A new poll finds President Barack Obama’s poll numbers are still sinking — and that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney could beat him if an election was held today:
President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, so low that he’d lose the White House to Republican Mitt Romney if the election were held today, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.
The biggest reason for Obama’s fall: a sharp drop in approval among Democrats and liberals, apparently unhappy with his moves toward the center since he led the party to landslide losses in November’s midterm elections. At the same time, he’s gained nothing among independents.
This isn’t unusual for Democrats. Obama’s problem has not only been with independents the past year but with his liberal base. And the idea put forth by some progressives that a Democrat that doesn’t totally embrace a progressive agenda is almost or just the same as a Republican — even a conservative Republican — is a common refrain thatkept the Dems in the political wilderness during other eras. Remember President Hubert Humphrey, President Al Gore and (to a lesser extent) President John Kerry?
“He’s having the worst of both worlds right now,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in New York, which conducted the national survey.
“As he moves to the center, he’s not picking up support among independents and he’s having some fall-off among his base. If his strategy is to gain independents and keep the Democrats in tow, it isn’t working so far.”
On Friday former President Bill Clinton — a master at attracting independent voters — in effect gave Obama his blessings as Obama began what many pundits believe is an attempt to move more to the center, with his party’s liberal base outraged every step of the way.
The poll was taken from Dec. 2 through Wednesday, as the president proposed a two-year freeze on federal civilian workers’ pay and cut a deal with congressional Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts — even those for the wealthy, which he’d opposed.
Overall, just 42 percent of registered voters approve of how he’s doing his job, while 50 percent disapprove.
Obama’s standing among Democrats dropped from a month ago, with his approval rating falling to 74 percent from 83 percent, and his disapproval rating almost doubling, from 11 percent to 21 percent.
Among liberals, his approval rating dropped from 78 percent to 69 percent and his disapproval rating jumped from 14 percent to 22 percent.
His position among independents remained virtually the same, with 39 percent approving and 52 percent disapproving. A month ago, it was 38-54.
What is always fascinating with the Democratic party’s liberal wing is that by in effect boycotting their own party they wind up seeing Republicans far to the left of their agenda get in office and the result has been a steady transformation of the Supreme Court. The importance of the court gets lip service but in the end many sit on their hands — then later express shock when the court issues rulings such as Citizens United…which have their roots in the transformation of the court that began with Richard Nixon’s election in 1968.
This poll is good news for Republicans because unless the party nominates someone as divisive as Sarah Palin, if Democratic liberals sit on their hands and Obama does not convince independent voters he is more in the middle or making headway on getting the two parties get together, the GOP could have an easier time of it. (And will Ralph Nader ride AGAIN?)
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/10/105105/poll-obamas-losing-support-romney.html#ixzz17p6xpZgR
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.