The new Quinnipiac poll has many interesting nuggets of information. We learn:
President Barack Obama’s job approval, which bounced slightly to a 45 – 46 percent split March 25 in the wake of his health care victory, has flattened out at 44 – 46 percent, his lowest approval rating since his inauguration, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. … “President Barack Obama’s approval rating hovers at an all-time low. The White House had predicted passage of the health care overhaul would boost his fortunes, but that has not been the case, and that legislation itself remains decidedly unpopular,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. Voters disapprove 55 – 40 percent of the way Obama is handling the economy and disapprove 55 – 40 percent of the way he is handling health care. By a narrow 42 – 39 percent margin voters trust Obama, rather than congressional Republicans to handle health care. But they disapprove 53 – 39 percent of the federal health care overhaul that he recently signed into law.
Even more interesting is the breakdown along racial and religious lines. Obama is down to 35 percent approval among whites, while African Americans remain his most loyal supporters, with a 92 percent approval. Among religious groups — yes, you know where this is going — Jews are his most devoted followers, with 59 percent approval, far ahead of Evangelicals (20 percent approval), other Protestants (27 percent), and Catholics (35 percent).
Obama’s broad-based ideological coalition has fractured. Among liberals, 77 percent approve of his performance (accounting, no doubt, for high approval among Jews and African Americans, who are more liberal than the population as a whole), while 54 percent of moderates and only 38 percent of independents, 10 percent of Tea Partiers, and 11 percent of Republicans approve of his job performance.
Obama has essentially lost the carefully assembled, broad-based majority that elected him. He is now kept from drifting into George W. Bush–like polling by the loyalty of devoted African Americans, Jews, and liberals. It’s not a winning model for re-election, but then he hasn’t governed in a way to maintain a majority of support from Americans.
