Gallup: Obama’s Support Among Independents At 53%
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Economy, Obama, Polls
Cause for alarm? If you track polls it might be because it has dipped to its lowest mark since he took office. And that means his overall rating has dipped to 58%.
My guess as to why this is happening? People are nervous about the economy and the deficits. And that last one will be the issue come 2010. I guarantee it. Because while the economy may turn around, there’s no getting away from the idea that deficits are the worst they’ve ever been and they won’t turn around for quite some time.
In fact, here are some numbers from a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that bear that nervousness out…
â— 58% say the president and Congress should concentrate on keeping the budget deficit down, even if it takes longer for the economy to recover [...]â— when asked the most important economic issue facing the country, 24% chose the budget deficit and only 11% chose health care
With all of the numbers showing how much people want health care, I do question whether or not people really think the budget deficit is the most important economic issue right now. Still, deficits made George H. W. Bush a one termer, so the White House should be paying attention.
By the way, what do you think is the most important economic issue right now?
This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 and is filed under Barack, Economy, Obama, Polls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 19th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I think the American people in my view are too wishie washie on what they want. They want better health care and the majority of people want single payer, but are concern about the deficits. If President Obama doesn’t pass health care with the single payer it will be deem as a failure and the American people could use this against him.
June 20th, 2009 at 1:39 am
If the economy recovers the deficit will get a lot smaller a fast. Tax revenues will go up, and there won’t be a need for any more stimulus money. And if Obama’s health reforms work they’ll save the federal budget from the coming explosion in MediCare costs. So Obama probably figures he’s best off making sure that a) the economy recovers,and b) decent health reform passes.
And personally I’d say health care is the biggest economic issue. It’s a huge expense that is growing significantly faster than inflation. We already spend more on health care than any country, our government is currently in the top five of per capita government health spending, and despite all this economist would be overjoyed if health spending only grew 7% a year.
June 20th, 2009 at 7:25 am
I sometimes listen to talk radio in my car (why, I have no idea).
These guys are totally shameless … especially on this subject.
When President Bush’s approval ratings were hovering around 30%, he was “principled” for not letting poll numbers influence his decision making.
Now when a couple of polls show President Obama dipping below 60%, it’s proof of “tyranny” because he “refuses to listen to the people”.
It would almost be funny; if there weren’t so many _____ out there who take every word these jokers utter absolutely seriously.
Todd
June 20th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
GHW Bush was a first termer because he ran afoul of Grover Norquist and his tyrannical “no raised taxes” pledge. The conservatives who now are completely in charge of the GOP got their biggest boost from Bush’s reneging of his “read my lips” pledge.
The quickest way to cut the deficit is to let the Bush tax cuts expire. That should make the right go nuts. Give ‘em the either/or rock/hard place decision.
June 20th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I could be wrong, but this seems like a fairly normal trend after an election. People are energized and hopeful that all the shiny promises will come true (regardless of the candidate who promised them), but when reality rears it’s ugly head, people chill out a bit. I’m honestly more interested in seeing where we are a year from now; there are still a couple of significant economic hurdles to leap if we want to see a recovery.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Support for comprehensive health care reform is actually a good bit lower now than it was during Clinton’s first term.
My own humble opinion is that people do indeed want HC reform, but are suspicious that anything less than a comprehensive ground-up restructuring of our HC system will just make things worse. And IMHO they’re right.