President Barack Obama's approval rating is so low that no one in Washington takes him seriously anymore, says MSNBC political contributor Howard Fineman.
"A president with a 43 percent approval rate isn't taken seriously by anyone around town," Fineman said Tuesday in conversation with "Hardball" host Chris Mathews, according to
Brietbart.
Just hours before Obama's State of the Union Address, Fineman predicted the President would be forced to talk about small achievements "that [he] can brag about to help him out of the mess he is in with a 43 percent approval rating." He added there would be no mention of "grand bargains on entitlements or about sweeping tax reform."
Reaction to the president's speech appeared to concur with Fineman's predictions. The
Associated Press described the proposals in the speech as "pragmatic" in a "bite-sized kind of way."
The New York Times concluded that the speech underscored that "Obama’s presidency will be largely devoted to a series of smaller actions that the White House can perform on its own."
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