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One month before the 2008 election, candidate Obama gave an interview
to ABC’s Charlie Gibson after a campaign rally in Indiana. The topic of
the interview was the economic crisis and what to do about it. Asked
what he would do that would be different from the approach taken by
President Bush, Obama had a clear answer. What was “as important as
anything” was a President’s ability to instill confidence in a nervous
public:

GIBSON: You also said at this rally we need new
direction, we need new leadership in Washington. What would you be
doing right now that’s any different than what the Bush Administration
has done and is doing?

OBAMA: Well, I’ll tell you what. I do think that the
administration is hampered by the fact that people don’t have a lot the
confidence in the president. I mean, if you think about previous crises
– you know, FDR. There were a whole bunch of programs that he tried
that didn’t work. But what he was able to provide to people was a sense
that somebody’s in charge and we’re going to get through this. And — and that is as important as anything.

This apparently sounded pretty good to a lot of people in October 2008.
Obama went on to win the election and his calm handling of the crisis
was one reason cited for his decisive victory over John McCain.

Things look very different in 2012. With unemployment still over eight percent and job growth creeping along under two percent, many Americans
are still wondering if we’re going to get through it. We may still need a
President who can instill confidence to help us get there but,
according to Gallup, President Obama is no longer that person:

In 2009 Obama’s approval rate on the economy was 59 percent, while his
disapproval rate was just 30 percent. Today the numbers are nearly the
mirror image of what they were. Fifty-nine percent now disapprove of his
handling of the economy and just 38 percent approve.

Does Obama still believe that, absent the public’s confidence, it is
time for new leadership? What does he think he can offer in a second
term that he didn’t offer in his first? Faced with questions like this,
one can see why the President might prefer to pretend the private sector
is “doing fine.”

A bit later in the interview, Obama was asked what it would take to
win over skeptics. He replied, “You know, you have to deliver.” Three
and a half years later, America seems to have concluded that he hasn’t.