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Gallup Poll: Obama Steadily Losing Battle to be Seen As Strong Leader

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A new Gallup Poll finds President Barack Obama is steadily losing the battle to be seen a strong leader:

Americans have grown increasingly less likely to view President Obama as a strong and decisive leader since he took office. Roughly half now believe this aptly describes, him compared with 60% a year ago and 73% in April 2009.


Some other perceptions have not changed:

The decline in Obama’s leadership rating stands in contrast to the stability in the trend for two other personal dimensions. Fifty-seven percent of Americans believe the president understand the problems Americans face in their daily lives, essentially unchanged from 56% in March 2010. And 51% of respondents believe Obama shares their values, similar to 48% last year. Both ratings are down from early 2009.

And, overall, this represents a steady erosion in image:
Altogether, Obama’s ratings on being a strong and decisive leader are down a total of 21 percentage points since taking office, compared with a 15-point decline on understanding Americans’ daily problems and a 9-point decline in sharing their values. Obama’s overall job approval rating declined 16 points over the same time period.

Additionally, Gallup notes :

  • Obama’s leadership ratings are down among all political groups.
  • All groups find Obama’s honesty his biggest attribute “the only trait ascribed to Obama by a majority of independents. Majorities of Democrats attribute each of the four other positive characteristics to Obama, but they are notably less likely to believe Obama has a clear plan for solving the country’s problems.”

    • Gallup then draws its conclusions but in sheer political terms the bottom line is this: the GOP does have an opening to blast Obama on leadership, keep using the phrase “dithering” (even if he is not), say he’s not providing strong leadership. Just like audiences turning into talk radio do so because they agree with what the host will say in advance, if the GOP uses these themes there is fertile ground there. Are the Democrats prepared for it — seeing what lies ahead?

    So far the Democrats’ — and the White Houses’ — record in effectively predicting Republicans’ next step and having a plan to counter it has been incompetent at beset, dismal at worst.