Obama: Driving America Over the Cliff?

There have been many recent indications of how much the U.S. economy is struggling, yet President Obama and the American public seem to be on different pages as to how troubled the economy is.

CNNMoney listed some of the problems highlighted in recent days: “On Friday, a government jobs report indicated that only 54,000 jobs were added last month and the unemployment rate rose to 9.1% — troubling signs that the recovery is wavering. And it’s not just jobs. Manufacturing growth is slowing both in the United States and abroad. Home prices are in a confirmed double-dip. Consumer confidence is declining. To top it off, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped almost 5% in the past month.”

And Politico writes, “Several leading economic forecasters this week reduced their outlook for second-quarter growth and suggested the rest of this year and the next could be very sluggish as the nation continues to work off the excesses of the credit bubble while lacking a clear driver for faster expansion. . . . The New York Federal Reserve noted this week that inflation was picking up across the board, not just in highly volatile food and energy prices. . . . Each of the reports tends to cite similar factors in addition to inflation: household debt that remains too high, house prices that remain deeply depressed and businesses that remain nervous about economic conditions and the nation’s troubled fiscal position.”

Despite all this, in a speech Friday, President Obama declared, “There are always going to be bumps on the road to recovery.  We’re going to pass through some rough terrain that even a Wrangler would have a hard time with.  We know that.”

Yet Americans are seeing more than “bumps on the road to recovery,” according to recent polling. Yesterday, The Washington Post reported, “By 2 to 1, Americans say the country is pretty seriously on the wrong track, and nine in 10 continue to rate the economy in negative terms. Nearly six in 10 say the economy has not started to recover, regardless of what official statistics may say, and most of those who say it has improved rate the recovery as weak. . . . Overall, about six in 10 of those surveyed give Obama negative marks on the economy and the deficit. Significantly, nearly half strongly disapprove of his performance in these two crucial areas. Nearly two-thirds of political independents disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy, including — for the first time — a slim majority who do so strongly.”

A new CNN poll finds, “Forty-eight percent say that another Great Depression is likely to occur in the next year – the highest that figure has ever reached. The survey also indicates that just under half live in a household where someone has lost a job or are worried that unemployment may hit them in the near future. The poll was conducted starting Friday, when the Labor Department reported that the nation’s jobless rate edged up to 9.1 percent. . . . According to the survey, more than eight in ten Americans say that the economy is in poor shape, a number that has stubbornly remained at that level since March.”

Hope and change?

Related:

Rasmussen Reports: Consumer Confidence Down 10 points Since Jobs Report

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