NBC/WSJ poll: Obama ends year on low note
By Mark Murray, Senior Political Editor, NBC News
A year that began with President Barack Obama riding high after his re-election victory is ending with him in the biggest hole of his presidency.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that more Americans disapprove of the president's job performance than ever before; half say they’re either disappointed or dissatisfied with his presidency and 54 percent believe he’s facing a long-term setback.
Click here to read more
Majority Disagree With Obama’s View on Role of Government
Business
The Two Most Notable Moments From Wednesday’s Sebelius Hearing Include Shouting and ‘Freedom’
Dec. 11, 2013 4:02pm
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appeared before Congress Wednesday to testify on the failed implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
And although Wednesday’s House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing was mostly a retread of previously discussed points on the botched Obamacare rollout, there were two notable moments involving lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Click here to read more...
Why Is the Obama Administration Courting Hezbollah?
Keep up the good work Mr President!
Who was leading then?
Botched ACA Rollout Hammers Obama; Job Disapproval Reaches a Career High
.
Disapproval Rating for President Obama at Record High
By Gary Langer 4 hours ago
Barack Obama has been hammered by the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act, with disapproval of his job performance reaching a career high, opposition to the new healthcare law up sharply and evidence of potential fallout in the midterm elections a year off.
Other ratings of the president's performance have tumbled as well. He's at career lows for being a strong leader, understanding the problems of average Americans and being honest and trustworthy - numerically under water on each of these (a first for the latter two). His rating for strong leadership is down by 15 points this year and a vast 31 points below its peak shortly after he took office. In a new gauge, just 41 percent rate him as a good manager; 56 percent think not.
This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that the president's personal image has suffered alongside his professional ratings. Fewer than half, 46 percent, see him favorably overall, down 14 points this year to the fewest of his presidency. Fifty-two percent now view him unfavorably, a new high and a majority for the first time since he took office. It may matter: Personal popularity can provide a president with cushioning when the going gets rough. Losing it leaves the president more vulnerable.
ACA - Skepticism about the Affordable Care Act looks to be the driving force in Obama's troubles. Americans by nearly 2-1, 63-33 percent, disapprove of his handling of implementation of the new health care law. And the public by 57-40 percent now opposes the law overall, its most negative rating to date, with opposition up by 8 points in the past month alone.
Intensity of sentiment is running against the law and the president alike. At 46 percent, "strong" opposition to the ACA - a new high - outpaces strong support by a record 19 points. In terms of Obama's job performance overall, strong critics outnumber strong approvers by 2-1, 44-22 percent, with strong disapproval at another career high. He'd run evenly on strong sentiment as recently as last May.
Fifty-six percent describe the cancellation of health insurance policies that are deemed substandard under the law as "mismanagement" rather than a normal startup problem. Given the breakdown of the healthcare.gov website, a broad 71 percent favor postponing the individual mandate requiring nearly all Americans to have coverage. And the mandate's still widely unpopular in any case; 65 percent of Americans oppose it - a majority of them, strongly. Notably, even among those who support the individual mandate. 55 percent favor delaying it.
The poll produces evidence that the ACA could spell trouble for Democrats in the 2014 midterm elections. Americans by a 16-point margin, 37-21 percent, are more likely to oppose than to support a candidate for Congress who favors Obamacare. That's opened up from an even score in July 2012. (Using an intensity rating - those who are "much" more or less likely to support a candidate who backs the ACA - it's still 15 points negative, vs. 2 points last year.)
The health care law looks most politically hazardous in the states that backed Mitt Romney in 2012; there Americans by 3-1, 46-15 percent, say they're more inclined to oppose than to support a candidate who favors the law. But the ACA's no help even in the blue states that backed Obama; while the division is far closer, 31 percent in those states are inclined to oppose an ACA-linked candidate, vs. 25 percent who'd be more apt to support one.
For all the ACA's troubles, Americans divide evenly, 49-49 percent, on whether the law simply is unworkable or the government can recover and implement it successfully. While its individual mandate is widely opposed, 58 percent support its requirement that companies with 50 or more employees provide coverage or pay a fine. And fewer than half - though a still-troubling 44 percent - think Obama "intentionally misled" the public when he said that people who liked their policies could keep them. (For comparison, there were four occasions in 2005-6 when majorities said George W. Bush had "intentionally misled" the American public on Iraq.)
TURN - The results overall represent a sharp turnaround in fortune for Obama and his party, which just a month ago were ascendant over the Republicans in views of the budget dispute that led to a partial government shutdown. Today 45 percent of Americans call Obama "too liberal," matching the high, and 46 percent say the same about the Democratic Party. And perhaps adding insult to injury, registered voters divide numerically in Mitt Romney's favor, 49-45 percent, if they had a mulligan for the 2012 presidential election. While the difference between the two is within the poll's error margin, Obama's support is 6 points below his actual showing a year ago.
Indeed, even with the stock market soaring and GDP and the jobs market gaining ground, disenchantment with Obama has damaged his most critical issue-specific approval rating, for handling the economy. Fifty-seven percent disapprove, up by 9 points since May and the most since March 2012.
Partisanship on all this is profound: Eighty-four percent of Democrats approve of Obama's job performance overall, while a mere 8 percent of Republicans agree - a gap that matches the widest of Obama's presidency.
Key, though, are views among political independents - and in this group just 33 percent now approve of Obama's work in office, while 63 percent disapprove. That's a career low for Obama among independents, down 21 points since January and 10 points in just the past month.
Similarly showing damage in the center, Obama's dropped by 17 points in approval among moderates since January, to 46 percent, compared with his losses among conservatives and Republicans (down 12 and 9 points, respectively, albeit to a far lower level).
At the same time, there's also one core support group in which Obama is hurting - young adults, a group he won by an historic margin in 2008, and strongly again in 2012. The president's overall approval rating has lost 23 points among adults age 18 to 29 since January, his steepest loss in any group. Their view that the country's headed in the wrong direction has gained 20 points since May. And in just the past month, opposition to the health care law has jumped by 16 points among under-30s, with strong opposition up by 21 points.
For all this, about as many Americans call both the Republican Party and the Tea Party political movement "too conservative" - 43 and 40 percent, respectively - as call Obama and the Democrats too liberal. And the number who say the Tea Party has too much influence over the GOP has nearly doubled, from 23 percent in spring 2010 to 43 percent now. That suggests the Republicans haven't left the doghouse so much as Obama and the Democrats, courtesy of the troubled start of the new health care law, have joined them in it.
METHODOLOGY - This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone Nov. 14-17, 2013, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,006 adults, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including design effect. Partisan divisions are 31-24-37 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by Abt-SRBI of New York, N.Y.
Why Obama will be most hated president in US history ever to get re-elected
1 of 1
President Obama
Obama's journey to the highest office in the land, has all the elements of a Hollywood movie plot. From his childhood to his election to the Senate, to defeating a vastly more experienced opponent and becoming president, Obama seemingly beat all odds. Add that to the fact that he is the first African-American to be elected to the office in U.S. history and you have everything to make a great screenplay. However, without all of the dramatic connotations, Obama's meteoric rise to fame takes on another form.
Let us take another look at the circumstances surrounding the election of Barack Obama.
At the time, America was in the throes of one of the worst economic meltdowns in history and George Bush 2.0 was on his second term in office. The country was embroiled in two wars and the current administration was being lambasted because of its decidedly secretive behavior. The Bush administration had already committed the nation to a perpetual state of conflict dubbed "The War on Terror" with no end in sight. Bush said that America would hunt down and take out those deemed by the U.S. as terrorists wherever they were--even if it meant invading another sovereign nation.
With most of the country still reeling from the 9/11 attacks, many supported this doctrine; not even realizing that Bush had effectively unofficially declared war on the entire world. Thus began the era of secret CIA interrogation camps, kidnapping, torture, and imprisonment of thousands of Muslims throughout the world... all in the name of national security. A fast-sinking economy along with record-high fuel prices, also did nothing to endear Bush or the GOP with the masses. The first decade of the new millennium was truly filled with many discontented souls. Then came election time... enter, Barack "Yes We Can" Obama.
Obama entered the fray squeaky-clean. Not since the the likes of "Honest Abe" Lincoln and George "I Cannot Tell a Lie" Washington, had there been a candidate with as much integrity. Even in this modern age of instant background checks, no one could tarnish Obama's shiny suit of armor. There were no stories of illicit business deals, marital infidelity, or any of the other things the muckrakers always seem to dig up on political figures. Then came the citizenship controversy. If nothing could impeach his perceived integrity, then why not impeach the man altogether?
And now let us move on to the election itself. Here we see Obama at first opposing none other than Hillary, the wife of, Bill "I did not inhale" Clinton for the Dem nomination. Since Mrs. Clinton has no doubt at some point influenced presidential policy due to being a president's wife for eight years, it seemed appropriate that she faced the upstart Obama for the shot at the Oval Office. Of course it also didn't hurt that Clinton had demonstrated her own political savvy by getting herself elected to the Senate. Unfortunately for Clinton and fortunately for Obama, there was a large demographic that apparently was not yet ready to see a woman in a bid for this nation's highest office.
Now let us move across the aisle to the opposition. Here we have Sen. John "A Leader You Can Believe In etc." McCain; experienced statesman, war hero, and self-proclaimed champion of freedom, justice, and the American way. OK well maybe that last part was Superman but anyway, in terms of sheer political experience, McCain was a vastly superior opponent. Then in a move that will likely leave pundits scratching their heads for the next century or so, McCain chooses Sarah "I Was Once A Beauty Queen" Palin as his running mate. Not saying that Palin was a bad person but she may have just had a bit too much drama in her life for the American people to choose as a VP and possible successor to the presidency. It also didn't help matters that Palin's teenaged daughter became pregnant out of wedlock, which was a not-so-conservative thing to do.
Although not trying to take anything away from Obama's solid achievements, we also begin to see there were other things at work which lead to his election. A terrible economy, along with war and other issues pushed voters in the seemingly only logical direction and so, Obama became president.
Nearly four years later, the public seems almost as disillusioned with Obama as they were with Bush 2.0, and in many ways rightfully so. Failed socio-economic policies along with broken promises have led to the disenchantment of many voters.
As with virtually every U.S. president there are those who hate Obama. Some may hate him for his failed policies, others because he is a Democrat. Sadly however, there are those who hate him simply because he is African-American; probably making him the most hated president in the nation's history. And let us not forget the other half of this "dynamic duo", Joe "Put ya'll all back in chains" Biden, whose off the cuff remarks have only served to infuriate large sections of the masses.
Now we fast-forward to the present election. Once again we have the unhappy masses and a damaged economy. One would think this would be the time for the GOP to seize the moment and what do they do? Why nominate Mitt "I Like Special Interests and Big Government" Romney of course. Once again they have engaged in the same self-sabotaging tactics that their party has become known for. Romney's selection of Paul "The Body" Ryan is almost as baffling as McCain's selection in the previous election.
Maybe the GOP secretly wants Obama to win again. Maybe it's part of a long-term strategy by the GOP to let this country sink so far into the ground, that we will never elect another Democrat again. Or, maybe they are as out of touch as the liberals say they are. Whatever the case may be, we may as well prepare for another four years of "Change we can believe in". After all, better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
No comments:
Post a Comment