One year on from history, and a terrible night for Obama

Two under the radar here in the UK elections took place last night. They may have big implications for Barak Obama however. The President who swept to power on a wave of euphoria a year ago, is now a strugglin President finding Governing much harder. He has generally been seen in the US as quite weak on the international stage, buying the Gordon Brown stimulus line on the economy, and being beaten to the punch on several occasions by Russia and China on environmental issues heading into the Copenhagen summit on the issue. Many also believe he has dithered on sending more ground troops to afghanistan when many fear it has given the Taliban a vaccume to take advantage of there.

He has also had problems of his own making at home, particularly his health plans which have allowed Republican opponents to present as a huge extension state run health care, something most Americans, unlike here in Britain, do not support.

The Presidents popularity has over the last 3 months fallen into negative terriroty for the first time after all this. The last Rasmussen tracking poll showed on 29% strongly approved of Obamas record, 39% strongly dissaproved. When you include those who somewhat approve, he had 41%, 12% less than voted for him 12 months ago.

Last night this was put to the test for the first time in terms of real votes. Two Governor races were contested, Virginia and New Jersey. Both states Obama won, last night however, the Republicans won both, Virginia by a huge margin and New Jersey, a state Obama won by 14% last year, the Republicans won that too.

So a year on from Obama's histroic victory, the stardust is wearing off, Rupublican America is rising again, the New Jersey result suggests Obama may be even losing some of his eastern base, Virginia certainly suggests he is losing some of the centre. A year ago that Obama would serve two terms seemed certain, right now, there are many problems ahead for Obama, and re-election is going to take a lot more work that it first appeared. First though will be next years mid-terms where Democrat power in the Congress and Senate could be lost, and a lot of Obama's power with it. For British and European politicans who in the last year have tried so hard to be on Obama's side, maybe he is not such an attractive proposition either.