Sometimes I have to wonder about the American public. Either they have a very short memory span, they believe what they want to believe or there's just a lot of plain old stupidity. I say this because it seems that nearly half of the American public thinks the $700 billion TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailout of the giant financial institutions on Wall Street was done by President Obama.
I guess I should be thankful that they at least place the blame for the recession exactly where it belongs -- on the shoulders of George Bush. Poll after poll show that a majority of the people know Bush's policies brought on the recession (and twice as many blame Bush as blame Obama). That makes it even more puzzling that many people think Obama was responsible for the bailout, which was signed into law by George Bush in 2008.
According to a News IQ Quiz done by the Pew Research Center conducted July 1st through July 5th of 1007 adults, a full 47% thought the TARP bailout had been signed into law by President Obama. And strangely, this political ignorance seems to cross all political lines. I would have thought that Democrats would know better than to blame someone from their own party for this very unpopular bailout, but it seems that a lot of them don't. Here's how it breaks down by party:
% BELIEVING OBAMA SIGNED TARP INTO LAW
Democrats..........46%
Republicans..........50%
Independents..........44%
Frankly I don't know what to make of this. After all, it has been less than two years ago since the bailout was signed into law (October 3, 2008 by BUSH). As unpopular as TARP has proven to be and as much news coverage as it has gotten, it is simply amazing that people are now blaming the wrong president in such a short period of time. Maybe they are confusing Bush's TARP program with President Obama's stimulus program (which, by the way, gave all working people making under $250,000 a minimum of at least a $400 tax cut).
This is something the Democratic Party needs to straighten out. The TARP program is still extremely unpopular with rank-and-file voters in all parties (and among independents), and the Democrats need to continuously pound it into people's brains between now and November that TARP was a REPUBLICAN program signed into law by a REPUBLICAN president. Just straightening this one thing out could be worth thousands of votes in November.
These people may not be the brightest bulbs on America's tree but Democrats cannot continue to let them blame President Obama for something done by his Republican predecessor.
While it is true Obama did not sign TARP into law, he did urge that it be passed and the majority of Democrats did vote for it. So the understanding of the American people may be incomplete but the general gist is still somewhere in the same reality where the rest of us live -- Obama did support TARP, as did the Democrats.
ReplyDeleteAs it turns out TARP was nowhere near as expensive as we thought it would be -- only $100B still outstanding to the banksters -- and pretty much did what it was supposed to do. So Obama and the Democrats were right to support TARP. Trying to write that support out of history is rather Orwellian and, while maybe advisable from an elections perspective, seems a rather, uh, Republican, thing to do...
- Badtux the History-recallin' Penguin
While it's true that Democrats gave it far too much support (they are far from perfect), the fact is that it was a Republican bill signed by a Republican president. Obama should not have supported it, but he did not sign it into law. Saying it was Obama's fault gives the Republicans a free ride, which they do not deserve.
ReplyDeleteData like this highlight for me how effective the Fox "News" propaganda machine can be in shaping public opinion. The misconception that Obama signed TARP fits the narrative they have created, and this gives it considerable power.
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