Issues Close In On Obama

Now that he's in charge, words like "economy," "crisis," "jobs," "bank," "trillion," and "tax" are associated more closely with President Obama in online posts and discussion forums, according to a study released today by Nielsen.

This all makes sense, given that Obama is now governing on these issues, rather than avoiding their pointed discussion during his transitional period, careful not to overassert himself above President Bush's authority by contradicting the president outright in the press. But it's a nice visual representation of how these issues are closing in on him, sort of like he's playing Asteroids, and they're the asteroids (even if that analogy sounds bleak/futuristic). Plus they're fun to look at.

Charts after the jump.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/04/issues-close-in-on-obama/16857/