Time running out for Obama
Business Times - 04 Aug 2009 Time running out for Obama Slide in opinion polls is making it difficult for him to win support on key legislation in health reform and climate change By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT HE was elected as US president in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s and at a time when America was fighting two unpopular and very costly wars in the Greater Middle East. Now after occupying the White House for the last six months, US President Barack Obama should be benefiting from an upward political momentum. After all, the economic news seems to suggest that the policies adopted by his administration, including a massive fiscal and monetary stimulus, are creating the conditions for an apparent if slow recovery. Hence the GDP contracted at an annual rate of one per cent, which reflects a significantly slower decline than the past two quarters - of 6.4 per cent - and better than expected by most economists who had predicte...