Thread: Kim Jung Il / Obama Poll Numbers Skewed

MSM - Obama's 77% 'Approval' Due To 'Recovery'

Despite recent victories, new poll reveals challenges ahead for Obama

By Jane Sasseen jane Sasseen
Fri Jan 14, 4:50 am ET
Yahoo! News

President Barack Obama won kudos from the left and the right for striking the right tone amid the rancorous, often partisan debate that followed the tragedy in Tucson. His passionate eulogy Wednesday evening also helped him build on the political turn he began in December by fostering a series of compromises on tax cuts, gays in the military, and a nuclear-arms treaty.

Together, those moves have given him new momentum. According to a new ABC News/Yahoo! News poll, conducted before the Tucson tragedy, the American public overwhelmingly supported the shift in December toward compromise by Obama and the Congress, with 77 percent of Americans saying they approve. And a two-to-one majority — 62 percent versus 31 percent — credit Obama, rather than congressional Republicans, for the successful deal making. With Obama's job approval ratings hitting 50 percent in early January for the first time in seven months, Washington is now full of talk that he has started to turn the corner on his troubled presidency.

"The handwriting is on the wall for him to get re-elected," says Daniel Clifton, head of policy research for Strategas Research Partners.

But the ABC News/Yahoo! News poll also underscores challenges the president still faces if he wants to turn that renewed momentum into a second term. Improved tone or not, White House advisers and pundits alike believe that the 2012 election, as with virtually all elections, will be won or lost on the economy.

"The 'above-the-fray' tone of the memorial was an attempt to keep the turnaround going," says Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf. "Will it be successful? It's not clear. What will make it successful is a change in the economy."

On that score, Obama and his team still have plenty of work ahead convincing Americans that things are truly on the mend.

Even as the economy has begun to grow slowly again, and the situation for jobless workers is beginning to improve, only 47 percent of Americans surveyed in the ABC News/Yahoo! News poll say they are optimistic about the prospects for the U.S. economy. That's down 8 percentage points from April 2009, at the height of the recession, when some 55 percent of Americans told an ABC News/Washington Post survey that they were optimistic about the economic outlook. Today, pessimism is equally as prevalent, with 50 percent describing their outlook as pessimistic.

Why the increased gloom, even as the economy is finally getting better? In part, it is because of the long, slow nature of the recovery, says Taylor Griffin, a former aide to John McCain who is now a partner at Hamilton Place Strategies. More than two years into the longest downturn since the Great Depression, they have lost faith that a strong rebound is on the horizon. "(Obama's) got an uphill battle to climb. He's lost a lot of credibility on the economy," Griffin says.

The danger for Obama is that the pessimism seems to be particularly strong among several key demographic groups he will need to hold on to in order to win a second term.

White Americans — many of whom the president has long struggled to attract — were the least optimistic; only 38 percent of those responding in the poll felt positive about the economy, versus 76 percent of black Americans. And while the numbers showed a none-too-surprising partisan divide — 59 percent of Democrats were optimistic about the economy, while only 39 percent of Republicans agreed — independents fell on the gloomy side. Only 43 percent of that critical voting bloc, which backed Obama heavily in 2008 before swinging to the GOP in 2010, said they were optimistic about the economy.

"The Democrats are perceived as doing nothing on the economy. If that doesn't improve, independents will vote on that pessimism," Sheinkopf says. "The president had better pull a rabbit out of the hat on the economy and do whatever it takes, or it will be disastrous for Democrats across the country."

One sign that the rabbit may already be on the way: A strong majority of Americans report feeling positive about how they are doing personally, despite their gloom on the economy overall. Some 65 percent of Americans surveyed in the ABC/Yahoo! poll are optimistic about their own family's financial situation, while just 31 percent say they are pessimistic.

What accounts for the difference? In part, that's typical. People often view their own situations more favorably than they do the economy as a whole.

"People adjust their opinions on their personal finances in real time — they look at their bank accounts," says Griffin. "Their view on the larger economy tends to lag several months behind what's going on."

But he also argues that the individual optimism may reflect that the worst of the recession is over. Consumers have begun to spend a little more freely, and the fear of losing a job has receded. "We may continue to experience stagnant to slow growth," Griffin says. "But people increasingly feel that if they have a job, they will be OK financially."

The differing perspective also appears to be highly dependent on income, which could pose another challenge for the president as he gears up for re-election. While some 88 percent of those making over $100,000 were optimistic about their own family's finances, many of the middle- and lower-income Americans that he will need to hold on to felt considerably less certain about their prospects. Only 58 percent of those making less than $50,000 were optimistic about their financial situation.

To keep his turnaround on track, President Obama will have to get those numbers up — and that means getting stronger recovery and job growth under way.

"The economy is getting better, but it is still nowhere near where it needs to be," says Clifton of Strategas Research. "Income growth is what matters in presidential elections." The tax cuts and other stimulus passed in December will help, but if jobs haven't picked up more strongly by midyear, he expects further measures to come out of Washington. He also expects the president to continue to work with congressional Republicans to cut deals on spending and the budget.

"The things that need to get done will get done," he adds. "Obama benefits when he works directly with the Republicans; he looks presidential and gets bipartisan credibility."

Jane Sasseen is the editor-in-chief of politics and opinion at Yahoo! News.

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Obama Poll Numbers Skewed

Obama’s Approval Rating Among Voters Higher Since November

Friday, January 14, 2011 :: Staff infoZine

By Sara Dorn - A new poll finds that President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have risen since the November elections to nearly 50 percent.

Just under half, 48 percent, of 1,647 registered voters surveyed commended Obama’s performance. It’s the closest the president has gotten to a 50 percent approval rating since October 2009 and up from just after the November elections, when 44 percent approved.

“A number of things improved his ratings … the results of the November election, maybe what he did with Congress in the lame-duck session, and also nothing controversial has happened recently,â€

Kim Jong-Il's Approval Rating Plummets to 120%

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn5f0-y71tE