THE LATEST
« »

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Poll: Americans Don't Blame Obama for Economy

Newsflash: Americans aren't as stupid as Republicans hope they are, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds.

At this early stage in his presidency, Obama continues to benefit from a broadly held perception that others should bear the bulk of responsibility for the severe economic problems that confront his administration. Americans see plenty of offenders, but only about a quarter blame the president and his team for an economy that's in the ditch.


He's starting to lose independents, but the majority still approve of Obama's handing of the economy. And many also see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The percentage of Americans in the new poll who said the country is on the right track still stands at just 42 percent, but that is the highest percentage saying so in five years and marks a sharp turnabout from last fall, when as many as nine in 10 said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Fifty-seven percent now consider the nation as moving on the wrong track.


Obama's overall approval rating is 66%, his handling of the economy scores 60%, and even his handling of the deficit -- a point Republicans have been hammering on since day one -- remains in the majority-positive with 52%.

1 comments:

vet said...

Wisco, I know you like to cover as much news as you can - but I'm always nervous when I see you talking about poll numbers. They're not news, they're what news companies invent to talk about when all the other options would involve hard work.

Quite possibly the worst thing that could happen to your country, right now, is that Obama starts treating his own poll numbers as an indicator of how he's doing. Then he'd really screw the pooch. Obama needs to be following his own compass; but that gets steadily harder to do, if everyone else is focusing on Gallup's.

Search Archive:

Custom Search