On the heel of last Friday's announcement that he supports constructing a mosque near Ground Zero, President Barack Obama's approval rating has cratered - hitting a new low of 42 percent.
Obama's injection into the highly charged debate is another overreaching arm of his commitment to big government. But the issue is not whether there should or should not be a mosque, it is that the President has repeatedly ignored the will of the vast majority of the American public.
President Obama would have been wise to follow the lead of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs who, when pushed on the issue, during a White House press briefing replied:
"I think you've heard this administration and the last administration talk about the fact that we are not at war with a religion but with an idea that has corrupted a religion. But, that having been said, I'm not from here going to get involved in local decision-making like that."
Despite the CNN Research/Opinion poll released August 11, which found nearly 70% of Americans opposed the mosque's construction the President is still advocating for it to be built.
The President's willingness to disregard the will of the people is not new. Take for example the 2010 stimulus package which was ushered through Congress. A survey from CNN on January 24, 2010 showed that a majority of Americans opposed the economic stimulus program.
Consider Obama's recent override of Arizona's state-passed immigration legislation. Obama failed to lead immigration reform and then he sued the state to stop implementing a law passed by the state legislature and signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. Obama once more ignored the people. In fact, a Rasmussen Report shows, 70 percent of Arizonans and, according to CNN, 55 percent of all Americans favor the new measure.
Again in March 2010, President Obama forced healthcare legislation through a Democratic Congress despite overwhelming opposition. The latest Rasmussen survey shows that 60 percent at least somewhat favor repealing the law, including 50% who strongly favor repealing it.
Time and time again President Obama has ignored us, the people, whom he was elected to serve. His smug, ego-centric, assertiveness thrives off of the assumption that he - and the federal government - knows best. In November, he and his party may pay the price for his hubris. Perhaps, then, he will start paying attention to the people.
Davis is a Republican campaign strategist, former legislative and public affairs special assistant for Secretaries Rumsfeld and Gates at the Pentagon, communications staffer at the 2008 GOP convention in St. Paul, MN and an RNC communications veteran. He now serves as an associate at the Brunswick Group in Washington, DC.