is “on the wrong path” and are afraid that their children’s lives will be worse. It seems as though economic growth has not yet made its way to the households, and has not turned into increased income and optimism.