38 Percent Think Obama Deserves Re-Election, Poll Says
The majority of Americans disapprove of President Obama's performance in office and would considering voting to replace him in 2012, according to a new Politico/George Washington University Battleground Poll.
The poll, which sampled 1,000 registered "likely" voters between September 19-22, indicated that only 38 percent of Americans think Mr. Obama deserves re-election, while 44 percent said they planned to vote for someone else and 13 percent said they were considering that option.
While the majority of voters approved of Mr. Obama on a personal level, Americans indicated a deep dissatisfaction with his success in economic recovery and job creation. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed said they thought congressional Republicans would do a better job than Mr. Obama at turning the economy around, and 51 percent thought Republicans would be better at creating jobs. Forty-one percent said they thought Mr. Obama would do a better job with the economy, and 40 percent thought he would more effectively create jobs.
In general, most Americans viewed Mr. Obama's performance so far unfavorably. Forty-five of the 51 percent of Americans who said they disapproved of the job he has done so far as president said they felt strongly about their disapproval. Forty-six percent of Americans approved of Mr. Obama's job performance, and 35 percent of those supporters approved strongly.
While positive opinion of the Tea Party Movement was dominant, with 43 percent of voters viewing the movement favorably and 35 percent viewing it unfavorably, the majority of those polled indicated they would probably vote for Mr. Obama over prominent Tea Party politician Sarah Palin if the two were opponents in the 2012 presidential elections.
Forty-five percent said they would "definitely" vote for Mr. Obama in such a match-up, while another six percent said they would either "probably" vote for him or were leaning toward it. Thirty-two percent said they would "definitely" vote for Palin, and 10 percent said they "probably" would or leaned that way.
Additionally, 81 percent of respondents said they relied on cable as a source of political information - and Fox News was a clear favorite among them, with 42 percent of voters relying mainly on the station for election-related news. Thirty percent said they got their information mainly from CNN, and 12 percent from MSNBC.
Along those lines, 38 percent said they thought Fox's Glenn Beck had a positive impact on American political debate (compared to the 32 percent who thought he had a negative impact), while 55 percent said they had never heard of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
