Barack Obama’s re-election bid is going to be an uphill battle. While unemployment hovers at nine percent in the worst economic climate in decades, even Arianna Huffington may be deserting him.
New York Magazine reports that HuffPo’s namesake “says now that she is disappointed in Obama and could even see herself voting Republican in the next presidential election.”
Huffington adds: “To me the issues are more important than the party.”
She later walked her statement back — sort of — by tweeting, “I never said I was going to vote for a GOP prez in 2012. A theoretical Republican like Teddy Roosevelt, sure, but Cain, Perry Romney? Never!”
Still, though, she’s no Obama fan.
On Sunday night Chris Matthews, another former Obama enthusiast, made headlines when he told Alex Witt on MSNBC that “there’s nothing to root for… What’s he going to do in his second term, more of this? Is this it? Is this as good as it gets?”
Oprah Winfrey, who held fundraisers for the president in 2008, has also announced she will not be publicly backing Obama this time.
Rapper Jay-Z said earlier this year that criticisms of Obama are fair. “Numbers don’t lie,” he said. “[I]t’s fucked up out there. Unemployment is still high.”
Other former Obama loyalists who have aired criticisms include Matt Damon, Janeane Garofalo and Maxine Waters.