New polls that show President Obamas popularity has sunk to record lows should act as an alarm bell for the possibility that a manufactured crisis, just as was exploited by Bush and Clinton before him, is being prepared to reinvigorate support behind the governments stalling agenda. As far back as March controversial talk show host Michael Savage predicted that a Reichstag fire-like event would be concocted to reinvigorate support behind Obama but that was only two months into his presidency when his approval ratings were still relatively high.
However, Obamas popularity has plunged rapidly as millions of Americans witness his pursuit of policies that are little different from those of George W. Bush, and in some cases even worse.
Barack Obamas honeymoon period appears to be coming to an end in America as polls have shown his ratings have fallen to their lowest point yet, reports the Telegraph.
A USA Today/Gallup survey suggested that six months into his presidency, his popularity was lower than George W Bushs at the same stage of his tenure. Other polls by ABC News and the Washington Post also showed Mr Obamas job approval falling below 60 per cent for the first time since he was sworn in as the nations first black president, with a marked drop in the last month.
Both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton before him were able to seize upon crises relatively early into their tenures to ram through their political agenda.
Bush enjoyed approval ratings in the 90s immediately after 9/11, which happened less than 8 months into his presidency, and exploited the tragedy to launch a geopolitical crusade, while the Oklahoma City bombing handed Clinton all the justification he needed to advance his domestic campaign to demonize and marginalize the growing patriot movement.
Recall that vice-president Joe Biden promised and guaranteed that there would be an international crisis within six months of Obamas presidency that would cause him to make unpopular decisions. This crisis is now overdue since its just over six months since Obama took office.
What will Obamas crisis be? A geopolitical flare-up that will act as a pretext for U.S. military involvement overseas? Or a terrorist attack that will create the perfect excuse for Obama to backtrack on promises that he is already stalling on, such as the closure of Guantanamo Bay? An attack on U.S. soil will also stoke accusations that the Democrats are soft on the war on terror by Republicans, providing another excuse to beef the police state and chill free speech at home.
Or will Obama act as the soothing savior when an engineered swine flu epidemic, promised to return deadlier than ever in the fall, or something even worse causes panic and chaos?