Neverthenless, as a recent article in VOA points out on post-Orange Revolution politics, whatever goodwill generated from those events has faded from the minds of voters (and politicians)
But Antonenko and other experts, such as Robert Legvold of Columbia University, say this pluralism brought about bitter political fights between President Yushchenko and his former "Orange Revolution" ally, now Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko - squabbling that continues to this day.
"And that has produced not only a stalemate, political stalemate and an inability to make progress between the executive branch and the parliament, but a kind of poisonous, petty political competition among leaders that has alienated the public at large, which is for the most part very unsatisfied with all of the major political leaders in Ukraine. And that makes it very difficult for the government, even if it were to get its act together, to mobilize the population behind it," Legvold said.The article later points out how the economic recession in Ukraine has further damaged the president's approval ratings, sending it into the low single digits. Tymoshenko's ratings have also suffered , while Yanukovych has watched from the wings has the two have grappled with the problems spawned by the crisis.
David Marples, with the University of Alberta, says given all of Ukraine's problems, Mr. Yushchenko's approval rating is at an all time low. But that hasn't prevented him from becoming a candidate in January's presidential election. "His popularity is probably the lowest of any politician in Europe right now at around two percent. And it almost seems like he's oblivious to the problems that have been created - he's not addressing them. I read a speech of his quite recently where he was summarizing his years in office in order to justify running again, which of course he has decided to do. And he claimed that he had a good record and that he should be proud of his record. And I really wondered what there is to be proud of? Because in every particular area, it seems to have been a failure. And probably even more importantly, perceived as a failure by the population," he said.
The president seems to be in terminal self-denial, yet insists on behaving as if the the last five years have been rosy. Why would he consider Tymoshenko's suggestion, as noted in the excerpt above, he's acting like he's been a success not a failure.
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