The clay-footed, silver-tongued orator

[Quote] Has President Barack Obama lost his ability to inspire hope?

Shepard Fairey, the artist whose iconic, Warhol-style "Hope" poster became one of the most enduring images of the 2008 presidential campaign, seems to think so.

In an interview appearing in this month's Angelino magazine, Fairey says the president he helped elect is "not pushing hard enough."

"I had a lot of hope for Obama, but it's not panning out," he says.

Fairey was speaking in the context of a new exhibit called "May Day" that he put on this spring in New York that featured Washington gridlock as a key theme. "Washington is too intertwined with corporate America," the artist argues.

But the question of Obama's hopefulness quotient remains an important political one, however fickle voters can be when it comes to their emotional support for a candidate or elected leader.

Congress' passage of health care reform in March seemed to restore momentum to a presidency that had appeared to be on the rocks when that signature issue was stalling months earlier. The impetus seemed to pick up in the weeks that followed, as Democrats trumped Republicans in the effort to enact changes to regulation of Wall Street and the banks.

But then the BP oil spill hit the Gulf of Mexico, a problem that seemed to get worse as weeks went by without a company or government solution. It fouled the surrounding waters and shoreline, and the can-do claims of the Obama administration as well.

Obama's popularity ratings at the end of May fell to a new low, according to the weekly polling data of Gallup.

Has President Barack Obama lost his ability to inspire hope?

Shepard Fairey, the artist whose iconic, Warhol-style "Hope" poster became one of the most enduring images of the 2008 presidential campaign, seems to think so.

In an interview appearing in this month's Angelino magazine, Fairey says the president he helped elect is "not pushing hard enough."

"I had a lot of hope for Obama, but it's not panning out," he says.

Fairey was speaking in the context of a new exhibit called "May Day" that he put on this spring in New York that featured Washington gridlock as a key theme. "Washington is too intertwined with corporate America," the artist argues.

But the question of Obama's hopefulness quotient remains an important political one, however fickle voters can be when it comes to their emotional support for a candidate or elected leader.

Congress' passage of health care reform in March seemed to restore momentum to a presidency that had appeared to be on the rocks when that signature issue was stalling months earlier. The impetus seemed to pick up in the weeks that followed, as Democrats trumped Republicans in the effort to enact changes to regulation of Wall Street and the banks.

But then the BP oil spill hit the Gulf of Mexico, a problem that seemed to get worse as weeks went by without a company or government solution. It fouled the surrounding waters and shoreline, and the can-do claims of the Obama administration as well.

Obama's popularity ratings at the end of May fell to a new low, according to the weekly polling data of Gallup.

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