Why Florida is Obama's Worst State

My colleague Chris Good reports today on Atlantic Politics that Obama polls lower in Florida than any other state in Quinnipiac surveys. Obama's rating has dropped from 58 percent approval in June to 47 percent today. Is this surprising? Nope. Not at all.



Thoughts:

1) With all those sweaty, screamy town hall protests playing on repeat every afternoon on cable news, this is not exactly the pinnacle of Obama's popularity.

2) Florida has a lot of old people who are probably nervous that Obama really wants to euthanize them to save Medicare costs.

3) Florida's economy is absolutely dreadful, and people are likely to tether terrible economic times to poor political leadership.

Atlantic Business has covered Florida's dark and stormy summer from a couple angles, but it all starts with this: Florida was at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis throughout 2008 (there are more foreclosed homes in Florida that total houses in Boston) and today it's at the heart of the debt crisis. In terms of credit card debt, five of the top ten worst cities are in Florida. The average Orlando earner owes 23% of their income to the credit card companies, which is basically your autumn income.

Daniel Indiviglio also notes that so many Florida residents are fleeing that it's a net population loser for the first time since 1964. The state's reliance on tourism and real estate faces a perfect storm since we're now at the bottom of a credit crunch recession triggered by the explosion of the real estate bubble. How bad are things in Floridian real estate? Here's Dan:

Nearly one in four mortgages in Florida are delinquent or in foreclosure. That's astounding.

Indeed. What's not astounding is that a majority of Floridians don't approve of our political leadership.