EXCERPT ONLY: Could President Obama’s approval rating fall as low as Jimmy Carter’s, hovering just above 30 percent? Undoubtedly it could, with the economic situation deteriorating and consumer confidence plunging. This is a distinctly Carter-esque presidency, with a weak president unable to lead, hugely challenging economic conditions, and declining American power on the world stage. Gallup’s figures have shown an astonishing drop in support for Barack Obama in the past eight weeks, which could well be accelerated over the course of the next few months, not least with media attention heavily focused on the Republican presidential race as well as the dire state of the economy.

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Ed Miliband, Leader of the Opposition Labour Party of England.

“I wonder, though, how many of my fellow countrymen are pausing to wonder whether any US presidential candidate could survive after a performance like Miliband’s”.

Daily Telegraph’s US Editor Toby Harnden commenting on the English Leader of the Opposition Labour Party Mr. Ed Miliband and his recent interview with ITV Reporter Damon Green, during which Miliband gave identical answers to all of Green’s questions.

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The White House received another significant blow today with the release of the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, which revealed deep-seated public unease over his handling of the economy, the number one issue for US voters. As The Post noted in a front-page piece headlined (in the print edition): ‘Economy is Battering Obama in the polls’:

Driving the downward movement in Obama’s standing are renewed concerns about the economy and fresh worry about rising prices, particularly for gasoline. Despite signs of economic growth, 44 percent of Americans see the economy as getting worse, the highest percentage to say so in more than two years.

The toll on Obama is direct: 57 percent disapprove of the job the president is doing dealing with the economy, tying his highest negative rating when it comes to the issue. And the president is doing a bit worse among politically important independents.

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http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100084488/a-grim-easter-for-the-obama-presidency-washington-postabc-news-poll-delivers-another-blow-to-the-white-house/

By: Con Coughlin

It is 32 years since an Iranian warship last passed through the Suez Canal, so it can hardly be coincidence that Tehran is now attempting to send two naval vessels through this vital trade artery at a time when the whole region is convulsed by political instability.

The main reason, of course, that Iran has been denied easy access to the Mediterranean these past three decades is that so long as Hosni Mubarak was in charge of Egypt, there was no way the Egyptian defence ministry would provide the necessary approval. As a staunch ally of both America and Israel, Mr Mubarak could be counted on to keep the meddlesome Iranians at bay.

Image Courtesy of the BBC

But now that Barack Obama has decided to dispense with Mr Mubarak’s services, he has unwittingly opened up a whole new ball game. We will have to wait and see whether the new, interim Egyptian government will prove to be as robust as Mr Mubarak at putting the Iranians in their place. But one thing is for sure, and that is – as I predicted two weeks ago – the Suez Canal is now becoming a major security issue both for Egypt and the West.

An estimated 70 per cent of our trade passes through the Suez Canal, but, if the Iranians are to start meddling in this vital waterway, we no longer have the resources to protect our vital interests. As I write HMS Ark Royal, our last aircraft carrier, is being broken up at Portsmouth, its fleet of Harrier jump jets having already been decommissioned. As some of us said at the time, the government was crazy to scrap this vital military capability, and so it has proved.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/concoughlin/100076860/iran-is-playing-a-dangerous-game-of-cat-and-mouse-with-the-suez-canal/

By Nile Gardiner

gnore the revisionist hype in sections of the liberal media about President Obama staging a (mythical) political comeback – this is a presidency with an approval rating of 45 percent (according to the RealClear Politics poll of polls), that presides over a nation where just 27 percent of voters think the country is moving in the right direction, and which just 29 percent of Americans think will be returned to power in 2012. The White House may be claiming a couple of political wins in the dying embers of the lame duck Congress after expending a great deal of political capital in the Senate over the reckless ratification of the Moscow-friendly START Treaty and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but these are issues barely on the radar screens of most American voters in the lead-up to 2012, an election which will be dominated by the economy and health care reform.

The political landscape still looks strikingly bleak for the “transformational president” as he goes into 2011. 2010 was a stunningly bad year for Barack Obama, no matter how much the likes of The New York Times or The Washington Post might try to sugar coat it. Here are four key reasons why it was a year Obama will want to forget:

1. The midterm elections were a defeat of epic proportions for the Obama Presidency

When Barack Obama spoke of a “shellacking” at the midterms, it was a huge understatement. The Republicans scored a significantly bigger win than they did in 1994, with their biggest gain in the House of Representatives in 62 years – since 1948. Fortunately for the Democrats, just 37 Senate seats were up for election, preventing what would have been an almost certain handover of power in the upper house too. Republicans also made huge gains at the gubernatorial level, with the GOP now holding 29 governorships to the Democrats’ 20. Republicans also picked up 680 seats in state legislatures, the highest figure in the modern era.

2. Conservatism grew increasingly dominant in America

The midterms were certainly no flash in the pan, but part of a broader conservative revolution that swept America in 2010. As a recent Gallup survey showed, 48 percent of Americans now describe themselves as “conservative”, compared to 32 percent who call themselves “moderate”, and just 20 percent who call themselves “liberal”. Conservatives now outnumber liberals by nearly 2.5 to 1, a ratio that is likely to increase in 2011. The percentage of Americans who are conservative has risen six points since 2006 and eight points since 1994. Barack Obama, the most liberal US president of the modern era, has a natural liberal constituency comprised of just one in five Americans, which certainly does not bode well for 2012.

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