NILE GARDINER: AN EASTER BLOW FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA…..SEE NOTE PLEASE
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100084488/a-grim-easter-for-the-obama-presidency-washington-postabc-news-poll-delivers-another-blow-to-the-white-house/
WHERE IS THE GOP ALTERNATIVE?…RSK
A grim Easter for the Obama presidency: Washington Post/ABC News poll delivers another blow to the White House
The omens certainly weren’t good for Barack Obama last week with a devastating Gallup survey showing the president with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency – just 41 percent. And according to RealClear Politics, the president now has an average disapproval rating across several major polls of nearly 50 percent.
The White House received another significant blow today with the release of the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, which revealed deep-seated public unease over his handling of the economy, the number one issue for US voters. As The Post noted in a front-page piece headlined (in the print edition): ‘Economy is Battering Obama in the polls’:
Driving the downward movement in Obama’s standing are renewed concerns about the economy and fresh worry about rising prices, particularly for gasoline. Despite signs of economic growth, 44 percent of Americans see the economy as getting worse, the highest percentage to say so in more than two years.
The toll on Obama is direct: 57 percent disapprove of the job the president is doing dealing with the economy, tying his highest negative rating when it comes to the issue. And the president is doing a bit worse among politically important independents.
According to The Post-ABC poll, by a margin of 44 to 28, US voters believe the economy is getting worse under Obama, with 46 percent strongly disapproving of the president’s handling of the issue compared to just 23 percent who strongly approve. 78 percent of Americans feel inflation is getting worse, with 71 percent agreeing that the recent increase in gasoline prices has caused financial hardship for themselves or their household.
Perhaps most worryingly for President Obama, just 28 percent of Americans now say they will “definitely vote” for his re-election in 2012, compared to a far larger 45 percent who “definitely will not”. In addition, the percentage of voters who call themselves “conservative” (36 percent) is 15 points more than the number of describe themselves as liberal (just 21 percent).
In its analysis, The Post points out that 40 percent of voters are still dissatisfied with the current range of Republican presidential candidates, and Obama continues to edge out his main GOP competitors. But this will provide little comfort for an increasingly nervous White House whose economic policies are proving highly unpopular across the political spectrum.
It is increasingly clear that the president’s heavily panned speech last week on the budget deficit has failed to convince not only the American public, but the markets as well. With the huge vote of no confidence on Monday from credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s, which cut its outlook for US debt from “stable” to “negative”, the Obama presidency is looking remarkably out of its depth in the face of a massive deficit crisis which it simply refuses to confront. This will be a grim Easter for the White House as it reels from S & P’s shot across the bows as well as the latest negative polls. Barack Obama remains wedded to outdated Big Government, high tax solutions to economic problems, but the American people are clearly not impressed.
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