There is – some – good news for the administration in this latest NPR poll (via Political Wire, h/t Soren Dayton), but when you’re a Democrat getting these kinds of results among registered* voters**:
Those are the chief findings of the latest NPR poll of registered voters conducted nationwide Wednesday through Sunday by a bipartisan team. The pollsters found 53 percent approving of the president’s handling of his job, while 42 percent disapproved — the narrowest gap of the Obama presidency to date. Most of the approving group said they approved strongly, and an even greater majority of the disapproving group said they disapproved strongly.
Poll respondents liked a Democratic statement on solving health care problems better than a Republican statement (51 percent to 42 percent). However, when asked about the plan now moving through Congress, a plurality of 47 percent was opposed and 42 percent said they were in favor, based on what they had heard about the plan so far.
…you have a problem. The poll results also report that voters are also currently favoring generic Republican candidates over Democratic ones, 43/42 (and hastens to add that it’s within MoE): Rasmussen, of course, reported yesterday that the GOP lead the Democrats 42/39 among likely voters (that’s the fifth week in a row that the GOP’s lead on that question). It’s going to be an interesting August, particularly since it looks increasingly likely that there will be a lot of Democrats that are going to be asked how they plan to vote on healthcare rationing, rather than why they voted for healthcare rationing. Either one would have been fun to work with, but I suppose that it’s unreasonable to expect to have both.
Moe Lane
*Although the actual poll says “likely” at the very beginning. I assume that there’s an arcane reason for that.
**Gallup had him at 54% on Tuesday. All of these numbers will go up, by the way: the President’s approval ratings are linked to his job performance, and presumably at some point he’ll appear to be performing it. But the days of the President being the One Who Ejaculates Roses are well and truly gone. Continue reading When you’re losing NPR…
