Blog:Poll Finds Edge for Obama Over G.O.P. Among the Public
At a time of deepening political disaffection and intensified distress about the economy, President Obama enjoys an edge over Republicans in the battle for public support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
While the president is showing signs of vulnerability on his handling of the economy — a majority say he has yet to offer a clear plan for creating mbt sale jobs — Americans blame former President George W. Bush, Wall Street and Congress much more than they do Mr. Obama for the nation’s economic problems and the budget deficit, the poll found.
They credit Mr. Obama more than Republicans with making an effort at bipartisanship, and they back the White House’s policies on a variety of disputed issues, from allowing gays to serve openly in the military to repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
The poll suggests that both parties face a toxic environment as the prepare to face voters in November. Public disapproval of Congress is at an historically high level, and huge numbers of Americans think Congress is beholden to special interests. Fewer than one in ten Americans say members of Congress deserve reelection.
As the party in power, Democrats face a particular risk from any wave of voter discontent; unfavorable views of the Democratic party are as high as they been since the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, though Republicans continue to register an even worse showing on that measure. The percentage of Americans who approve of Mr. Obama’s job performance, at 46 percent, is as low as it has been since he took office ghd straighteners.
Still, the poll suggests that Mr. Obama and his party have an opportunity to deflect the anger and anxiety if they can frame the election not as a referendum on the president and his party, but as a choice between them and a Republican approach that is far less popular with Americans and yielded results under Mr. Bush that much of the nation still blames for the country’s woes. That is what the White House has been attempting to do since the beginning of the year.
For all the erosion in support for Mr. Obama, Americans say Mr. Obama better understands their needs and problems and has made more of an effort to be bipartisan than Congressional Republicans, the poll found Mbt.
“It feels like an attempt to sabotage the majority and to regain control of power rather than working on a compromise that says, ‘let’s see what we have to do to get things straightened out,”’ John Smith, a Republican from Greenville, S.C., said in an interview after participating in the poll.
Americans say that Mr. Obama is far less likely to favor special interests over the American people than Congress. Mr. Obama and his party continues to have an edge over Republicans on which party would do better in dealing with health care and job creation. But Republicans have gained an edge on handling of the economy.
The public has lost much of its enthusiasm for health care reform, and how Mr. Obama has managed it. He gets low marks for his handling of the deficit and the economy and the deficit. And the fact that 56 percent of think that Mr. Obama doesn’t have a plan to create jobs is a distressing bit of news for a White House that in recent weeks had made an intensive effort to present Mr. Obama as concerned with the economy.
But the public backs other elements of Mr. Obama’s agenda. By a margin of two-to-one, Americans support an end to tax cuts for the wealthy put in place under Mr. Bush, and Americans favor allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the military, although support for the policy varies with the wording of the MBT Shoe question.
The boisterous Tea Party movement that has grown out of the strain of discontent so far commands relatively little public support; 18 percent of respondents said they considered themselves supporters of the movement, while 55 percent said they had heard little or nothing about it.
The level of dissatisfaction with both political parties– and the fact that 56 percent of Americans in the poll want a smaller government– suggests that the Tea Party movement has opportunity to draw more support. The poll found that 51 percent of Americans now view the Democratic Party unfavorably, nearly matching the highest in the history of the Times/CBS News poll. At the same time, 57 percent have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.
The nationwide telephone poll of 1,084 adults was taken from Feb. 5 to Feb. 10, and has a margin of sampling error of plus ghd hair straighteners or minus three percentage points for all adults.
