Obama Job Approval Slips to 58% for First Time per Gallup....down with independents and Repubs

[Jennicut]

Still high with Dems (92%).
I could care less about the Rethugs but I don't get the independent #s.

"Since February, Obama's weekly approval ratings from Republicans have consistently averaged close to 30% and from independents, close to 60%. With Republican approval now down to 21% and independent approval down to 53%, Obama's overall job approval has dipped to a new low for his presidency.

It is not clear what's behind the decline, but two issues have received considerable play in the news this week, and could be contributing factors. On Monday, the president received bad news on healthcare reform from the Congressional Budget Office, whose estimate of the cost of one reform plan caused sticker shock on Capitol Hill. This may be feeding into public concerns about the administration's deficit spending. At the same time, the disputed Iranian presidential election has been front-page news. Obama's cautious response has sparked sharp criticism from Republican Sen. John McCain and many on the political right who are eager for him to declare the election a "fraud," and to show more solidarity with the Iranian protestors." http://www.gallup.com/poll/121028/Obama-Job-Approval-Slips-58-First-Time.aspx

[Buzz Clik]

1. It will get worse before it gets better.

92% among Democrats?

:rofl:

Gives us an indication of how poorly DU represents the Democratic Party.

[Jennicut]

3. The thing that gets me is that he seems to be losing some independents for not being too liberal

on things like spending for health care and possibly adding to the deficit.

[YOY]

4. Keep in mind some here will criticize but not disapprove 100%.

I'd say many of the doomsayers are still pro-Obama and some are truly FReep trolls.

[Buzz Clik]

13. Some act as if Obama re-instituted slavery, outlawed abortion, and repealed the Civil Rights Act.

[YOY]

15. Some folks have a beef. Others are just full of shit.

Got to take a look at if from their stance.

Pretty easy to tell those doing a overreaction, those who feel that one thing needs to be concentrated on over another, and those who are just lobbing grenades.

[change_notfinetuning]

18. No, but he'd probably support Cap & Trade on all of them.

That's the problem. Some things are not negotiable, in my opinion. Regardless of re-election chances. I was surveyed, and although far to the left, I stated I did not approve of Obama's performance to the pollster. Health care is a right of all Americans. Plain and simple. I expect him to at least state that, even if he can't deliver right now.

[vaberella]

21. That's a seriously dodgy assed statement. Why come here then believing that?

OH wait..right. Holding feet to the fire.

[Buzz Clik]

31. blah blah blah. Nice nick, weed.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. C'mon what's with the slip in his REPUBLICAN support???

:wtf:

I thought that Obama has "kneeled" to them?

:sarcasm:

[Jennicut]

5. Seriously. He cannot win either way.

[vaberella]

20. Agreed. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

23. I believe there may be three primary reasons.

1. Ironically not enough support for universal public health coverage; a seemingly liberal issue, may be one of them. Some Republicans have a populist streak and are fed up with corporate domination.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x457994

Most polled want universal coverage

72% of Americans want public health insurance

Support for public health insurance: 72% in favor, 20% opposed, 7% no opinion

Among Republicans: 50% favor, 39% oppose, 11% no opinion

2. Whether you're a Republican with a libertarian or populist streak, bailing out selected and corrupted Wall Street banks, trading houses and insurance corporations while CEOs walked away with huge bonuses wasn't popular.

3. Cheney/Bush's Big Brother program against the American People wasn't popular among libertarian leaning Republicans, too many of those policies seem to have been left in place.

I believe the biggest challenge President Obama will face is that the corporate media will praise him to high heaven when he does most things pro-corporate or Republican and these are the very policies that will ultimately undermine his presidency with the American People, just as it did with Cheney/Bush.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

26. I suppose too much GOP support wouldn't be that good anyway (at least not of the conservative ones)

He's still approximately 5% higher in terms of approval than the "baseline" approval at the time of the election, which is still pretty damned good IMHO.

[Uncle Joe]

30. I agree, but depending on your definition of conservative, I don't believe the

erosion came from that element of their Party.

[WI_DEM]

6. one thing is clear as every poll I've seen indicates--democrats are happy with this president

every poll I've seen indicates 92-95 percent approval among dems. Indies will be up and down. 53% is pretty good. GOP, I expect that will continue to go down.

[bluestateguy]

7. Sounds fine with me

Ronnie Reagan was reelected with 49 states with an approval rating at that level, and won 59% of the vote.

[rudy23]

8. By chasing the independents, I believe Obama will chase them away.

I think he'll lose more ground with independents by going back on his ideals, than by placating them.

Idealism was the central theme of his campaign, and he risks looking especially foolish if he comes off as "just another politician", by chasing after that "center" that seems like it would give him a close edge, on paper.

[Grinchie]

17. He is just another Politician

The Change he promised is pretty weak, and he looks like a total puppet to the current Corporate control of the Government.

You'd think after nearly 60 years of life, I'd have met someone who actually was inputting information to a pollster, yet they remain this elusive cloud of individuals that supposedly represent the country.

Of course, when one realizes that Polling organizations are nothing more than a Corporation, one gets to see the significance of how weak polls really are.

The American public no longer counts on independant thought and reasoning in order to support something. They count of "Authorities" to tell them what to think, and Polls to help them decided who to cheer for.

[monmouth]

9. The media certainly has not helped. They love this new poll...n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. Of course

They, like Limbaugh (and the rest of the Repukes) WANT Obama to "fail" and will cling to ANY fig leaf of evidence that indicates ANY drop in support of Obama. The corporate whore media is NEVER to be trusted. We should not trust (most of) the people (other than Olbermann and Maddow and maybe one or two others who are smart) they hire to sit and pontificate about complex issues of which they have a minimal (if even that) understanding. We should not trust the topics/stories they CHOOSE to cover, regardless of their "newsworthiness" nor should we buy into the "spin" they're putting on whatever it is they've decided is the "breaking news" of the day. They have an agenda and it is NOT the people's.

[Thrill]

10. Hopefully Obama doesn't govern based on approval rating polls. Worry about that shit

in election yr.

And in my opinion this has more to do with gas prices. People tend to blame the President for it.

[otohara]

11. Wishy Washy Independents

I swear - when I was phone banking and had to call an "independent" - so they thought, but really in the state of Colorado, you're known as a "unaffiliated voter" .... anyway, they were always so indecisive and whiny.

I found them to be indecisive, whiny, apathetic, uninformed and when I heard the inevitable "I don't like either one of them, I liked ________better. I would then ask the person, well then why didn't you change affiliation from unaffiliated to D or R and work for that person during the primaries", they'd get rude.

They call themselves independent, yet they let the rest of us pick the two finalists in this race.

[Midwestern Democrat]

24. Many Independents don't seem to grasp one major element of politics -

major substantive change is generally accomplished through long term political coalitions. A major policy change entails risk and before a politician is going to stick his neck out, he wants to know one thing: does he have a political coalition of at least 50% + 1 of the electorate who's going to stick with him for a couple of election cycles even if there are some short term growing pains involved with the policy change. If the answer is yes, he's likely to take bold action. However, if a substantial portion of his victory coalition is comprised of fence-sitting, switch-hitting Independents who think nothing of, for example, bitching about the deficit in one election cycle, and then bitching about the actions taken to reduce the deficit (tax increases/spending cuts) in the very next election cycle, then that politician is going to be a lot more timid.

[Teaser]

12. It is probably nothing.

That's a big decline for relatively little news value. My bet is that in 3 days O is back at 61%

[pnorman]

16. "Obama's cautious response has sparked sharp criticism from Republican Sen. John McCain and many ...

Yeah, right1 They also want him to FAIL!

pnorman

[vaberella]

19. Most of the independents...I've come to see are Repubs. I'm an independent who isn't. n/t

[TankLV]

22. FAILURE!!! IMPEACH NOW!!!

...thought I'd be the first...

[asphalt.jungle]

25. it's been 59% with Gallup at least 4 different occasions though

polls go up and down.

[960]

27. Actually it's at 57%. All time low.

[quickesst]

28. If you had been listening to the non-stop....

....bitching, pissing, moaning, groaning, and crying by people in his own party, you would probably think, "Damn, if people in his own party think he's a Bush-lite "secret republican", maybe I was wrong to support him. Simple logic and common sense is your answer. Thanks.
quickesst

[4lbs]

29. Independents are growing more worried about a large federal deficit and more government involvement

in everything.

Independents tend to be like Libertarians in their views. They side with Republicans on fiscal issues and government involvement (want less regulation, hate a large federal deficit), and side with Democrats on social issues (rights, civil liberties, basic freedoms).

[Proud Liberal Dem]

32. Arrgggh!!!!

I'm so sick of the Repukes and "Independents" carping about the %*E$%*#&% deficit as though President Obama was the one who invented it!!!! If Bush had been the steward of our tax dollars that Bill Clinton was, President Obama would've been able to easily pay for anything on his agenda and wouldn't have to worry about ballooning the deficit at all. Instead he (we) has been stuck with a fiscal nightmare but has chosen, rather wisely, to invest some money on some worthwhile ventures instead of cutting/freezing spending on programs- as his reptilian counterparts demand (of course, only on things that help people, not those that kill people). Of course, Repukes and so-called "independents" seem too myopic to notice (or care) about the difference in priorities between Bush and Obama nor the effects of having tax rates that are TOO low. They have become consumed with the belief that that taxes are the "bane" of our existence and that cutting them is pretty much the only key to prosperity in this country but because of this belief and their insistence that we need to cut taxes every five seconds, we have been left a shell of our former glory pretty much because (tax) revenue for things like schools, public transit, infrastructure repair and development, and pretty much anything that benefits everybody has largely dried up and disappeared and everybody is worse off because of it- just so that billionaires can have another yacht (or, in John McCain's case, another home).