I was supposed to be in Washington this past weekend. I had a hotel room, dinner reservations, and a winter coat waiting for me. I cancelled my trip after the election results came in, as I didn’t want to attend the Presidential Inauguration if Governor Romney wasn’t becoming President Romney. This inaugural ceremony produced interesting analysis, and simply comparing the before and afters, 2008 vs. 2013, provides interesting results.
Before the election, my hotel room was $250 a night. It was far outside district limits, and would normally sell for $150 a night. Hotels in DC were going for $650 a night at the minimum, and there were only a few rooms remaining actually in the city. But after November 6th, this all changed. My hotel rate dropped from $250 to $150, and there were hundreds of open rooms across the district. These rooms were going for $250 and $300 a night. Before November 6th, hotels in neighboring Arlington were going for $450 a night. After November 6th, they were selling for $250. And every hotel suddenly had hundreds of vacancies.
In 2008, an estimated 1.8 Million people attended the inauguration. This year, the number in attendance was below a million, and the number of people who watched it in 2008 compared to this year was cut in half.
There is a clear theme displayed here; Is there an extreme lack of enthusiasm among the population for this President’s reelection? Is this lack of interest in the President’s reelection reflective on the populous? If so, how did he even win?
President Obama won reelection because he promised Americans his promises from 2008, and America bought his argument. America didn’t buy Governor Romney’s argument, which (in my opinion) was significantly stronger than the President’s.
But the tide is beginning to turn. There was very little enthusiasm displayed at the inauguration, and recurrent non-scientific polling displays an extreme lack of confidence for the President. Even MSNBC turned (slightly) on the President. A recent broadcast on MSNBC examined the President’s record over four years, and they could not produce many accomplishments, and compared the 2008 economy to the 2012 economy. I tried to locate this video, but could not find it.
How did the President win?
I hope these next four years are strong. But I question the previous four years, and I wish to understand what exactly happened on November 6th that reelected President Obama, all while the enthusiasm for him was at its lowest levels.
Glad to be back from my academic hiatus! Look forward to posting tomorrow!
January 23rd, 2013 at 10:30 pm
It is nice to see that you still hope for a strong four years as I find many on the right have openly hoped for failure for no other reason to sink this administration.
I would guess that most inaugurations for second terms are met with less enthusiasm.
The election of the nation’s first Black President no doubt led to the fervor that accompanied his initial inauguration.
Heck, even the Daily Show did a “bit” about the difference.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:46 am
Yeah You Right, Buzz !
I do hope to see the Obama Administration sink like a stone. But it doesn’t require the tremendous dumb hope of gittin’ some ‘Obama Stash’
This man of limited intellectual capacity has let his ‘advisors’lead him right into the maw of a major Gun Control fracas that should be a Mental Health Issue, just 18 or so months before the dreaded Mid Term Elections.
From that point on, he is just the cheesy hustler that snuck into the White House playing on the residue of ‘White Guilt’. The one that left the American Economy smoldering like a ghetto riot, in his wake.
Let’s hope we can draw Hilary into the middle of the Gun Grab, so we can run it up the flagpole and salute it everyday, right up to November 2016.
January 24th, 2013 at 7:24 am
I don’t think we have much to worry about. Obama will fail in his second term just as he did in his first. In the end, we will cry, then cry again as the Obama administration finishes with scenes of Elaine Bennis doing her kick-dance.
January 24th, 2013 at 7:57 am
Mr Kane, you can pick the white out of chicken crap all you like but what you have left is still chicken crap. It’s not unusual to see writers here take a common and minute issue, ignore relevant facts and circumstances, spin it up a bit, and then read the tea leaves to their satisfaction.
You invent a conclusion that there’s “an extreme lack of enthusiasm among the population for this President’s reelection” when in fact the turn out shows quite the opposite. I’d say the enthusiasm deficiency is more with you than the electorate.
For starters, Obama’s 1st inauguration had a record turn out, the largest event of any kind in the history of Washington. Obviously, topping that would be a tall order. But 2nd inaugurations are lower than the 1st as people have had their moment of history. They’ve been there/done that. The incumbent elect is no longer a newby And while the polarized political climate may come into play to a degree, we’re still dealing with an uncertain economy with people out of work so affording the luxury of attending is a reality.
But aside from that, you still present a specious argument. It’s true that there was a decline in attendance but it was well above average for a 2nd sign in. 800,000 people in all attended Obama’s 2nd event compared to 300,000 at GWBs 2nd and 400,000 at WJC’s 2nd.
And to take it a step further, according to the Nielsen report, it pulled 20.5 million television viewers compared 15.5 million for GWB’s 2nd. CNN rated the highest while Fox came in dead last.
And as for your conclusion of hotel management strategies, I recall 1 year buying a Christmas tree on the 24th to take to a friend. I paid $5 when they were $29 to $79 3 weeks earlier. I suppose by your logic, there was a Christmas enthusiasm issue that year.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:22 am
Workers are no longer enough to counter the welfare votes.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:50 am
Good post Ryan. It’s hard to understand how idiots gain power, but there are enough of them around the world to make it unsurprising.
January 24th, 2013 at 2:50 pm
Good news Ryan, I saw this today. I don’t know how Obama managed to game the factory activity numbers, but it is still positive.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Factory activity grew the most in nearly two years in January and the number of new claims for jobless benefits dropped to a five-year low last week, giving surprisingly strong signals on the economy’s pulse.
Financial information firm Markit on Thursday said its preliminary Purchasing Managers Index for manufacturing rose to 56.1 this month, its best showing since March 2011. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 to 330,000, the lowest since January 2008 when the 2007-2009 recession had just begun.
Together, the data suggest the economy entered the new year with some underlying momentum despite an ongoing political battle in Washington over fiscal policy.
“The economy is structurally doing a little bit better,” said Michael Strauss, an economist at Commonfund in Wilton, Connecticut.
January 25th, 2013 at 9:02 am
Buzz claims a tiny uptick manufacturing as Obama’s success? Give me a few trillion dollars (from future taxpayers) and I’ll make the USA economy grow like teenager on steroids. Heck, I’d have enough to make other 20 nations grow at the same time.
This administration is such a failure.