Poll: Obama Approval Rating Hits New Low, Spelling Trouble For Midterms

[Capt. Obvious]

President Barack Obama's approval rating has dropped to a new low that may put Democrats at risk in November's midterm elections, according to a new poll.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday found that Obama's approval rating is at 41 percent, down from 46 percent through the first three months of the year. That's the lowest approval rating the poll has recorded during his presidency.

Notably, the poll also found that 53 percent of voters said they'd prefer to see Republicans control Congress as a check on the President compared to 29 percent who said they'd rather have Democrats in charge to shore up the Obama administration's policies.

But Democrats held a razor-thin margin among registered voters for this fall's House elections, 45 percent to Republicans' 44 percent, according to the survey. Voters said they favored Democrats 43-35 percent on health care, 52-32 percent on issues facing the middle class and a whopping 55-25 percent on women's issues, so candidates may be able to capitalize on those particular strengths during their campaigns.

TPM

[brooklynite]

1. This poll is biased!

It disagrees with my preconceptions!

Seriously, this is NOT going to be an easy election to win, and realizing that is the first step towards winning it.

[Capt. Obvious]

4. Indeed

It's a much better path to take than whistling past the graveyard.

[GOPee]

14. Wait just one damned minute.

Yesterday we were cheering a poll, today we are Doomed.. WTH The answer is simple, VOTE, and GET OUT THE VOTE, friends, family, neighbors, etc. All of these polls are just a daily temperature at 4pm Monday, and there is still a fever, but the patient is still alive and going to live.. nuff said.

[KurtNYC]

2. Obama is not running in the midterms. Every race is its own contest.

Obama at 41% percent beats the crap out of all of congress at 21%. He spanked Romney and sent him home despite all the gloom and hand wringing.

[Capt. Obvious]

3. He's not?

[KurtNYC]

10. This isn't golf -- High score wins.

[Gary Garrison]

7. Political scientists find that Presidential approval is a factor that affects midterm elections

The Washington Post does not argue that Obama will run for President in 2014.

Zero experts will tell you that Presidential approval should be dismissed in making forecasts about midterms.

[KurtNYC]

9. And I'm not dismissing it -- 41% beats 21% -- that says his number is HIGHER than theirs.

That is as clear as I can say it. Twice as high. So if it affects midterms then it is a PLUS.

Howard Dean, the expert behind the 50 state strategy, agrees with me:

http://weaselzippers.us/181486-howard-dean-says-democrats-running-in-midterm-elections-should-campaign-like-crazy-on-obamacare/

On the other hand, Al Gore tried running away from Clinton in 2000 and it cost him.

[Gary Garrison]

16. Does history show that when a President's approval is higher than Congress' approval

The party of the President ends up gaining seats in one chamber or the other?

[ananda]

5. These days, I don't trust polls either way... high or low.

I think the key to the midterms lies in the way Dems run their races.
If they run on ACA, and speak to the liberal left, I think their chances
will be better than if they go towards the right.

[MaeScott]

6. because the ACA is going well, and Ed Henry got gobsmacked.....

..we MUST have a new poll that says the PREZ IS WRONG, and we don't like him

sorry, but the tactics are so well worn even Stevie Wonder could see them....

[Capt. Obvious]

8. We're onto you polls

Polls are going to look pretty foolish.

[L0oniX]

11. I blame it on the "professional left".

Actually it's not funny.

[uponit7771]

12. "But Democrats held a razor-thin margin among registered voters for this fall's House elections"

[Gary Garrison]

17. Registered voters vs. Likely voters

As w all know, Republicans are less likely to stay home in House elections. Therefore, a registered voters sample will be less GOP - friendly than a LV one. The Washington Post is aware of this. So are polling experts.

[Blaukraut]

13. So 53% of voters like gridlock?

Who are these morons?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

15. They're like the 18% of people in another poll

who like the Republican's (non-existent) health care plan

[woo me with science]

18. Gridlock is an illusion.

Both parties support Wall Street, austerity for the 99 percent, corporatism, the surveillance state, militarized police forces, drone wars, indefinite detention, persecution of journalists and whistleblowers, turning over the internet to corporations, drilling and fracking, corporate education policy, expansion of private prisons, the surveillance state, the propaganda state, and the TPP.

We are about to have another "lesser of evils" election in which the goal is to maintain the illlusion of gridlock and two opposing parties, while doing everything possible to exclude *actual* disagreement in the form of non-corporate voices.

Time to be honest for once in our lives about what is really happening here and stop dancing to the MSM Kabuki narrative.