White House Insider: Obama "Panicked" Over Re-Election Prospects
Published by Ulsterman on June 23, 2011 in US Politics


As President Obama faces an increasingly uncertain political future, our White House Insider indicates widespread re-election panic within the president’s inner-circle, hints at a "pushback" scandal against Republicans, and the intent to make the president "very uncomfortable" heading into 2012…


Author’s Note: What follows are the unedited responses to a series of questions recently posed to a long-time Washington D.C.political insider and former member of the Obama 2008 campaign and transition team.

Question: Please give your views on the Congressional Project Gunrunner hearings. Were you satisfied with Issa’s performance?

Insider: The hearings went as well as we could have hoped. Congressman Issa, to his great credit, and to my own personal surprise, did an outstanding job. We are as confident as ever that this scandal can prove to be the catalyst for further investigations into Barack Obama and others closely associated with his administration. I still don’t entirely trust Congressman Issa, but for now he’s earning my respect and gratitude. We cannot count on this Gunrunner thing by itself though. The political defeat of Barack Obama in 2012 remains top priority. Not so long ago I thought the possibility of defeating Obama in 2012 to be remote at best. I no longer feel that way.

I have been sharing with you the internal polling data for some time. These internals have started to leak out to others. Pat spoke to this publicly a couple weeks back. They show the president as increasingly vulnerable across the board. By that I mean to say, the president is losing support from the very groups that made his election in 2008 possible. These internal polls are done regularly. If the results reflect positively for an administration, the results are given to certain media outlets and used to promote a president’s standing. For over a year the results of these internals have been shut down for the simple fact that time after time they have shown Barack Obama to be far less popular with American voters than the media has been attempting to spin. Obama’s actual approval numbers are now hovering between 38 and 40 percent, and even lower in some of the most critical swing states. He has lost ground most significantly in recent months with seniors and union members. Without those two groups, Obama cannot win re-election, and the White House is downright panicked about it.



Question: Explain what you mean by panicked.

Insider: Just what I said. Obama’s team is terrified of the data they are getting back from the internals. Absolutely panicked. Literally panicked. There was a meeting among the president’s re-election team recently, Plough’s group, and the internal polling data was the main topic, and everybody was apparently expressing concern over the numbers. The president was not at this meeting, but was soon after briefed on it. There were no real answers given on how to improve the numbers, and that set the president off. He tore into staff. This has been happening with greater and greater frequency lately. The president kept repeating, “Why isn’t it working?â€