President Barack Obama's Leadership Style - Repudiated at the 2010 Midterm Elections?

On November 2, 2010, the citizens of the United States of America cast their votes and seemed to repudiate American President Barack Obama's leadership style including his policies. Indeed, in a historic turn of events the Republican party regained control of the House of Representatives and made significant gains in the United States Senate and State Governorships across the country as well.

These results seem to coincide with an amateur poll I have been running since August 2010 in another hub called 10 Reasons Why American President Barack Obama May or May Not Be Re-elected in 2012.

In that poll I asked a number of questions about President Obama and the job he has done since taking the White House in January 2009. So far, 43 of 231 visitors have chosen to participate in the poll. Here are the results as of November 4, 2010:

President Barack Obama Not Expected to Be Re-elected in 2012

My first question was "do you think President Obama will be re-elected in 2012"? 63% said No; 26% answered Yes; and 12% replied "I'm not sure."

The second question was similar but went more to the participants personal preference; I asked "do you think President Obama should be re-elected in 2012"? 60% said No; 30% said Yes; and 7% chose to "plead the 5th".

President Barack Obama Not Seen as Keeping Campaign Promises

The third poll question concerning President Obama's leadership style asked: "do you think President Obama has attempted to keep his campaign promises?" Of 39 people who answered 62% said No; while the other 38% answered Yes.

President Barack Obama Not Seen as Improving America's Image around the World

The fourth poll question in 10 Reasons Why President Barack Obama May or May Not Be Re-elected in 2012 asked about Obama's impact on foreign policy and foreign relations. Many experts in the American Presidency acknowledge that the United States' Head of State is virtually powerless when it comes to domestic policy and that his main purpose is to head up American foreign policy and foreign relations. Indeed, at the beginning of his presidency Obama received many accolades for how he softened America's image around the world. However in recent days due to the war in Afghanistan and other issues with China, many have come to see him as weak in this area. When asked if people thought President Obama has improved America's image around the world, so far 63% of 41 participants answered No and 37% answered Yes.

President Barack Obama Seen As Presidential

In the fifth question I asked: "Do you think President Obama looks presidential?" With the above answers, I would have anticipated that the larger number of participants in my little survey were either Republicans or Libertarian independents who dislike Obama and thus have skewed the results of this small poll. But the results from this question tell me that this is not necessarily the case. Surprisingly, of 41 people who answered question number 5, 52% believe President Obama does in fact look presidential. This tells me that a number of the Democrats who participated in the poll are also displeased with President Obama's job and leaderstyle thus far. Moreover, Republicans and Libertarians do not seem to hate Obama just because he is a Democrat. At least some are willing to admit that he looks good in the Oval Office, but they truly disagree with his policies.

President Barack Obama Seen as Weak in National Defense

The sixth question concerning President Obama's leadership style asked: "How would you rate President Obama on national defense?" Not surprisingly, 58% answered "mostly unfavorable" or somewhat unfavorable while 42% said Mostly or somewhat favorable. However, this was not really an issue in the 2010 midterm elections.

President Barack Obama Not Seen as Changing Washington

Questions 7 and 8 in my amateur poll asked if people thought President Obama had kept his promise to curtail actitvities of special interest groups in Washington and how they would rate President Obama's attempt how Washington operates. In both cases, those who answered feli overwhelmingly that he had not kept his promise to curtail special interest groups and rated his effort to change Washington as mostly unfavorable. Of those who answered 86% felt President Barack Obama had not curtailed special interests at all.

President Barack Obama's Position on the Mosque at Ground Zero Rejected

The ninth question asked whether participants agreed with the President's position concerning the Mosque at Ground Zero. 69% of the 39 who took the poll said they did not agree with the President's position concerning the mosque.

President Barack Obama Not Seen as Doing Enough to Create Jobs.

The last question asked the one question everyone knows the answer to...it's the economy stupid. In the 10th and final question I asked: 'Has President Obama done enough to create jobs?" The overwhelming response has thus far been a resounding and emphatic "No!". And this is probably the biggest reason for the repudiation of President Barack Obama's leadership style in the 2010 midterm elections. People are out of work and they have not seen any movement towards creating jobs in the private sector.

Surprisingly reasonable voters across the board seem to believe President Obama looks good behind the desk in the Oval Office, but not surprisingly his inability to jump start the economy and create jobs left him with egg on his face after the 2010 midterm elections.