How in the World Is Obama Popular With 55 Percent of Americans?

President Barack Obama’s approval rating is at 55 percent, matching his best ratings since his first year in office and the highest ratings of his second term, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

Yes, polls can be wrong. And yes, CNN is totally biased toward Obama and the Democrats.

However, it’s likely true that a majority of Americans do approve of Obama, and would even elect him for a third term. Polls also suggest Hillary Clinton will be elected to do just that.

The question isn’t why Obama is popular. The question is why he isn’t overwhelmingly unpopular, and what mistaken assumptions on the part of Americans make him popular.

Some credit Obama with stabilizing or improving the economy. But regardless of which economists you read, this happened because of the Federal Reserve. Depending on whom you read, the Federal Reserve took smart steps and saved the economy, or — an alternate explanation — the Federal Reserve did more of the same things that created the original bubble and now has created a new bubble that will soon burst. Either way, it wasn’t Obama. If Americans think Obama made the economy better, then they’re just showing their ignorance about how the Federal Reserve does more to control the economy than any other single factor, which is our whole problem.

What we do know is that Obama took a bad situation (health care) and made it worse with Obamacare. Interestingly, these same polls confirm most Americans agree Obamacare was a bad idea. Yet it was Obama’s signature law, and Obama himself remains popular. Obama also increased regulation and taxation, with the help of a totally compliant Republican Congress (who lied when they said their goal was to stop him). He increased the national debt from about $10 trillion to nearly $20 trillion. In other words, what took administrations from George Washington to George W. Bush 220 years to accomplish, Obama and his compliant Congress managed to do in less than 8 years. And for what? Saving the country from terrorists? Making the economy grow at 5 to 8 percent per year, instead of 1 to 2 percent per year, something only a free market could achieve anyway? No. Just to make sure more people can receive free health care and free food stamps.

How on earth is Obama popular with 55 percent of the country? Where are their heads? What does it mean for our country’s present — and future — if more than half the population thinks Obama is a very good president!?

Terrorism is on the rise in America as well as throughout the world. Nothing is done about it, other than to lecture Americans that they’re Islamophobic, deplorable racists who had better shut up before the Attorney General starts prosecuting people for spreading hatred. Race relations are at their worst point since the 1960s, and violent crime is skyrocketing in the cities again. Guns get the blame, but it’s precisely the cities (like Chicago) where gun control is the strictest that crime rises the fastest. Obama so supports gun control that he hints at unilaterally establishing it via executive edict, overriding Congress and the Constitutional requirement for legislation (to say nothing of the Second Amendment), while Hillary Clinton promises she will do exactly that.

And this is what 55 percent of Americans approve of? Even if the true number is closer to 50 percent, or even 45 or 40 percent, how can so many millions of people be so profoundly wrong?

This is not about Donald Trump, and it’s not about Republicans. If you think Republicans are no better, or even worse, that still does not explain why so many approve of Obama. You can disapprove of Obama no matter what you think of Donald Trump or Republicans. Something is deeply wrong with this country, for standards and expectations to sink so low that Americans actually think what we’re getting from Obama is good enough — and actually good.

I refuse to let Americans off the hook for America’s continuing decline. History will be even less kind in decades and centuries to come. We expect so little of ourselves that most of us, in turn, expect little or nothing from the people we put in charge of too many things. We still have choices, and there’s still enough freedom of speech and individual liberty to partially turn things around. But most people won’t allow it. By approving of Obama’s terms in office, and possibly electing Hillary Clinton as a reward, a majority of Americans send a crystal clear statement that we want more of the same. And you had better believe we’re about to get a lot more of it, especially if Hillary Clinton wins.

Obama took a wrecking ball and made America weaker than ever before. Hillary is licking her chops and cannot wait to get started on her own agenda. When all freedom and liberty are finally gone, just remember: We will be the generation who lost it.