With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

John Paul Rossi: Campaign Promises Now Ring Hollow for President Obama

[John Paul Rossi is an associate professor of history at Penn State Erie. He is co-author of “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Automobile Insurance: Samuel P. Black Jr. and the Rise of Erie Insurance, 1923-1961.”]

Americans have lost faith in President Barack Obama and his economic policies.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News poll reported that they did not have confidence in the president “to make the right decisions for the country’s future.” More than half (54 percent) disapproved of his handling of the economy.

President Obama and his top political advisers are puzzled by these negative numbers. They believe that voters have not credited them with their many achievements: stopping job losses, rescuing the financial system, and passing health care and financial reform.

Unfortunately, what the president does not seem to understand is that he promised Americans much, much more than he has delivered....

What is shocking is President Obama’s inability to connect the dots between his campaign promises on jobs and industries, mortgage relief and fairer policies for Main Street Americans on the one hand, and the current voter anger on the other.

Until he does and takes serious and sustained actions to address these basic issues, voters will continue to believe that the president is not making the right decisions for the country’s future, and that he is not doing a good job handling the economy.
Read entire article at Penn Live