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CNN reports:
Just four in ten Americans say they approve of the job President Barack Obama’s doing on the economy, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national survey. The 40 percent who give Obama a thumbs up is a new low for the president in CNN polling.
The survey indicates that 59 percent of the public disapproves of how the president’s handling the economy.
According to the survey, 93 percent of Republicans say they disapprove of how the president’s dealing with the economy, with 72 percent of Democrats saying they approve of the job Obama’s doing on the issue. Two-thirds of independents questioned say they disapprove, with 32 percent giving the president a positive grade.
“There is also a big gender gap on that question,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Some 45 percent of women and only 34 of men approving of Obama’s track record on the economy.”
Click here to read more.
Oldskool // Sep 5, 2010 at 8:50 pm
If the White House and the rest of Dems ever had a collective narrative, it should be on a milk carton by now. It’s sad how adrift they appear.
BUT, they’re downright relentless about always seeming to be adrift so they deserve big points for consistency.
Slide // Sep 6, 2010 at 7:36 am
When the economy is in such poor shape it is no wonder that Obama’s numbers on the economy would slide. It’s a hard argument to make that had Obama not done some of the things he had done that things would be worse. Doesn’t quite work on a bumper sticker. But in looking at the polling numbers I did find this interesting:
Obama’s Overall Approval Ratings – Latest Polls
CNN 50% up 3% from last poll
FOX 46% up 3% from last poll
Newsweek 47% down 1% from last poll
CBS 48% up 4% from last poll
Gallup 45% up 2% from last poll
http://www.pollingreport.com/obama_job.htm
Now, one might expect that you would see one article somewhere saying that there appears to be a slight uptick in Obama’s ratings wouldn’t you? But that is not the narrative that the pundits have settled on. The narrative is of course that Obama’s poll numbers are dropping so we get articles like the one above.
Now I am not suggesting that the Democrats aren’t in huge trouble. The country is unhappy and they usually take it out on the party in power. The Dems also took a lot of districts that normally would have gone Republican were it not for the unpopularity of Bush, but this narrative about Obam’s poll numbers crumbling is just not justified by the facts. Lets not forget that Bush’s approval ratings were in the 25 – 30% range.
Oldskool // Sep 6, 2010 at 8:58 am
Krugman puts in proper perspective. He’s been right all along and unfortunately ignored all along:
“President Obama’s economists promised not to repeat the mistakes of 1937, when F.D.R. pulled back fiscal stimulus too soon. But by making his program too small and too short-lived, Mr. Obama did just that: the stimulus raised growth while it lasted, but it made only a small dent in unemployment — and now it’s fading out.
And just as some of us feared, the inadequacy of the administration’s initial economic plan has landed it — and the nation — in a political trap. More stimulus is desperately needed, but in the public’s eyes the failure of the initial program to deliver a convincing recovery has discredited government action to create jobs.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/opinion/06krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Oldskool // Sep 6, 2010 at 10:59 am
Of course Obama had to deal with the 60 vote majority rule while FDR didn’t so his options were limited. And so here we are with (R)s set to take over Congress, the very guys who want gubmint hands off of everything.
(R)s should adopt a new slogan, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”.
armstp // Sep 6, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Slide,
Actually Obama^s poll numbers, as you point out, are quite good. He has been polling in the high 40s to 50 for about the last year. His approval ratings have really not moved much in the last year, despite all the horseshit being thrown at him and a near 10% unemployment. In addition, he won the popular vote by 53%, so polling close to 50% is pretty good, meaning he has only lost a few people that voted for him. In addition, at this point in his presidency he is still polling considerably higher than both Clinton and Reagan, who both were at about 41% at this point in their presidencies.
I suspect his numbers will continue to go up from here, particularly with the speech he gave today in Milwaukee and as the economy continues to improve.
Actually, the economy is not in that bad shape. It continues to grow, with economist consensus GDP forecasts at 3.0% for 2010, despite the recent slow down. In the four quarters after this recession the economy has grown faster than the four quarters after the previous two recessions. Sure the lagging indicator of jobs is not great, but we do continue to add private sector jobs with nearly 750,000 added so far in 2010. There are plenty of other signs that things are getting better. End of the day the recovery is slow, as would be expected after the biggest recession since the great depression. However, there are few signs of any real double dip. However, there are a lot of people out there trying to talk down the economy for political reasons.