The (Opinion) Polls Are Closed....And America is Not Happy

Recently, a lot of public opinion polls have been floating their latest results so I thought it might be a good idea to check in and see what America thinks about our current set of politicians. I have a feeling that we are continuing our disenchantment with their performance or lack of performance, but let’s see what the poll numbers have to say.

1) The biggest and most credible of current poll results are probably the findings of a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. I say credible since the sponsors of the poll usually line up on different ends of the political spectrum, Wall Street Journal on the right, NBC on the left, so one would assume there is some balance of analysis.

Their poll findings are not good news for Obama, Congress, or the future of the nation:

• Obama's approval rating in this poll has dropped to an all-time low, with 79% of those polled saying they were dissatisfied with him and the American political system.
• Only 40% of those polled said they approved of Obama's performance in the White House.
• This represents his all time low in this poll, down from 41% in the previous month, an all-time low, the survey reports. 
• The President's disapproval rating, 54%, matched a previous high.
• His handling of foreign policy was rated much worse, a 60% disapproval rating to only a 35% approval rating on foreign policy issues. 
• As bad as his disapproval ratings are trending, he still has a sizable lead on the view of Congress where only 14% of those polled gave Congress a positive rating.
• This low approval rating marked the seventh consecutive time the Congressional approval rating has been under 15% in this poll since 2011.

Commentary on the poll results came from various sources:

• Democratic pollster Fred Yang of Hart Research: "The American public is telling its elected representatives that the economic distress that a significant proportion of them are feeling is directly their fault. The public seems to have moved beyond the plaintive cry of 'feel our pain' to the more angry pronouncement of 'you are causing our pain.' " 
• Peter Hart, another Democratic pollster: "We’re in the summer of our discontent, Americans are cranky, unhappy… It is with everything going on the world."

“The summer of discontent” has been going on for a while and is likely to evolve into a year round event unless we somehow find a way to replace those in Washington that are causing both our pain and our discontent.

2) A recent poll from CNN also carried some bad news for the President. Their latest poll showed that 33% of those polled want to see Obama impeached in this summer of discontent. Other findings from the poll included:

• About half of those polled think that Obama has excessively expanded the power of his office.
• 65% of those polled do not think impeachment is a good idea.
• 57% of Republicans think Obama should be impeached, 13% of Democrats feel that way, and 35% of independents supporting impeachment.

The most interesting takeaway here is that when first sworn into office, Obama’s approval ratings were in the 70-80% range. He has moved from that lofty perch to a perch that where now one out of three Americans think he should be impeached.

3) Given the immigration crisis on our southern border, it is no surprise that polls have been conducted on that issue. One of the latest ones was done by the YouGov organization which found:

• 58% of those polled stated that Obama’s unilateral policy of de facto amnesty was the primary driver of this increase in illegal immigration volume.
• 71% of Republicans think an expectation of amnesty drives the illegal activity
• Even a majority of Democrats in the survey feel that the root cause of the flood of illegal immigrants is a belief that these kids will receive amnesty.
• Only 32% of those polled approve of Obama’s immigration policies.
• 58% disapprove of his immigration policies.
• Separately, a recent Washington Post poll also found that Americans disapprove of Obama’s immigration policy by a nearly identical margin of 58% to 33%.
• More than half of those polled say the immigration issue is ‘very important,’ a large jump up jump from the recent low of about 35% just five months ago.

So the importance of the issue is growing while the President suffers through low approval ratings on how he is handling the situation. Not a good combination. 

4) A Gallup poll showed another instance where the President might be on the wrong end of the stick relative to the numbers. In this Gallup poll, the majority of Muslims and atheists polled had a favorable view of president Obama. That is the good news for Obama on these small minorities within the overall U.S. population.

However, Christians in the poll had a negative view of his policies and performance and Christians are, by, far, the largest religious grouping in the country:

• 72% of Muslims and 54% of atheists expressed approval of the President.
• Every Christian sub segment within the poll had an approval rating below 50%: only 44% of Catholics approved, and only 37% of Protestant/Other Christian approved, and only 18% of Mormon/Latter-day Saints approved.

Again, not a great place to be, high approval ratings in the smaller subsegments of the population, leading to an overall bad and trending worse approval rating.

5) Going back to that Wall Street Journal/NBC poll we opened today’s discussion with, let’s look at some of the foreign affairs issues and crises underway that the survey rated this President on, subissuesbelow  the low overall 40% approval rating. Unfortunately, for other issues of our times, Obama receives even worst approval ratings than his low overall approval rating: 

• The Malaysian passenger jet shot down over Ukraine: 26% approve and 37% disapprove

• The conflict between Russia and Ukraine: 23-43

• The civil war in Syria: 18-37

• The ongoing struggle between Hamas and Israel: 17-45

• The rise of ISIS in Iraq: 14-42

It is obvious that in the view of many Americans, this administration is a bust when it comes to foreign policy and issues management, scoring far lower approval ratings by issue than disapproval ratings.

For a President that is trying to build his legacy midway through his last term, the preliminary results are not good. Overall, America is disappointed with his administration. On a range of foreign policies, America is disappointed with him. Where he actually does have favorable approval ratings they are only within small sub segments of the population.

A growing majority of Americans disapprove of his signature piece of legislation, Obama care. America has no idea what to think of his second biggest piece of legislation, the Dodd-Frank financial industry, since four years after it was enacted, his administration has still not written about half of the needed regulations.

Leadership seems to be missing both from within the White House and within Congress as they embark on their annual five week vacation, dismal approval ratings be damned.

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