In 2007, conservatives were terrified that Hillary Clinton, the Nurse Rached of politics, would get the Democratic nomination in 2008 and win the presidency. Remember Sean Hannity's Stop Hillary Express? Then along came Barack Obama and he did what seemed to be impossible, narrowly edging out Hillary for the nomination. To conservatives, Obama was somewhat worse than Hillary, in some ways. There was no cheering for Obama from the right. Then Obama wins the presidency and conservatives feel anguish because we know how bad it will be.
Some things are different this time. First of all, much of the cause of the low ratings is, frankly, racism. Many people can't yet accept the legitimacy of the President as a black man. That will not be a problem with Hillary Clinton for President. Figure that the President would have about 5% higher approval ratings were he white.
Barack Obama is an above-average President. He gets credit for competent stewardship of the economy. He has gotten America into no military or diplomatic disaster. He has had the cleanest administration since at least Jimmy Carter (who was a lousy President at just about everything else). He has not set Democrats up for electoral failure.
Republicans have thwarted most of the Obama agenda. Such success does not keep people from wanting the agenda; if anything, incumbent Democrats who promise to achieve the Obama agenda are in good shape. Usually the legislative successes exhaust the cause; this time, such has yet to happen.
Congress and especially elected Republicans are even less in political esteem. This applies to most US Senators. Just look at some of the abysmal approval ratings for US Senators up for re-election in Missouri, North Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, and Kansas -- states in which Republicans should be safe in view of recent Presidential elections. Republicans should be feel safe in their hold of the Senate -- but they aren't.
Yes, Dubya poisoned the reputation of the Republican Party. Republicans have yet to recognize that he was a horrible President. This is not a partisan statement even if I am intensely partisan -- he makes the elder Bush and Ronald Reagan look good. The elder Bush would have never made the same mistakes. Ronald Reagan wasn't as polarizing. Ford generally made the right choice. Nixon and Watergate? Nixon at least got us out of the Vietnam War.
