Obama Approval Rating: The Results May Surprise You
The latest Obama approval rating suggests that hope and change has lost its luster, especially among independent voters.
According to a new CBS News/New York Times poll, Barack Obama’s approval rating is 41 percent, five percent lower than January 2014. Nearly 60 percent of those polled expressed disappointment with the president and his leadership. For independents or so-called swing voters, some 40 percent indicated disappointment with the Obama presidency. On the handling of the economy, the president received only 38 percent approval; foreign policy clocked in only marginally better at 39 percent.
A recent poll compiled by The Economist and YouGov.com suggested some buyers (or voters) remorse in the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. In that poll, 79 percent those who actually voted for Obama in the 2012 presidential election would vote for him again, while perhaps more telling, 71 percent regret their vote.
Given the unemployment rate and the ongoing weakness in the American economy along with the Obamacare debacle, it would seem that 79 percent is still a big number. Despite cheerleading from most of the big media — CBS and The New York Times included — Obama only won reelection by a margin of 51.1 percent, however. Even a relatively small shift in the electorate would have been enough to tip the election to GOP standard-bearer Mitt Romney, the businessman and former Massachusetts governor. “As a proportion of the voters each of them actually received in 2012 (66 million for Obama and 61 million for Romney), the GOP candidate ends up with 55 million votes retained to Obama’s 52 million.” Some 90 percent of Romney voters polled said they would vote for him again.
You may recall that in the Bill O’Reilly Super Bowl interview, Obama claimed there wasn’t even a “smidgen” of corruption in the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups. The president made this comment even though the FBI investigation, such as it is, is still ongoing. In a Fox News poll conducted earlier this month of about 1,000 registered voters, among other results 64% said there was corruption in the IRS Tea Party scandal, including 51 percent of Obama’s fellow Democrats. Even 60 percent of Democrats polled indicated that Congress should continue to investigate the IRS in connection with the harassment of right-leaning organizations. Most of those surveyed (including 68 percent of independents) also agreed that Obamacare, a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act, never would have passed Congress “if we knew back in 2009 what we know today.” The poll also revealed an overall approval rating for the president of 42 percent, with 65 percent of independents registering their disapproval.
Worth noting in NYT/CBS poll: Other than month Ocare system crashed, Obama’s job approval has never been lower. http://t.co/oTojSCwpGZ
— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 27, 2014
Given the Obama approval rating, if the American people were granted a do-over, who do you think would have been elected president last time around?
[image credit: Flicker By DonkeyHotey]
