June 17, 2009
Poll: No Dent In Obama's Popularity
CBS/NY Times Survey Finds Approval Stays At 63%; High Marks On Economy, Foreign Policy, Though Not Auto Industry Or Deficit
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(CBS/AP)
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On the issue deemed most important by Americans - the economy - the president holds a 57 percent approval rating. Thirty-five percent disapprove. Mr. Obama also enjoys majority approval on his handling of foreign policy (59 percent) and the threat of terrorism (57 percent).
The poll does reveal areas in which Americans offer more negative reviews of the president, however. Just forty-one percent approve of his handling of the struggling U.S. auto industry, while a slightly higher percentage - 46 percent - disapprove. And most Americans do not believe the president has a plan for dealing with the massive fiscal deficit.
On health care, meanwhile - the reform of which is the president's top legislative priority - Mr. Obama's approval rating is 44 percent. Thirty-four percent disapprove of the president's handling of health care.
The State Of The Economy:
Though they are generally positive about Mr. Obama's handling of the U.S. economy, Americans remain pessimistic about the current economic landscape.
Forty-eight percent describe the economy as "fairly bad," while another 36 percent call it "very bad." Just 14 percent say the economy is "fairly good," and a mere one percent describe it as "very good."Read The Complete Poll (PDF)
And Americans are less positive than they were a month ago about the direction of the economy. Twenty-seven percent say it is getting better - down from 32 percent in May - while 25 percent say it is getting worse, a slight increase. Forty-six percent believe the economy is staying the same.
Americans are also more worried about household job loss in the coming year, with 36 percent saying they are "very concerned," up from 25 percent in May. Another 28 percent are "somewhat concerned," while just 35 percent are not concerned about someone in their household losing a job in the next year.
(CBS)
Just 30 percent of those surveyed say Mr. Obama has a plan for dealing with the deficit. Twice that percentage says the president has no plan.
By a small margin, Americans now favor deficit reduction over spending to stimulate the economy. Fifty-two percent say the federal government should focus on deficit reduction, while 41 percent support federal government spending.
Forty-four percent of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction, roughly the same as last month. Fifty percent say the United States is on the wrong track. In October of last year, just seven percent said the country was going in the right direction.
Iraq, Afghanistan, And Guantanamo Bay:
Support for closing the military prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has increased in the past two months. Forty-eight percent now back closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, up from 44 percent in April.
Forty percent believe the facility should be kept open, a decline of seven percentage points since April.
A substantial percentage of Americans remain scared that closing Guantanamo will make America less safe, however. Read more about the poll's findings on Guantanamo Bay here.
CBS News PollsNo Dent In Obama's Popularity
Perceptions of the situation in Afghanistan are far less positive. Just 30 percent say things are going well there - down eight points from April - while 55 percent say they are going badly.
Views Of The Parties:
The Democratic Party is currently far enjoys far more popularity than its Republican opposition. Fifty-seven percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while just 28 percent have a favorable view of the Republican Party.
And while Democrats are united - 90 percent approve of their party - just 64 percent of Republicans approve of the Republican Party. Independents have a far more favorable view of the Democratic Party (51 percent approve) than the Republican Party (28 percent approve.)
Watch more
CBSNews.com editor-in-chief Dan Farber speaks with Sarah Dutton, the director of surveys for CBS News, about the latest New York Times/CBS News poll on Pres. Obama and Sonia Sotomayor:
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 895 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone June 12-16, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 124 CommentsCBS has him now at 63% job approval rating, and the Cons claim that there is some conspiracy between President Obama and the mainstream media. LMAO
Fox news has his job approval rating at 62%. I suppose now you are going to claim that Fox is now in a conspiracy with President Obama.
No wonder cBSnew is getting the result they want.
Very similar to the Iranian Mullahs and the way they do elections.
things up, and now the Liberal Administration has total control, Yep that's wonderful ! Then we have the take over of two of the AMERICAN once Big 3 of the
auto industry ! Yeah, that is just what AMERICA needs. And the latest greatest proposal, Socialize Health care ! And BTW, anyone buying into BHO's comments saying he does not intend on taking the health care system over, bought into his rhetoric he isn't going to raise Taxes on the average John Q public!
Tell us this Oh noble and wise liberals, why is it the BHO administration won't release the results of the so called terrible water boarding tactic's used on but a few of the prisoners at Gitmo? That BTW, the Liar Pelozi full well knew about ! Or how about telling us why BHO is telling the world it is OK for Iran to develop Nuclear Energy, for energy purposes ( Yeah Right ), but out of the other side of his mouth, he won't allow this option for the U.S.A.??? Speaking of what's not good for the Goose, but is OK for the Gander... Why is it OK for CHINA now to take over making the GM Hummer ( you know the huge inefficient SUV ), and yet out of the other side of his mouth, he is against SUV's of any kind in the U.S.A.??? And last for now, but certainly not the least, BHO and his followers are flat out lying with their way over exaggerated rants on Man Made, Man effected Global Warming ! That, my ignorant % of Americans who buy into this lie, is costing us Jobs, Industry, and security of this country ! If one did not know any better, one would swear, there is now, a huge enemy within ! Yeah OK, BHO is favorable in the News media's
Polls ! Hey, latest headlines, Iran's Khamenei: Election Over, No More Protests! Sound like anyone you may know of???
He is quite popular with illegal immigrants, the functionally illiterate, blacks (for no other reason than he is 1/2 black himself), the massive number of welfare recipients, and last but not least, the unions.
He is quite unpopular with taxpayers, middle class Americans, non-union workers, whites who are sick and tired of reverse discrimination, middle-aged and older Americans (who have wisdom), and young, upwardly mobile people who see thier future being given away by an ego-encrazed community organizer.
One of the best observations yet,
Only you left out one group the liberal meshia is also popular with, that being the gays and their agenda's!
skyk-2009,,, you most definately have a skewed perspective on who to blame for what! A litle history for ya. The banking fiasco is 80% the fault of the lefty Democrat's such as Pelozi, Franks, Reid, Dodd, and the rest of the crowd ! They are the ones who were on the take from Fannie & Freddie. They are also the ones who pushed for the bad loans for people who could not afford them. Whenever anyone tried to warn, alert, point out the foreseen problems, the Pelozi/Franks crowd yelled RACIST ! I give 20% to Bush and company because they fell short and allowed the PC mentallity get the better of them! BTW, you lefy's keep forgetting, Congress agreed and voted for the war in Iraq!
You also choose to ignore the successes made because of the efforts put forth by Bush and the military ! One other factor you choose to ignore, Slick willy himself stated, Saddam was one of the biggest threat's to America, and he said this during his last term, not to far off from 9/11, which BTW was plotted and planned during most of Clinton's era!
This poll is fraudulent. I saw the Gallup poll results which show Obama slipping badly. Of course CBS is in the tank for Obama and will present false data in order to perpetuate the myth.
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Very true.
Now calm down....geeesh. First of all, Obama is not a Marxist. He is hardly a leftest even. He is not a socialist nor a communist. He is more moderate than anything. Everyone screamed lefty during the campaign, but if you look at his record so far, Obama has kept in place many of the Bush policies. Obama is a domocrat for sure. But to me, he's the most conservative democrat I have ever seen.
You are right Stuart he is more to the middle than left or right and he has stayed with some of the Bush doctrine which amaze me why the republicans are so bent on helping him fail, where were they when Bush was in. They were squelched against saying anything or else, I digress you are right about his middle of the road a conservative moderate democrat
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