The unbeatable president? Perhaps he’s closer to unelectable:
Americans are more likely to say his presidency has been a failure than a success, 50 percent-44 percent. His favorable rating is 50 percent, higher than the GOP presidential contenders but lower than every nominee in the past five presidential contests at this point except Republican Bob Dole, who lost in 1996. A 51 percent majority say Obama is too liberal, and Americans are inclined to say they disagree with him on the issues that matter most to them. On the positive side, 58 percent say he has the personality and leadership qualities a president should have.
The USA Today survey goes on to note that none of the Republican presidential candidates have connected with the electorate nor are they inspiring a dissatisfied, frustrated, dispirited nation.
But a challenger can improve. An incumbent is a known quantity.
Note this poll description says “Americans” and elsewhere in the article says “registered voters.” So how do the numbers look among likely voters?
Huge Bradley effect, people don't want to say they Obama is incompetent due to fears of being perceived as racist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnyone who thinks Obama is an unbeatable shoo-in needs to stop breathing the air around Occupy protests! ;-)
However Obama's ratings are certainly not low enough (right now) to make him "unelectable" either. But critics of the Republican field need to calm down -- it's only February and the primary schedule has been pushed earlier than ever before.
Two reasons for Obama to be very nervous with his current approval numbers: 1) as Jim said, challengers still have a lot of room to grow but the incumbent doesn't, and 2) yeah, bigtime Bradley effect seems to be going on. Folks "like Obama" more than they like any of his specific policies or issues -- some % just won't say anything bad about the First Black President in a survey, even though they don't like what he has done and probably won't vote for him.
Obama may actually underperform his approval numbers (usually incumbents do a couple % better than their approval numbers; which is why Obama should be very worried when his approval dips to 45% or below, which it has been for most of the past year.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo... they just need to stop parading around in large crowds.
I can't help but wonder if the secret service were also required to wear a "special attire" during these protests ;-D
It's carnival time... Do you know where your president is? lmbo!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Americans are more likely to say his presidency has been a failure than a success, 50 percent-44 percent."
I wonder whether this poll queried how many Americans "graded Obama on a curve." From the data point above, it would appear this number approaches 44%.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse