Majority of Americans lack faith in Obama: poll

[Raider]

The People are finally coming to their senses;


Majority of Americans lack faith in Obama: poll
Tue Jul 13, 12:58 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 60 percent of American voters say they lack faith in President Barack Obama, according to a public opinion poll published on Tuesday.

The results of the Washington Post/ABC News poll are a reversal of what voters said at the start of Obama's presidency 18 months ago when about 60 percent expressed confidence in his decision making.

Confidence in Obama is at a new low but the poll found that his numbers are still higher than lawmakers of either major party four months ahead of the November congressional elections.

Asked how much confidence they have in Obama to make the right decisions for the country's future, 58 percent of respondents said "just some" or "none."

Sixty-eight percent expressed the same sentiments about Democrats in Congress and 72 percent said the same of Republicans.

The Post said problems in the housing industry, sluggish job growth and other economic issues may have taken a toll on Obama's approval rating.

Just 43 percent of all Americans, including a third of Democrats, now say they approve of the job Obama is doing on the economy, while 54 percent disapprove.

The survey also found wide anti-incumbent sentiment with 62 percent of voters saying they were not inclined to support their current representative.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs in the November 2 election as well as 36 of the 100 Senate seats.

Democrats now control both houses of Congress, but a slight majority of those polled said they would prefer to have Republicans in control to serve as a check on Obama's policies.

The poll of 1,288 people was conducted July 7-11 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen; editing by Eric Beech)

Source

[draggar]

I wonder what % of those people have no faith in Washington DC period, regardless of who is in charge?

68% don't approve of democrats, 72% don't approve of republicans. This means 40% of people who were polled are unhappy with BOTH parties - this should be the headline.

I wonder if we'll see a larger number of third party candidates getting into the house and senate this November?

[bmugford]

I guess if we are talking about polls, here is another interesting one that shows how stupid certain segments of Americans are.

57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim

45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president"

38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"

24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist."

The Louis Harris poll surveyed 2,230 people and was released in March, 2010.

In all fairness, it is probably going to be tough to ever get a positive approval rating from the people above who believe Obama is a foreign born, muslim, hitler-like, Antichrist. America needs a better education system.
To disagree with Obama on policies is one thing. For so many Americans to have ridiculous views like this Louis Harris poll shows is embarrassing.

Brad

[H2FC]

America needs a better news reporting system. A better news reporting system would go a long way toward a better education system.

[draggar]

38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"

I am in now way supporting everything that Hitler did but he did do a lot of good for Germany before the war started. He helped rebuild post World War I Germany, improved the country's infrastructure and economy.

Show me a politican who doesn't want to do those.

America needs a better news reporting system. A better news reporting system would go a long way toward a better education system.

It'll never happen. News agencies report the news from their point of view. They'll even promote some companies though their "reports" while ridiculing others. While the laws state news agencies need to give each candidate equal time, that only includes interviews and promotions. They can report whatever they want so they'll report when their candidate is doing well and the ones they don't like aren't doing well. They can plaster their propoganda though reports as much as they want.

Polls can easily be manipulated. I can ask 1000 people what they think of how the current government is doing. Where you conduct the survey could easily sway it. 1,000 people in Miami (very immigrant / Latin American heavy) would have a completely different view than 1,000 people in rural Nebraska and Kansas.

This is true across many media channels and the average American is too uneducated to know the difference, many take what the news says as unbiased and accurate.

[barefoot]

This is true across many media channels and the average American is too uneducated to know the difference, many take what the news says as unbiased and accurate.

And an uninformed/misinformed society is an easily-manipulated society.

[INVIGOR]

...

[bmugford]

Obama has been a lame duck since he got into office with that deer in the headlight look. A fumbling idiot. Even the idiots that voted him in regret it.

I would not exactly call Obama a lame duck just yet. I don't see any great leaders in the pipeline for the GOP in 2012.

Sharron Angle in Nevada is a preview of what the political extremists on the right get when they have their way.
Basically the Republicans went from a 30 point generic lead in the state to a dead heat when an actual extremist candidate is picked.

Brad

[INVIGOR]

...

[Raider]

I guess if we are talking about polls, here is another interesting one that shows how stupid certain segments of Americans are.

[B]57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim

45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president"

38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"
24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist."

MOST everything item your citing was already evident BEFORE Obama was elected and he won the election regardless.

Is a matter a fact, his approval rating was at 70% in Jan 2009 when he was sworn in, and now your trying to suggest his tanking poll numbers are the result of Republican beliefs? LMAO.

It's really astonishing to see people like you not recognize what a failure this President has been for the past 19 months, and how completely disconnected Obama is from mainstream America. Everything from his FAILURE to create jobs in the private sector to ramming National Health Care down our throats, to racking up 3 TRILLION dollars in more debt with NOTHING to show for it. These are some of the reasons his poll numbers are tanking, NOT because of what Republicans think of him, but because of what intellectually HONEST Democrats and Independents think of him.

[bmugford]

RealClearPolitics, still has his approval average at 47.5 Approve - 47.3 Disapprove
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...oval-1044.html

Not amazing by any stretch, but I think many of the anti-Obama people overestimate the strength of their "movement". He has about another 20 points to go down to match Bush (http://www.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Approval.htm).

Brad

[randomo]

Looking objectively at approval ratings for the 8 most recent presidents before Obama (according to the Wall Street Journal) ...

All 8 of them started their terms with approval ratings of 60% or higher, except Ford, Clinton, & Bush 2, all of whom started in the high 50s.

All 8 of them dipped into the 20s or 30s during their terms, except Clinton, whose slide stopped around 40.

So this is a natural progression for any president: promises & voter hopes create high ratings at the start, but the reality of battling tough issues drops their ratings later.

[biggedon]

Looking objectively at approval ratings for the 8 most recent presidents before Obama (according to the Wall Street Journal) ...

All 8 of them started their terms with approval ratings of 60% or higher, except Ford, Clinton, & Bush 2, all of whom started in the high 50s.

All 8 of them dipped into the 20s or 30s during their terms, except Clinton, whose slide stopped around 40.

So this is a natural progression for any president: promises & voter hopes create high ratings at the start, but the reality of battling tough issues drops their ratings later.

that seems like a logical approach in analyzing the past presidents' poll numbers.



i was just doing the same thing with my domain portfolio



looking at stats for some domains over extended periods, rather than what they are currently earning.

though overall ppc revenue has went down, if averaged for 3 years or more....it doesn't look so bad.

perhaps when obama gets to his third and forth years, his averages won't look so bad either.


who knows, as long as they (PPC's and the Prez) try to do the right thing then i'm cool with that.

imo...

[H2FC]

Just suppose for a moment the GOP wins the next presidential election and they re-establish their same ole policies that almost brought this country into a talespin depression before Obama was elected.

Who's to say they won't do it again? All the things they advocate now are they same things that almost drove our economy into bankruptcy before.....and they want another chance to do it.

Well, I'm sorry, they may be voted into office for another stab at it but it won't be with my vote!

[JB Lions]

I'm willing to actually give him some time to see how things turn out before making any judgements. He's only been in there a year and a half. He did inherit a mess and many people have these unrealistic expectations that things were going to change overnight. It was so bad, Bush's own party didn't want anything to do with him during the election.

[Raider]

A fumbling idiot. Even the idiots that voted him in regret it.

Your so right on this point, The majority of people who voted for him are suffering from buyers remorse, Obama duped them into believing change for the better was coming, A change Obama is completely incapable of delivering.

Here's a well written piece from last year on this very subject;


How Obama Will Address Voters’ “Buyer’s Remorse
August 30, 2009 by Howard Portnoy

Steve Chapman has an interesting column in today’s Chicago Tribune that analyzes the extent to which American voters misread presidential candidate Barack Obama. By way of explanation, Chapman writes that Obama’s “promise of change was eloquent enough to motivate the left wing of his party but vague enough to make him acceptable to people in the middle.” He goes on to quote then-chairman of the Republican National Committee Mike Duncan as saying after the election that “Barack Obama just ran the most successful moderate Republican presidential campaign since Dwight Eisenhower.”

There is no doubt that Obama, who has turned out to be the most radical president ever elected, had plenty of voters fooled. A case can also be made that many who voted for him now have “buyer’s remorse.” Certainly, that is one plausible interpretation of his rapidly declining poll numbers in the last several months. Today he reaches a new low in his job approval rating in the Rasmussen poll, which has him at -5 (47% approval compared with 52% disapproval).

Much of the unrest can be traced to double-digit disapproval of Obama’s plan for health care reform and concern over runaway government spending since he took office. As of this past Friday, 62% of Rasmussen respondents said they would prefer tax cuts over more government spending as a way of jump-starting the still-ailing economy.

So how will Obama address the concerns now coming from a large segment of the voters? My belief is that he won’t — and this is where Steve Chapman and I part company. There is no doubt in my mind that Obama misrepresented himself to American voters in order to get elected. In fact, the signs of his radicalism were always there for anyone who bothered to read them — both his 20-year membership in a Black Nationalist church and his ties, however tenuous, to people like Bill Ayers were in the news.

MORE >>>>

I'm willing to actually give him some time to see how things turn out before making any judgements.

It's nice that you have the luxury of waiting, 6 Million unemployed are not as fortunate.

[draggar]

I'm willing to actually give him some time to see how things turn out before making any judgements. He's only been in there a year and a half. He did inherit a mess and many people have these unrealistic expectations that things were going to change overnight. It was so bad, Bush's own party didn't want anything to do with him during the election.

I'll agree that many people expected things to change overnight and it wasn't going to but - a year and a half? I don't see any improvement. Unemployment here is still between 10% and 11% (and it may drop soon due to the BP snafu), I do see more road projects but the companies doing them aren't hiring many more people, they're just giving tons of OT to the people already there (I know people who work for these firms), companies don't want to hire unemployed people thinking they are either too desperate (and will leave when a better job comes along) or too "out of touch".

Route 1 north of Ft Lauderdale into Pompano and Lighthouse Point is nothing but a long line of empty businesses (it used to be full and busy). My commute to work is even shorter now (that's actually scary), my community still has 9 (out of 29) units abandoned (some "owned" by the bank now, others in various states of foreclosure).

How much longer should we wait? It's been a year and a half. I didn't expect it to change overnight but 6, 12, 18 months later I don't see much improvement, if any.

Your so right on this point, The majority of people who voted for him are suffering from buyers remorse, Obama duped them into believing change for the better was coming, A change Obama is completely incapable of delivering.

Yep. Too many voters in the USA are unwise enough that they won't learn that things won't change much no matter who is in charge. When politicians get elected they just cater to their large campaign contributors (a.k.a. bribery) and most of them don't care one bit about the working person who was the demographic that actually voted (hired) them into office.

It's nice that you have the luxury of waiting, 6 Million unemployed are not as fortunate.

Don't believe the numbers either when they say that they're lowering. The numbers are based on those who collect unemployment benefits - many have run out now (including my wife). She's no longer considered unemployed even though she hasn't been able to get a job in 2 years.

The real number is actually (much?) higher than what's being reported.

[H2FC]

I'm one of those who believe the excessive unemployment compensation contributes to more unemployment much the same way as the excessive welfare programs do. Employment will increase in lock step with a decrease of unemployment compensation imho.

Many others like myself probably know of some unemployed who are content with their unemployment checks and wouldn't take a job if it was offered to them. Kick them off the gravy train and these people will go back to work. Of course many of these are working now part time or otherwise getting paid under the table.

[biggedon]

I'm one of those who believe the excessive unemployment compensation contributes to more unemployment much the same way as the excessive welfare programs do. Employment will increase in lock step with a decrease of unemployment compensation imho.

Many others like myself probably know of some unemployed who are content with their unemployment checks and wouldn't take a job if it was offered to them. Kick them off the gravy train and these people will go back to work. Of course many of these are working now part time or otherwise getting paid under the table.

there is no such thing as "excessive" unemployment compensation

benefits are based on past employment history and base salary


i was on "ue" back in 2001 when the company sold out to another

my benefits paid about $700 every two weeks

that equates to $8.75 hr with no health/medical/insurance benefits

should i have been kicked off the so-called "gravy train" after working for that company for 12yrs?

[hawkeye]

And an uninformed/misinformed society is an easily-manipulated society.

And this is the big picture 'everyone' is missing. While everyone is so busy screaming 'their opinions' of what they've 'heard' or 'seen' or 'think' (truth in such be dammed!), no one is really paying attention to 'where' they're being 'herded'.