Posted on 01/31/2008 9:46:41 AM PST by flowerplough
American voters have a decidedly negative view of how things are going in the country but they are confident that the next president will have the power to change much of what is wrong.
Some things, however, may be too much even for the president to change.
According to a new Associated Press-Yahoo! News survey, large majorities of voters believe the president has considerable sway on issues such as inflation, interest rates, the federal deficit, taxes and more. Fully three-quarters believe the president has at least some influence over health care costs. And 69 percent can see the president making gasoline prices go up or down.
They are less certain, though, about the president's ability to change how things really work in Washington: 55 percent think it's possible; 44 percent are doubtful, no matter who's elected.
Call it optimism with a cynical streak. Or cynicism with an optimistic streak.
( ... )
The latest poll, third in the series, found that Democrats are more likely to believe in the power of the president—whatever his or her background—to change things. Republicans and independents, for their part, are much less likely to think a president can have influence over the big issues.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"large majorities of voters believe the president has considerable sway on issues such as inflation, interest rates, the federal deficit, taxes and more. Fully three-quarters believe the president has at least some influence over health care costs. And 69 percent can see the president making gasoline prices go up or down."
Most of us are quite unable to lose weight or save more money, but we just know that a new Daddy will do some of this other stuff for us?
Another presidential term for the Clintons represents “change”? A change “back” maybe but nothing “new” except more of the same in overdrive.
Call it what it really is: Stoopid.
(And yes, I really DO know how to spell stupid)
Notice how reference to solving a priority issue, illegal immigration, was buried in reference.
A President cannot effect major change without the support of congress. And Congress will never change because they are working for certain goals detrimental to national sovergnity.
The only thing congress is capable of changing on a regular basis is their underwear. or the stench would overpower global warming and incite the people into removing the smell at whatever cost necessary.
Well, presidents do have the power to make these things much worse. They don't have much power to make them better.
OTOH, the Congress can't really do much either to "hurt" the President. They can try to impeach him, and we saw what good that did with Clinton. They can deny funding for things the President wants to do. That may or may not get them in hot water with constituents or special interest groups. They (the Senate) can deny the President his appointments. But the President is still going to be around.
So there isn't much either one can really do. The Founders wanted it this way. In some ways, they wanted it difficult for the government to make sudden, major changes in the way the country operates. That's because they knew that if they made it too easy, the natural human tendency when things might be a little rough is to look to government to "do something, anything". And it is the usual tendency of large bureaucracies to muck things up, even if their intentions are pure and altruistic.
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