President Obama Going Negative
For the second straight day, President Obama’s Presidential Approval Index rating is in negative territory:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 33% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -1. Today is the second straight day the President’s rating has been below zero.
Most voters still place the blame for our nation’s economic woes on the Bush Administration, but a growing number say it’s Obama’s economy now. The number blaming Bush has fallen to 54%. That’s down eight points from a month ago.
People are starting to express their worries about President Obama’s policies, especially his spending, the Democrats’ health care ‘reform’ proposals and his takeovers of GM and Chrysler. Young people are getting worried about the mountain of debt that President Obama is piling onto their backs.
Normally, deficits aren’t an animating issue. They are this time because they’re so imposing this time. Last year’s $450,000,000,000 deficit seems tiny in comparison to this year’s $1,800,000,000,000 deficit. Think of Obama’s deficit as deficit squared on steroids. They’re beyond imagination. There’s also no relief in sight.
There’s more to Rasmussen’s polling than just that, though. There’s been a huge swing on who’s to blame, too:
While most U.S. voters still blame the Bush Administration for the nation’s economic problems, a growing number are inclined to blame President Barack Obama.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of voters now say the country’s economic problems are caused more by the policies Obama has put in place. That’s a 12-point jump from a month ago.
Ed has some great analysis of the crosstabs data here:
Nor does it look good for the future of Obama’s economic policy. This question had less to do with the current crisis and more to do with Obama’s policies for reversing it. A large majority believes they know better than Obama about economic issues, 60%-30%.
People understand that the economy started going downhill under President Bush. That’s becoming irrelevant because they hired Obama to fix what President Bush broke. People are becoming increasingly certain that President Obama’s solutions have failed. The longer unemployment stays high, the more disenchantment will set in.
That’s the biggest reason why President Obama is speeding up spending of the stimulus money. Still, people are frequently asking whether the price that’s being paid is worth the outcomes. They’re doing a cost/benefit analysis and they don’t like what they’re seeing.
That can still change before 2012 but it isn’t helping Democrats for 2010.
Technorati Tags: Polling, President Obama, Economy, Bailouts, Spending, Deficits, Unemployment, Democrats, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog