Obama's Popularity Only Average

How soon before Bush and Cheney are indicted?

Considering that we tend to rally around the President in times of crisis, and that we are in the middle of a major crisis (economic), this is troubling. How much of this is blowback from our supporting Bush post 9/11, and him leading us down the primrose path to hell. I wonder.

PrezBO is leading us down the primrose path to hell.

I have come to the conclusion that what got Obama elected, and maintains his popularity, is that on a possibly unconscious level many people may believe that Obama will "give dignity" to the proverbial hand-out. I believe that is what many people want; not just the hand-out, but a shame free hand-out; one with dignity (aka, it is coming to us).

Foofie, I never though of that, but you may just have something, there.

So far as popularity goes, I'm not much interested. Not for another 3 1/2 years, anyway.

But in the rest of the world, I believe the magic of Obama's popularity is akin to the proverbial Cinderella story. A child from a divorced couple, one parent not born in the U.S., raised by a grandmother of fairly humble means I believe, has to deal with his race in an historical white centered country, excels to the point of becoming the President. This is what makes the U.S. so different, to many, in other countries, I believe. Only in America can such fairy tales take place.

But for countries that have monarchies, we might be looked upon by some as something less than complimentary?

That's why I'm waiting the 3 1/2 years, that being equivalant to midnight in your analogy.

Obama's popularity will have an effect on the midterm elections next year. How big an effect it will be is both interesting and important.

Also true.

To stretch the analogy even further.... an economic recovery would make one hell of a nice glass slipper.

yeahhh, i guess you are right, waterdude. obama has only gotten better marks than the previous 3 presidents.

and of course, since your source was fox news, i can rest assured that the figures are correct and the analysis unbiased in any way.

Not unless the shoe fits.

now stop that you two!!!!

I don´t think you are correct that countries that have monarchies might look upon USA as something less than complimentary.
The Scandinavian countries and GB are much more pro American than some of the republic countries of Europe.
Obama´s story is not really a Cinderella story. There are plenty of European politicians who come from simple - much simpler background - divorced families. That kind of stories take place in Europe too.
Just to mention one the Swedish Per Albin Hanson - prime minister from 1932-1946 went to school only four years.
Obama has a university degree.

You know, it's kind of fun when we can disagree like this. Brown and I are poles apart 90% of the time, and it's not always worth a

Don't be so hard on yourself roger, the real number can't be more than 80%

The president always ends up wearing the economy... whether he wants to or not. (Whether this is ever warranted is one of those irrelevant question in politics).

But for now, Obama seems to be having a ball.

O.K., O.K. Not being enamored with Europe's history, nor politics, I may be basing my points on a popular notion about Europe that some Americans may have. But, is Scandinavia really "historical" Europe in the sense of pre-Reformation history?

One might also focus on Obama's bi-racial heritage as something that has not yet occurred in Europe, northern, western, eastern, or southern.

I still think the U.S. is more oriented towards equality, based on one's ability, than many other parts of the world. Part of that Cinderella story, I have been told, is that in the U.S., a poor, but pretty/charming girl can marry "up" more often than perhaps anywhere else in the western world. Wealthy men in western countries, I have been told, feel more obligated to marry within one's social class.

As a Scandinavina I do think we do have some history before the Reformation.
We were Catholics about 500 years before the Reformation.
Before that the Vikings roamed the oceans
.Leif Erickson discovered America
The name Russia - we say Ryssland - comes from the word Rusernas Land and that is a part of Sweden. The Vikings did of founding Russia.
The Vikings and Normandy:
What was the Scandinavian contribution in Normandy ? Concerning the population, it is not easy to define its amplitude, all the more since Scandinavian colonisation was superimposed on a strong Frankish and Saxon substratum, whose cultural and ethnic characteristics were very close to the Scandinavians' own.
The Scandinavian impact is clearly seen at the level of Norman state organisation, particularly where this concerned legal matters such as the establishment of Norman customary law (one of the main bases of present 'Anglo-Saxon law', as against 'Roman law'), and also at the political level.
The Scandinavian contribution has been clearly established in the Norman dialect , particularly in the maritime vocabulary (which was thereafter transmitted, almost completely and intact, to the French language). This 'Norman' language became, in the 14th/15th centuries, a base for what we now know as the French language.

The Scandinavian linguistic influence is to be found again as elements in numerous Norman place names, with endings such as -tot (farm), -thuit (cleared area), -bec (stream), -dal or -dalle (valley), or with hogue (hill, mound), londe (wood), nez (cape or headland), etc., and the ending -ville (from Latin villa): Gonneville, Hatainville, Omonville, Tourville, and so on. These place names are mainly derived from Scandinavian personal names, or from landscape features or other descriptors.

Generally speaking, the Norwegians expanded to the north and west to places such as Ireland, Iceland and Greenland; the Danes to England and France, settling in the Danelaw (northern/eastern England) and Normandy; and the Swedes to the east.

Read this article and you can see that the Scandinavians had a great influence of the English language

“An Englishman cannot thrive or be ill or die without Scandinavian words; they are to the language what bread and eggs are to the daily fare.”
http://freehelpstoenglishliterature.blogspot.com/2007/11/scandinavian-influence-on-english.html

What saab wrote.

From the History map of Europe, Year 600: