Jun
19
A new poll from The Wall Street Journal and NBC News shows that Barack Obama’s support amongst independents is wavering:
Mr. Obama’s overall job approval and personal ratings have slipped, particularly among independent voters. His job approval rating now stands at 56%, down from 61% in April. Among independents, it dropped from nearly two-to-one approval to closely divided.
It’s an interesting poll that has both good and bad news for Barack Obama. First the good news:
Mr. Obama has some breathing room. Nearly three in four respondents said that the president inherited the current economic conditions, versus just 14% who said he is responsible for them. Only 6% said the Obama administration is most responsible for the budget deficit. Nearly half blame the Bush administration.
The portion of people who think the economy will improve over the next 12 months rose to 46% from 38% in April.
There’s good news for the administration, too, including tentative support for Mr. Obama’s health-care plan and approval of his nominee for the Supreme Court.
So, President Obama has some leverage on the health care debate, although this is marginal, is fairly comfortable on Sonia Sotomayor and isn’t being blamed for the economic crisis or, and I think this is important, the size of the deficit.
However, whilst the American public don’t view President Obama as being responsible for the economy, they are less than enthused about his response to the crisis:
Nearly seven in 10 survey respondents said they had concerns about federal interventions into the economy
A solid majority — 58% — said that the president and Congress should focus on keeping the budget deficit down, even if takes longer for the economy to recover.
When asked what the most important economic issue facing the country is, 24% cited the deficit, vs. just 11% who named health care.
Barack Obama’s Presidency will most likely be defined by his spending plans (barring an unforseen event). If he carries on as he is doing, he will be perceived as a tax and spend liberal which is not a recipe for electoral success as Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis will attest. By risking a large deficit, higher taxes and high inflation, Barack Obama could be making the Republican Party’s case against him an easier one to define and it will all be about the deficit and Obama’s spending. As his health care proposals and his cap and trade proposals work their way towards the President’s desk for signing, the added pressure on the deficit might turn independents who tend to be fiscally conservative against him.
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4 Responses to “The Public Don’t See Obama’s Spending As Money Well Spent”
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There is the cartoon of a man sawing at the branch he is sitting on, ‘cos he’s too thick to realise that when it gives way it’ll take him with it.
That’s how I see Obambi’s economic policies. It’s just a matter of time before the blade hits the point of no return. I’ll give it….6 months??
O. Tony,
I’ll give it a year…some people have to suffer personally to finally face up to the truth…if it’s someone else suffering without jobs, etc., many of them are too selfish to care or see the obvious….It amazes me that many of these people still like this arrogant, egocentric fellow. Obama lies to them daily and they’re too uninformed to know it.
[...] reform. All the polls, to differing degrees, show support for reform. However, as I reported in this post, it is polling on the economy, particularly the deficit, that is alarming Democrats. 24% of [...]
An American & OT,
You are both obviously among the 25% rusted on Bushites who believe that he and the rest of the GOP Cabal were not responsible for the economic/fiscal/financial mess that they left after 12 years in power in Congress and 8 years in the White House.
Granted that people are concerned about the deficits and the GOP is trumpeting about it. But they need to remember that until the Wall Street Tsunami created this latest deficit Reagan 1&2 followed by Bush 1 then the two terms of Bush 2 pushed both the deficit and the National Debt up yet again.
After Reagan and Bush 1 the deficit had been turned into a surplus by Clinton and the National Debt was being reduced, but then along comes Dubya!