Grassley: Election wasn't referendum on Obama

Tuesday's election results were good news for Republicans, but shouldn't be seen as a referendum on President Barack Obama, Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday.

Republicans victories in governor races in New Jersey and Virginia are a signal that independents are losing their enthusiasm for some of the president's programs, the Iowa Republican said.

If there's a lesson for Grassley, who will be up for re-election in 2010, it's the need to pay attention to independent voters who were vital to Obama's 2008 win.

“They're scared and pulling away” from Obama, he said. “You haven't seen Republican numbers go up or Democratic numbers go down. But in the last three months you've seen a dramatic drop in independent support.”

To Grassley, the results weren't so much a referendum on any particular issue, such as health care, as a response to an accumulation of issues such as the federal deficit, the government takeover of General Motors and partial nationalization of banks and belief the stimulus is not working.

So to some degree, voters were expressing a concern that the president's programs either aren't working or have gone too far, Grassley said. He senses the public is beginning to doubt Obama and express fear about the country's future.

Recently, Grassley said, the two words he hears from Iowans urging him to fight or thanking him for what he's doing are, “I'm scared.”

“I never hear anything bad about Barack Obama,” he said. “You can read a lot into ‘I'm scared' as being anti-Obama, but nobody brings up the Obama name very often compared to the words ‘I'm scared.'”

So even if the election wasn't a referendum on Obama, there's reason for the president and Democrats to be concerned, Grassley said. He noted the president campaigned for both Gov. John Corzine, who lost his re-election bid in New Jersey, and unsuccessful Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds.

“It doesn't say people are against Barack Obama, but says it doesn't do much good to have him campaign for you,” he said.

-- James Q. Lynch, The Gazette