Alex Roarty: Poll: Obama’s Job Approval Still Underwater

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/poll-obama-s-job-approval-still-underwater-20111123

Survey also finds Occupy Wall Street slightly more unpopular than tea party.

By Alex Roarty

Updated: November 23, 2011 | 6:45 a.m.
November 23, 2011 | 6:00 a.m.

A new Quinnipiac Poll released on Wednesday underscores the deep challenges facing President Obama next year, particularly when it comes to the groups he needs to win over for his reelection.

Only 44 percent of registered voters approve of Obama’s performance, while half of the country disapproves of his performance, according to the survey. His job-approval rating is only at 42 percent among independents.

White voters continue to view Obama negatively -- just 37 percent back the job he has done as president, the poll found, including only 34 percent of blue-collar whites. The numbers are better among whites with a college degree –- 42 percent support Obama –- but that’s still a notable drop-off from the support he received in 2008. Then, 47 percent of whites with a college degree voted for Obama, according to exit polling.

Obama is also suffering a significant dropoff in support among Hispanics: 56 percent approve of the president’s performance. He won 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008. The contest for the Latino vote, which is concentrated in battleground states like Colorado and Nevada, will be pivotal.

Other numbers in the survey paint a similarly challenging picture for Obama. Only 45 percent of voters think he deserves reelection; 48 percent think he doesn’t. He has a dismal 33 percent approval rating on the economy.

Most damaging, 81 percent of respondents say they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the country’s direction – including 50 percent who say they are very dissatisfied. That “right track, wrong track” question has historically been a key indicator of a president’s reelection chances.

The poll also showed that a plurality of voters support overturning Obama’s health care law, whether through congressional or judicial action. Forty-seven percent want lawmakers to repeal the law (41 percent don’t), while 48 percent want the Supreme Court to overturn it (40 percent don’t). The Supreme Court is slated to review the law next year.

Congressional Democrats hold a narrow advantage on the generic ballot, 40 percent to 36 percent over Republicans. Among independents, Democrats hold a 33 percent to 31 percent lead.

But the public has soured on the movement some Democratic leaders have tried to associate itself with, Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street is now viewed favorably by only 29 percent of voters, the same percentage that favors the tea party. But the OWS unfavorable rating is at 44 percent in the Quinnipiac Poll, compared with a 42 percent unfavorable rating for the tea party.

Quinnipiac conducted the poll from Nov. 14 to Nov. 20, surveying 2,552 registered voters on landlines and cell phones. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 1.9 percent.

Lesley Clark: Poll: Glimmer of hope on economy, Obama's handling of it

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/21/130964/poll-glimmer-of-hope-on-economy.html#ixzz1f8S1m66x

By Lesley Clark | McClatchy Newspapers
Monday, November 21, 2011

WASHINGTON — A nearly 2-1 majority of voters think that President Barack Obama inherited, rather than caused, today's slumping economy, and more Americans trust him to create jobs than they do the Republicans in Congress, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

Half of U.S. adults think that Obama's push to create jobs will do more good than harm, while 40 percent say the opposite. The president has spent the fall prodding Congress to pass his $447 billion job-creation package, and he signed legislation Monday to give tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed veterans.

The Nov. 8-10 survey of 1,026 adults, including 872 registered voters, found a populace that's still glum about the nation's economic outlook: Nearly three out of four think the country is in a recession — although the official scorekeeper of these things, the National Bureau of Economic Research, says the recession ended in 2009 — and 53 percent think that "the worst is yet to come," while 41 percent think the worst is behind us.

The number who think the country is in a recession had declined slightly since July, and those who think that the worst is "yet to come" declined significantly since August, when 68 percent of Americans said that was what they thought.

"We're generally seeing some minor or slight improvement in some of the measures," Marist poll director Lee Miringoff said. "It's no big flip, no big turnaround, but perhaps an inkling that things are starting to improve."

Likewise, there's been little movement in expectations for personal family finances. Only 22 percent expect them to get better in the coming year, while 59 percent expect them to "stay about the same." In September the comparable figures were 28 percent and 55 percent.

The poll found that 60 percent of registered voters think that Obama inherited the current economic conditions — a finding that's held fairly steady for two years — while 32 percent blame his policies. The findings reflect a partisan split: Fifty-nine percent of Republicans said they thought the current economic conditions were mostly a result of the president's policies, while just 12 percent of Democrats blamed Obama. Sixty-two percent of independents said the president inherited the current economy.

The public is more narrowly divided over whom to trust with creating jobs: Forty-six percent said Obama and 42 percent said Republicans in Congress. Independents sided with the president by 44 percent to 41 percent for congressional Republicans. The rest were unsure.

As Obama takes his push for the jobs package to New Hampshire on Tuesday, the survey found that 50 percent think that the package will do more good than harm; 40 percent think it will do more harm than good. Those ages 18 to 29 are especially impressed with the plan: Sixty-nine percent said it would do more good than harm. Positive ratings fell with age groups, with those 60 and over divided evenly, 45-45 percent.

"This is nothing to write home about for Obama, but it's a slight modification on what has been some pretty dire news on the economic front for some time," Miringoff said.

The poll's error margin is plus or minus 3 percentage points overall, and 3.5 percentage points for registered voters.