… To the extent that Google searches are a reasonable proxy for public interest, what we find, not surprisingly, is that Syria was supplanted in the public interest by – among other things – the government shutdown and issues related to healthcare. … This is consistent with the idea of a short attention span to political issues, and that this short attention span is exacerbated by issues related to foreign policy, especially “non-event” issues like the decision not to bomb Syria. …
Yes, Obama’s job approval have declined and his disapproval ratings have gone up since the Syria crisis at the end of the summer. So is it possible that the conventional wisdom that Obama could not recover from is Syria correct? Of course it is, and there is nothing in this figure that would contradict the claim that Obama “can’t recover” from events in early September 2013. However, two other patterns are undeniable. CONT.
Joshua Tucker (NYU), The Monkey Cage