A week of mostly favorable court decisions, a groundswell of support for his position on the Confederate flag and tears has led to a notable increase in President Barack Obama, a new poll shows:
Could Barack Obama’s great week mark a turning point in his poll numbers?
The realistic answer is: n-o. Most polls are see saws. The political class and political pundits immediately leap into snap analysis to proclaim this means THIS will happen for the long term. In most cases, they’re wrong but they just move on to another prediction made with great assurance and never admit many of their past predictions were about as accurate the bulk of predictions in supermarket tabloids. But this is a GOOD POLL for Obama:
After months of stagnant approval ratings, a new CNN/ORC poll finds that for the first time in more than two years, 50% of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling the presidency. And his overall ratings are bolstered by increasingly positive reviews of his treatment of race relations and the economy.
The new poll follows a week in which two Supreme Court cases boosted the president’s legacy by upholding the government subsidies at the heart of Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act, and affirming same-sex couples’ right to marry. All this while Obama took several opportunities to directly address the nation’s racial tensions, closing out the week by singing “Amazing Grace” on national television.
The new poll shows Obama’s approval rating up five points since a May survey, when just 45% approved of the job he was doing as president and 52% disapproved. The poll marks the first time his approval rating has been at 50% or higher since May, 2013, and only the second time in that stretch that his disapproval rating has fallen below 50%. It currently stands at 47%.
And on the economy?
Obama’s approval rating for handling the economy has also climbed, 52% approve in the new poll, compared with 46% who approved in the May survey. That’s the first time approval for Obama’s handling of the economy has topped 50% in CNN/ORC polling in nearly six years.
A majority also approve of the President’s handling of race relations, an issue that has grown in prominence amid protests and riots following the deaths of several African-American men at the hands of police officers, and the racially motivated shooting of nine African-American churchgoers by a white man during a Bible study session in Charleston in mid-June. The poll finds 55% approve, while 42% disapprove, up from 50% who approved in the May survey.
Significantly, CNN (which I feel remains the best source of cable news) adds an important “but”:
But to sustain those numbers, the poll suggests Obama will need to overcome a growing sense that race relations are a serious problem and have worsened during his time in office.
Overall, 74% of Americans say racial discrimination against African-Americans in the U.S. is a very or somewhat serious problem, up from 57% saying so five years ago. Among African-Americans, 80% now describe this as a very serious issue, up from 42% five years ago.
And African-Americans are more likely than they were 12 years ago to say they frequently face discrimination because of their race. Forty-five percent say they face discrimination in public or at their jobs once a month or more, including nearly a quarter (24%) who say they face discrimination daily. In a 2003 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 39% of African Americans said they faced discrimination at least monthly.
So there’s a lot of work to do but, if anything, Obama is increasingly showing that now he doesn’t feel he has to run for re-election and can speak more freely and intends to see how he can use his power to make the phrase “lame duck” no longer a “given” in characterizing a President’s last years in office.
graphic via shutterstock.com
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.