PD Editorial: One year later

It’s been a rough year since Barack Obama was swept into the Oval Office on the promise of change. His national poll numbers have suffered as a result.

Yet here in the North Bay, the president still enjoys strong support, according to the latest online Press Democrat Editorial Board survey.

The survey shows two out of three local residents are satisfied with the president’s job performance so far. Thirty-one percent say they are “very satisfied” while 35 percent say they are “somewhat satisfied.”

Thirteen percent said they were “somewhat dissatisfied” while 20 percent identified themselves as “very dissatisfied.”

During the Nov. 4, 2008 election, 73.5 percent of Sonoma County voters supported Obama. Nationally, the president’s approval ratings have dropped below 50 percent.

“Given the enormity of the mess the last administration left behind, Obama is doing as much as anyone could do,” wrote James Walker of Duncans Mills, one of 150 respondents to our survey who left written comments. “I’m sorry that we live in such an ‘amnesiac culture’ that some people expect him to solve problems in one year that took eight years or more to create.”

“I think President Obama’s performance has been remarkable,” wrote Karen Cooper of Sebastopol. “The only fault I find with his actions are that he has not been backing health care reform as much as I feel he should be.”

“In electing Barack Obama, American voters made a catastrophic mistake,” wrote Dean Davis of Santa Rosa. “Now, at great, great cost, they are beginning to learn the truth. Let's hope it's not too late to change course.”

Among registered Democrats, 84 percent say they are satisfied with the president’s performance. Meanwhile, two out of three registered Republicans who took the survey said they were not satisfied. Forty-five percent said they were “very dissatisfied.”

“The only thing President Obama has acted on in a decisive way is to give away billions of dollars we don’t have,” wrote Bob McKusick Jr. of Santa Rosa.

The survey showed local satisfaction was highest for the president’s handling of the economic crisis (65 percent) and lowest with his actions on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (49 percent.)

He drew the greatest number of “very dissatisfied” responses for his handling of health care reform (29 percent)

“I’m uncertain, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt,” wrote Kent Mitchell of Healdsburg. “At the very least, he is making some incredibly bold moves with both health care reform and economic stimulus. It’s going to take some time before we really know how it all pans out.”

Sixty-two percent of respondents said they do not believe that results of Tuesday’s election, which saw Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey, showed voter dissatisfaction with Obama or that it could signal a GOP comeback in next year’s mid-term elections.

“Tuesday’s elections didn’t signal dissatisfaction with Obama,” wrote one unidentified respondent. “But if he doesn’t move in bolder ways, specifically on the economy, 2010 elections will definitely give him the message ...”

In all, 305 letter writers and other readers responded to our invitation to take the survey on Thursday and Friday. To see the results and/or take the survey yourself, click here: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229UQQ8T8SW