Obama's Decline In Public Approval: How Serious A Problem For Democrats in 2010
Posted Jan 22, 2010 at 9:35 AM by Maurice Berger
Republican pollster Frank Luntz fires a warning shot to Democrats in his analysis of the president's declining popularity. While his overall opinion of--and some of his ideas about--the seriousness of the dilemma now facing Democrats may be colored by ideology, two of his points about looming red flags are backed up by the results of a number of non-partisan public opinion surveys:
• According to Gallup, Obama has suffered the greatest fall in
approval of any elected president since the company started ongoing
tracking during the Eisenhower administration. Obama came into office
with the approval of two out of every three voters (67 percent) but
ended his first year with just half the electorate (50 percent)
offering a positive evaluation of his performance. Only the unelected
Gerald Ford fared worse in the court of public opinion.
• While
the Republican brand has barely moved since its electoral disasters of
2006 and 2008 and remains unpopular, Democratic popularity has
collapsed as well. Most surveys now have the GOP even or even slightly
ahead in the generic congressional ballot, and Americans now see the
Republicans to be as good if not better in handling the economy.
What Luntz fails to point out, however, is that the Republican brand is suffering as well: A new Public Policy Polling poll reports that only 19% of voters nationally are happy with the direction of the Republican Party, compared to 56% who are unhappy with it. Even more surprising--GOP voters are not particularly happy with the direction of their own party: just 35% support the direction of the party; 38% say they are unhappy.
