By Susan Duclos
2012 started with a bang for Barack Obama as his reelection campaign kicked off in full force but that bang, unfortunately for Obama, came in the form of him shooting himself in the foot over and over and over again.
OBAMACARE ISSUES BEGIN AGAIN
As the New Year began it did so with the recent news that the Supreme Court had agreed to hear arguments on Obamacare aka Affordable Care Act, to begin in March of 2012, bringing what Obama and Democrats' had dubbed Obama's "signature accomplishment" back to the forefront of the news, reminding voters of their anger when Democrats that controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, passed the law against the opposition of the majority of voters in 2010.
Since then a number of events have occurred, initiated by Obama, that have angered voters across the board.
In January, polling on Obamacare by Kaiser Health, found that the public was twice as likely to be unfavorable towards the individual mandate as they were favorable.
OBAMA'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
After Obama gave his annual State of the Union address, the Associated Press, via Seattlepi, took three pages to fact check it. The Washington Post Fact Checker examined 11 claims by Obama that were misleading or lacking context. The RNC quickly crafted a a video showing a side by side comparison of Obama repeating the exact same rhetoric in his 2012 SOTU as he used in his 2011 SOTU.
KEYSTONE & GAS PRICES
Also in January, Barack Obama angered a significant amount of voters by formally rejecting the Keystone pipeline, a bid by Canadian energy company TransCanada to build a $7 billion oil pipeline linking the tar sands of Alberta to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. Keystone had support from both sides of the political aisle, including union support, even the president's jobs council signaled support for the plan, and it also has bipartisan backing on Capitol Hill. Obama claimed he rejected Keystone because Republicans had placed an "arbitrary timeline" for approval, but it soon became public knowledge that the applications were submitted three years before.
Since then the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has publicly stated that America is no longer a reliable energy partner and Harper has made plans to discontinue the U.S. discount on Canadian oil as they look towards Asia to sell their products.
"Look, the very fact that a 'no' could even be said underscores to our country that we must diversify our energy export markets. We cannot be, as a country, in a situation where our one and, in many cases, only energy partner could say no to our energy products. We just cannot be in that position," Harper said in front of a live audience of businesspeople, scholars, diplomats, and journalists.
This all happens as voters all across America are seeing some of the highest gas prices at the pumps already.
Voter Anger- January Page 1- February page 2- March page 3- April Page 4
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