Poll: Obama Approval Rating Falls to All-Time Low - Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll

Poll: Obama Approval Rating Falls to All-Time Low

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Wednesday, 12 Mar 2014 07:04 AM
By Elliot Jager

President Barack Obama's popularity declined to an all-time low, with only 41 percent approving of his performance and 54 percent disapproving, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll.

The results contrast with a Bloomberg poll that showed Obama's popularity rebounding, with 48 percent approving of the president's performance, better than the 42 percent at the end of last year. The Bloomberg poll also found 42 percent of independents backing him, an improvement over the 35 percent in December.

The Journal/NBC poll portrays Americans as pessimistic about the economy, disenchanted with their lawmakers, and unhappy with the president's signature healthcare law, which 49 percent thought was a bad idea. Still, 55 percent of Democrats said Obamacare would not be the determining factor in deciding how to vote.

How these sentiments will impact the midterm elections is hard to know, though analysts say it will be a factor whether Democrats retain their Senate majority. While a narrow majority of Americans prefer that Republicans control Congress, 45 percent held negative views about the GOP. At the same time, just 34 percent said their own member of Congress deserved to be re-elected.

Obama's 54 percent disapproval rating is unchanged from his December results when Obamacare rollout glitches dominated the news. The poll showed his largest disapproval rating among Democrats, which now stands at 20 percent. Americans said that they would be disinclined to support candidates who had been endorsed by the president or were closely associated with his administration.

On the economy, 65 percent were pessimistic with 57 percent feeling the country remained in recession.

On specific issues, 58 percent said they'd vote for a candidate who wanted to raise the U.S. minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Though most wanted to cut federal spending and reduce the annual deficit, they did not want to touch Social Security and Medicare.

In foreign policy, Americans are disinclined to be the world's police. Republicans, Democrats, and independents tended to coalesce against the idea that the United States needed to reassert itself on the world stage.

The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted for the Journal/NBC by a team of Republican and Democratic pollsters by telephone, including cellphones, March 5-9 and has a margin of error of 3.1 points.


http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Oba.../12/id/559007/

Following Florida Loss, NBC/WSJ Poll Piles More Bad News on Democrats

Guy Benson | Mar 12, 2014

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Before we get to the poll, let's check in on MSNBC's Morning Joe as the gang grapples with last night's seismic event in Florida. The New York Timesreporter "plays the contrarian" by spinning a story about how Obamacare wasn't really determinative in the race, claiming that it's only a base-energizing issue. Host Joe Scarborough quickly knocks that analysis down, predicting that Obamacare will deliver punishing blows to Democrats in back-to-back midterm cycles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8MQDTctmU8

I'll re-up veteran political handicapper Stuart Rothenberg's piece from January to underscore why the FL-13 results are significant. This wasn't some random battle; the deck was stacked for Democrats, yet prevailing political fundamentals pushed the W into the Republican column. Which brings us to the NBC/WSJ poll -- a survey series that's consistently been the most forgiving of Obama and Democrats among its peers. Chuck Todd teased that some ominous notes were on the way last night, and he wasn't overselling it:

Barack Obama and his Democratic Party are facing difficult political headwinds less than eight months before November’s midterm elections, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Obama’s job-approval rating has dropped to a low point of 41 percent, never a good position for the party controlling the White House; By a 33 percent to 24 percent margin, Americans say their vote will be to signal opposition to the president rather than to signal support, though 41 percent say their vote will have nothing to do about Obama;

Forty-eight percent of voters say they’re less likely to vote for a candidate who’s a solid supporter of the Obama administration, versus 26 percent who say they’re more likely to vote for that candidate; And Republicans hold a one-point edge over Democrats on which party registered voters prefer to control Congress, 44 percent to 43 percent. While that’s within the poll’s margin of error, Republicans have traditionally fared well in elections when they’ve held a slight lead on this question.

That's a new nadir for Obama, mirroring an approval slide measured by most other polls. Ed Morrissey looks at some of the internals:

The right/wrong direction was at 41/53 just before the 2012 election, which Obama barely won; it’s now 26/65. The approval rating for Obama is worse now than it was when HHS laid an egg last October with ObamaCare. Obama’s approval on the economy slightly improved from December’s all-time low in this series of 39/58, but the 41/56 rating now is (a) a margin-of-error change, and (b) the second-worst of the series. His ratings on foreign policy have now dropped to an all-time low as well of 41/53, although it was 41/49 last August, during the Syrian “red line” debacle. This may be a better indicator of Obama’s fall from polling grace, too, since foreign policy had been a strong suit in his polling. August 2013's poll was the first time in his presidency that those ratings had gone negative....The problem for Obama and Democrats in this poll is that his personal likeability no longer keeps his overall numbers afloat. The “personal feelings” rating for Obama is now 41/44, with 15% neutral, in this poll.

Todd notes a data point that he says is the "best news" for Democrats:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...up2_normal.JPG Chuck Todd ✔ @chucktodd
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Best health care news for Dems in #nbcwsjpoll. A Dem candidate who favors FIXING law tops a GOP cand who favors repeal, 48-47. #nbcwsjpoll
12:11 AM - 12 Mar 2014

Three problems with that argument: First, this question essentially produces a tie. Democrats have claimed the repeal crowd is a relatively small minority. Second, some of the biggest Obamacare "fixes" (and they're just that -- big -- not tweaks) that Americans want would destroy the underpinnings of the entire law. Third, Democrats just test drove the "fix it" message in Florida. And lost. It's a long way to November. There should be no counting of chickens on the Right. But the momentum and political winds are hard to ignore.


http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybens...eaves-n1807724