The headline from the most recent Harris Interactive poll is that President Obama’s job approval rating dipped to 37% — the lowest (I think) in any poll.
More interesting than the total number is his slipping approval among self-identified Dems and Liberals … 1 in 3 of them dings the President.
For comparison, 90% of GOPers and 89% of conservatives disapprove of the job the President is doing.
The Homa Files 
October 27, 2010 at 1:43 pm |
I find these up/down, two choice polls problematic.
A lot of these “liberal” or “Dem” disapprovals stem from not doing either more or enough, rather than straight disapproval. President Obama can generate disapproval from generic Democrats by either passing a health care bill at all or by passing a bill that does not go even further. Both register as disapproval- but mean different things for voting, etc. I tend to think a sizable portion of the President’s disapproval among his core supporters is consequently somewhat benign- perhaps accounting for his Intrade re-election numbers being substantially higher than a Democratic Congress.
Another place where this politically pertinent is war/security polling… where you see a goodly number of Americans opposing war, Guantanamo. One reason why these policies do not substantially change in response is that a manifest amount of the disapproval can be dismissed as people who think prosecution of such events isn’t aggressive enough (i.e. I disapprove of the bombing/detention because it isn’t harsh enough.)