Poll: Only 2/3 Obama Backers To Vote Democrat
A new CBS News-Knowledge Networks Poll shows President Obama's approval rating among people who voted for him in 2008 remains very strong, at 82 percent, but that will do little to help Democrats hold onto seats in Congress on November 2.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports that, for the White House, keeping control of the House and Senate is all about getting Democrats and Independents who voted for the president in 2008 back to the polls, and on that score, the latest poll numbers show Mr. Obama hasn't closed the sale.
Only two-thirds of Obama voters in 2008 (67 percent) say they'll vote for one of his fellow Democrats in 2010. Eight percent of those voters say they will vote Republican this year, and 21 percent say it depends.
The biggest erosion of support is among independents; just 42 percent of Obama's 2008 independent voters say they'll support a Democrat this year. Twelve percent say they'll vote for a Republican, and 38 percent were still undecided.
The one-word slogan that defined candidate Obama's campaign, "change" has been hard to come by, according to those surveyed. Just 16 percent of Obama voters believe he has brought significant change to the way Washington works. Almost half (48 percent) of independents say he's brought little change, or none at all.
Many supporters of Obama from 2008 are unhappy with Washington in general; 58 percent said they were dissatisfied or angry about the way things are going in the nation's capital. Only 41 percent say they're satisfied or enthusiastic about the federal government's performance. Independents are especially dissatisfied; with almost seven in 10 expressing that view.
Read the Full Poll
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CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. This CBS News Poll was conducted online by Knowledge Networks among a nationwide random sample of 1077 Americans who say they voted for Barack Obama for President in 2008. Knowledge Networks, a Silicon Valley company, conducted the poll among a sample of adult members of its household panel, which is a nationally representative sample given access to the Internet. This is a scientifically representative poll of self-identified 2008 Obama voters. The margin of sampling error could be plus or minus three percentage points for the entire sample of 2008 Obama voters. Sampling error for subgroups could be higher.
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