Only 36% of Likely Mass. Voters Support Obamacare; Only 48% Approve of Job Obama's Doing

Saturday, January 16, 2010
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief

(CNSNews.com) - Only 36 percent of the Massachusetts residents who say they are likely to vote in the special U.S. Senate election that will take place in that state on Tuesday say they support the national health-care plan being pushed by President Barack Obama and only 48 percent say they approve of the job Obama is doing as president.

A 51-percent majority of those likely to vote in Tuesday's special election say they oppose Obama's health-care plan.

The results are from a poll of 500 likely voters interviewed Jan. 11-13 by the Suffolk University Political Research Center for the WHDH Channel 7News/Suffolk University poll. The same poll said that those who said they were likely to vote in Tuesday's election favored Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown over Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, 50 percent to 46 percent. Brown and Coakley are seeking the U.S. Senate seat formerly occupied by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

President Obama will appear with Coakley at a campaign event at Northeastern University in Boston on Sunday. Obama decided to make the campaign trip even as the 7News/Suffolk University poll showed that a majority of Massachusetts voters oppose his health-care plan and less than a majority approve of the job he is doing as president.

In addition to asking likely Massachusetts voters whether they intended to vote for Brown or Coakley, the poll asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president?â€