Obama's Image Improves as the U.S. Recovers

After his visit to Latin America, President Barack Obama decided to announce that he will seek re-election. Knowing the statistics, and hopeful about the country’s slow but undeniable financial and economic recovery, he wasted no time and made the announcement on April 4

Last week President Obama also made a proposal to cut the deficit, which will reach $14.3 trillion, with a bill that will reduce it by $4 trillion in the next 12 years.

With this news and a little more than two years after taking leadership of a country engaged in two wars and a world financial crisis, the U.S. is beginning to recover, and at the same time Obama’s image is improving — both internally and globally.

According to the Gallup Institute, which last November gave Obama an approval rating of 44 percent, in January approval was 51 percent, with 42 percent viewing him unfavorably. A more recent poll published a few weeks ago in The Wall Street Journal indicates that 53 percent of voters believe that Obama is doing a good job — up 8 percent from December.

And a CNN investigation, carried out before and after this year’s State of the Union address, indicates that his image has improved even more, approaching a 60 percent positive opinion in general terms.

At the same time, the U.S. economy is growing faster, as expressed by Alberto Bernal, an investment strategist who is frequently invited by CNN to give his outlook; he recently said that the U.S. economy will grow by approximately 4 percent this year.

An article published on Jan. 26, 2011 in the Costa Rican newspaper La Republica entitled “Confidence Grows in the U.S.,” tells us among other things that, “‘The recovery is materializing, and global profit margins in 2011 probably are set to reach a new record,’ says Angelo Meda, poll participant and portfolio manager for Banknord in Milan, in charge of over $1 billion.”

Likewise, unemployment has been going down, and a report dated April 1, 2011 tells us that in the U.S. it has reached 8.8 percent, down from a high of almost 10 percent.

In addition, 60 million tourists visited the U.S. last year, making it once again the second most visited country in the world.

Finally, President Obama has changed the world’s image of the U.S. in just 16 months, according to a poll published by the BBC last April. And contrary to what the “enemies of the empire” might think, the majority of Latin Americans have a positive image of the country, as I pointed out in a previous article.

Therefore, it would seem that Obama is gaining strength, with a view toward winning a second term in the White House, contrary to the predictions of some political analysts who view his prospects for re-election as very difficult.