Here are a few more political data points that are keeping David Axelrod up late at night:
• According to USA Today, President Obama’s approval rating on handling the issue Americans care about most, the economy, has dipped to 37 percent. A majority believes Obama doesn’t deserve to be reelected. Fifty-five percent of Americans believe the nation is in recession or depression, despite the fact that the recession officially ended almost two years ago. Just 22 percent are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States, which is significantly more negative than the nation’s mood at this point in the first terms of the past four presidents who managed to win reelection (Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush). Among the three-quarters of Americans who are dissatisfied, President Obama’s rating is at a dangerously low 35 percent. And liberals by nearly two-to-one see him as more conservative than they expected while conservatives by more than three-to-one see him as more liberal.
• By a two-to-one margin, Americans say the country is pretty seriously on the wrong track, according to a Washington Post poll. Nine in 10 continue to rate the economy in negative terms. Nearly six in 10 say the economy has not started to recover. About six in 10 of those surveyed give Obama negative marks on the economy and the deficit, with nearly half strongly disapproving of his performance in these two crucial areas. Nearly two-thirds of political independents disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy, including, for the first time, a slim majority who do so strongly. And as the Post puts it, “In another indicator of rapidly shifting views on economic issues, 45 percent trust congressional Republicans over the president when it comes to dealing with the economy, an 11-point improvement for the GOP since March.” (Forty-two percent side with Obama on this issue).
These trends, long in the making, won’t be easily reversed. The only thing that can do it is the kind of sustained economic growth we have not seen during the Obama era. A genuinely strong recovery may begin soon. For the sake of the Obama presidency, it better.
