About Geoff B.
Geoff B graduated from Stanford University (class of 1985) and worked in journalism for several years until about 1992, when he took up his second career in telecommunications sales. He has held many callings in the Church, but his favorite calling is father and husband. Geoff is active in martial arts and loves hiking and skiing. Geoff has five children and lives in Colorado.
So far, none who voted for Obama regret it.
I’ve noticed the same trend elsewhere; places for people to sign and make comments if they voted for Obama and regretted the decision. The vast majority of the comments begin something like “I didn’t vote for Obama, but my friend’s uncle did, and he regrets it.”
I voted for Obama. I don’t regret it. I may change my mind in the future. (I certainly changed my mind with Bush, but that had as much to do with my changing political views as with Bush’s appetite for war).
How about an “I voted for Obama and am not pleased but don’t regret the vote.”
I think it’s still too early for the base to have buyer’s remorse. As for the swing voters, I think the latest polling data shows a bit of buyer’s remorse. Of course, I think the same is true with nearly every president. It’s hard to please everyone, all of the time.
I disagree with Obama on health care reform and other issues, but am hopeful he will move to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Let me add that I did not vote for Obama. 🙂 I am pleased about that.
Tim, given the recent poll results (approval ratings plummeting), there are definitely a lot of people in the U.S. who regret having voted for Pres. Obama. You also might want to check out this web site:
http://www.iamsorryivotedforobama.com/
I will say, however, that there are three very good reasons you won’t see very many people admitting they regret their vote for Obama: 1)McCain was (is) a dufus 2)it’s still early — Obama could turn things around and 3)people tend to rally around the person they voted for and justify their vote, even if they have a nagging feeling that things are not turning out as they hoped. In my case, I spent a lot of years justifying my two votes for Pres. Bush, even though I had a nagging feeling that things were going down the turlet. I will also say that Bush was still better than I imagine Gore and Kerry would have been, so you can’t always get what you want.
How about “I voted for Obama, not because I think he is 100% correct on every issue, but because I thought he was the best of two imperfect choices, and I am pretty much getting what I expected.”
Katie and Clark may fall into the “McCain is a dufus” category. Chris H falls into the “we need Bernie Sanders” category.
I voted for Obama and don’t regret the vote, even though I am somewhat dissappointed. I could get very bitterly dissappointed with Obama and maybe still not regret the vote, since I have a pretty dim view of McCain to begin with.
I voted for McCain with the hope he’d kick the bucket early on and we’d have Sarah Palin. (I know there are Sarah haters out there, please spare me I’ve heard it all).
I voted for Obama and am pleased with his performance for two reasons.
#1 I didn’t fall for the hype, I knew he couldn’t come in and save the universe in a month or two. I wasn’t expecting miracles. There are changes happening that I am mostly pleased with. Take this poll again in mid 2010, I think it’s too soon for people to be disappointed, how much had Clinton and Bush accomplished by this time in their Presidencies?
#2 All I have to do is imagine McCain/Palin in office handling these same issues and I feel immense relief.
Geoff that website is hilarious because it’s supposed to be people that regret voting for Obama, but every comment I read was someone saying how happy they are that they never fell for his malarkey, obviously not Obama voters. I don’t think that website is what you think it is, or maybe I just happened to run into a string of 30+ posts that sounded that way.
East of Eden, I only hope former Governor Palin is a major part of the GOP for the next ten years. Feel free to pick her over Romney in 2012.
Jjohnsen, I’ve gone to that web site probably four times in the last week and each time most of the recent comments were by people who said they voted for Obama and regretted it. If you go to the page right now and scroll down there is a comment from “anonymous” in Camden NJ who says they voted for Obama and regret it. But you are correct that a LOT of the comments — perhaps even a majority — are from people who say they didn’t vote for him. I really linked to the page just for the fun of it and because it fits in with the poll.
Palin has some good things to bring to the Republican party, unfortunately being Prez or VP are not among them. Nobody motivates the Republican base like she does. Still, if she is our nominee in 2012, get ready for Barry Goldwater time.
The thought of Palin anywhere close to the White House makes me tremble and shake with fear!!
Sadly Palin motivates what I see are the worst aspects of the Republican party. She’s kind of the Howard Dean of the Republican party. (With Glenn Beck being the Michael Moore of our party)
While Democrats are really screwing up and doing such a horrible job communicating with the public that they’ve managed to do much of what took Bush a whole term to do (short of invading a country incompetently). Of course they seem on track to screw up Afghanistan so they may match Bush there too.
That said, as others have said, I need only think of McCain and shiver thinking how much worse it could be…
Sorry Howard Dean’s really not a great example. Replace that with Murtha.
Glenn Beck as Michael Moore
– Love it! and I’m a Glennite.
There is a really big leap between “pleased” and “regret” that makes this poll a very blunt instrument by which to gauge opinion.
I simply don’t think a few months in office is much to go off of. I haven’t been overwhelmed by how wonderful President Obama has been so far, but we’re not that far into his presidency. In order to “regret” my vote, I think I’d want data from more than 1/8th of his first term.
I thought Howard Dean was a good example (although his stint as DNC chairman did show signs of competence behind the bluster). Like the Palin cult in the Republican party, there are probably still Democrats who swoon at the thought of Howard Dean and wish he was leading the charge. There are, at most, two Democrats who swoon at the thought of John Murtha. Murtha is Duke Cunningham, not Sarah Palin.
And yes, let’s make Glenn Beck the Republican version of Michael Moore. Please, please, please just don’t let him become the Republican Al Franken.
Its really to early to tell how Obama’s term as Pres will turn out. Sure he has tanked in the polls but its only 8 months in. I get the sense that he is a good campaigner but lacks any real experience running anything.
Clinton started terribly and ended strong with DOMA, welfare reform and the wipeout of Bob Dole. I wonder if Obama has the ability to move to the center. I doubt it. Clinton was from Arkansas and understood middle America (suburban rural) much better then the left wing bubble residing (Hyde Park, Harvard) Obama. He could surprise me though. I remain convinced that HRC would have made a much better president then BO. She also is from middle America and understands how Middle America thinks. Heck she even served on Wal-Marts board.
While I tend to think Welfare Reform wouldn’t have gotten passed had Clinton not pushed for it (thereby silencing many Democrats) I also think it was largely a Republican push.
Obama’s problem is that he ran as a centrist. I actually think that if you look at the polls the medical bill is a centrist bill. Conservatives may not like it, but they are deluding themselves if they think it’s not a centrist bill. Especially if the government insurance plan part is removed.
Of course if we come out of the recession expect him to be very popular next year. Right now people are still scared of the recession and (justifiably) worried about debt.
He already is more centrist than he campaigned. Why do you think far left liberals have started grumbling?
I voted for Papa Murphy’s pizza tonight. I regret eating three-and-a-half slices.
Mike, decisions like those will give you definite heartburn.
Some bloggers need reminding that Glenn Beck is not a Republican. He criticized George Bush (but not as vehemently as Barack Obama) the last couple of years. He describes himself as a Constitution Independent. Perhaps he will be Ron Paul’s V.P. choice.
I know this post is getting old, but I finally checked back to read the other comments and I just wanted to clarify. I don’t think McCain is a dufus. I meant exactly what I said, that both candidates had good and bad points, but that Obama was better IMHO. It bugs me when people feel they have to categorize everyone into extremes, when reality is almost never that simple.