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SALT LAKE CITY -- President Barack Obama's speech to school children has been widely regarded as "motivating" and "positive."
Emotions have settled down a bit now that the speech is over, but the core feelings are still there: A lack of trust in the president. But is it just President Obama, or have Americans lost respect for the presidency itself?
Political pollster Dan Jones says a lot of people just don't trust President Obama on health care, the economy or the war in Afghanistan.
"I think people do respect the Presidency, but a lot of people don't respect President Obama. It could be his politics. It could be a racial issue. I don't know."
But the institution has suffered under scandals like Watergate.
People have got to know whether their president's a crook," President Richard Nixon said in November 1973. "Well, I'm not a crook."
Nixon later resigned the presidency.
President Bill Clinton's approval sunk to an all-time low during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, President Clinton said in January 1998.
Clinton later admitted he, in fact, did have an "inappropriate" relationship with Lewinsky and that he had lied to the American people.
More recently, Utah protesters took on President George W. Bush. Some thought Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, in joining them in protesting the war, disrespected not only President Bush, but the office itself.
It's a harsher tone these days, according to Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. He says personal attacks are now part of the discourse.
"There's become this new tactic that you don't just disagree with the policy, you attack everything surrounding that policy so that even if you lose the policy debate, you maybe can win on the others, which, unfortunately, can be the personal attacks," Jowers said.
He points out that people are taking sides in this country politically, through the media we choose, where we live and who our friends are. The result is a feeling that even the president is taking sides, rather than being a leader for all the people.
In Utah, President Obama's approval rating is about the same as a national Gallup poll. A Dan Jones poll shows 51 percent of Utahns give the president an unfavorable rating; 43 percent give him a favorable rating.
E-mail: rpiatt@ksl.com
