By Dave Andrusko
Polls showing that huge drops in President Obama’s job approval and personal popularity accompanied by declining public confidence in his honesty and competency are coming fast and furious. NRL News Today has talked about many of them, including a post yesterday (“President Obama’s approval rating lowest ever in latest McClatchy-Marist poll”).
We add a look at “NBC/WSJ poll: Obama ends year on low note” for several reasons, including some of the questions the survey asks that get beyond the obvious disastrous first tier of numbers.
Mark Murray begins his analysis with “A year that began with President Barack Obama riding high after his re-election victory is ending with him in the biggest hole of his presidency.”
The number that gets the most attention, understandably, is that 54% disapprove of the job Mr. Obama is doing as President, the largest ever and up three points from the last NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.
Personal favorability? For the second straight survey more negatives (46%) than positives (42%).
In what may be a particularly ominous response, the 1,000 adults were asked what term best described their feeling about Obama’s presidency. A total of 50% said they were either dissatisfied (28%) or disappointed (22%). That compares with an anemic 28% who said they were proud (12%) or satisfied (16%).
In the foreground of explanations is ObamaCare. (58% said it was the issue that most shaped their opinion of the President.) Exactly one half said it was a bad idea (the highest since the NBC/WSJ poll began asking this question) to 34% who said the “Affordable Care Act” was a good idea. Asked in a different manner, 54% said ObamaCare was having a negative impact so far to only 24% who believed it had had a positive impact.
The poll was trolling for results that would blame Republicans for the disastrous roll-out of HealthCare.gov. Its agenda was so transparent it is almost laughable. The lengthy question read like this:
“Which of these two bothers you more about the handling of the new health care law…”
“The Obama administration for problems with the web site and people losing their health plans when Obama promised that everyone could keep their plans”
Or
“Republicans for continuing to try and repeal the law that was PASSED BY CONGRESS AND UNHELD BY THE SUPREME COURT INSTEAD OF TRYING TO FIND WAYS TO MAKE THE LAW WORK BETTER” (my capitalization).
Even with that loaded a presentation, 51% blamed the President to 43% who blamed Republicans. (That Republicans might be opposing ObamaCare out of principle was not an alternative explanation option.)
Finally, there is this paragraph from Murray which summarizes the President’s plummeting numbers on three key presidential attributes:
“Just 28 percent give the president high grades for being able to achieve his goals (down 16 points from January); only 37 percent give him high marks for being honest and straightforward (down 5 points from June); and 44 percent give him high marks for being able to handle a crisis (down another 5 points since June).”