Obama's Report Card: Polls Reveal a Barely Passing Grade
In a recent CNN poll, President Obama’s approval rating remains steady overall. But there has been some decrease among Democrats when asked if they would support Obama for re-election.
According to the poll released on Wednesday, 44 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s job as president while 54 percent say they disapprove. This number has remained relatively steady since the middle of the summer.
However, what has changed is the support Obama receives within his own party. While a solid 72 percent of Democrats overall support Obama for reelection, the number of Democrats who would like to nominate someone else within the party is 26 percent, up from 18 percent last month.
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This decrease in support is likely not to turn into a decreased number of votes as the party is unlikely to nominate a challenger. However, it could provide clues to how likely the president will be able to motivate his base as effectively as he did in 2008.
"The biggest change comes among white Democrats with no college education, a group typically considered the core of the party's blue-collar constituency," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
"Half of all white Democrats with no college education say they don't want President Obama heading their party's ticket next year."
Likewise, Obama’s job approval rating is down among whites with a college degree, according to a recent Quinnipiac Poll. Whites with a degree approve a bit more than those without one coming in at 42 percent. But this is down from the 47 percent that supported him in 2008.
Quinnipiac paints a starker image for Obama: only 45 percent of American voters think he deserves reelection; 48 percent believe he doesn’t.
On the economy, American voters give him a sour 33 percent approval rating.
Obama’s signature health care legislation does not exactly get an “A,” either. In general, voters oppose the law 48 to 40 percent, according to Quinnipiac.
Voters will not get to decide the fate of the health care law; that’s the job of the Supreme Court justices who expect to make a ruling regarding the constitutionality of the bill in June. However, if the majority of voters disapprove of Obama’s trademark legislation then that could spell disaster for the president in 2012.
In order to regain some support, Democratic leaders have tried to associate themselves with the grassroots movement titled Occupy Wall Street. However, this may be a risky move. With the increase in violence and chaos, many Americans are beginning to distance themselves from the movement. The Quinnipiac poll shows that the OWS is viewed favorably by only 29 percent of voters.
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.
The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International Nov. 18-20, among 1,019 adult Americans with a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
