The Washington Monthly

September 23, 2009

NBC/WSJ POLL.... Some interesting tidbits from the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll:

* Presidential approval: President Obama's approval rating stands at 51%, the same as last month's NBC/WSJ poll. His handling of the economy is up just a little to 50%, and his handling of health care is up five points to 46%. A combined 77% of Americans say they like the president personally.

* Uptick for reform plan: While a plurality of respondents still oppose the Democrats health care proposals, 39% believe the plan is a good idea. That's up three points from August, and is the highest percentage since the beginning of the reform debate.

* GOP not capitalizing: Just 21% approve of the Republican Party's handling of health care, less than half of Obama's support. Overall, 28% have a positive impression of the GOP, while 43% have a negative impression. (Democrats have 41%-39% positive/negative score.) Nevertheless, on a generic congressional ballot, Democrats only lead by three, 43% to 40%.

* Public option: The good news is, a 48% plurality believes it's "extremely important" to "give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance." That's up seven points since June. When another portion of the sample, however, was asked, "Would you favor or oppose creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies?" 48% said they're opposed; 46% said they're in favor. 26% said a public option must be part of reform; 24% said it must not.

* Blame Game: If health care reform falls apart, and nothing passes, most Americans are prepared to blame Republicans. The poll found that a 37% plurality believes congressional Republicans will be "most to blame" if the bill fails. Only 10% said President Obama would deserve the blame.

* Over exposure: The media seems awfully excited about the notion that the president is on television too much. In this poll, a 54% majority said Obama is making the right amount of media appearances.

* Economic optimism: In easily the best results of the year, the number of people who are satisfied with the state of the economy has jumped 20 points since July. Those who think the economy will get better over the next year has increased nine points since April.

* Afghanistan: A 51% majority does not want to see more U.S. troops sent to Afghanistan, and 59% are less confident about the future of the conflict. On the other hand, 55% oppose a pullout.

—Steve Benen 10:15 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (15)

Comments

A couple of other interesting points:
Barack Obama's personal favorable-unfavorable numbers are 56-41, down from 68-19 in February but not too bad.

In that generic congressional ballot, the Democrats' standing is down five points from when the question was first asked this year in April, but the GOP has only gained one point--undecided has gone up four. Still problematic for the Democrats.

The 'right direction-wrong track' number is now at 39-48--still negative, though not as bad as the depths plumbed in the last Bush years (it was 12-78 last November!). And even in the afterglow of Obama's inauguration, the best the number ever got was an even 43-43 split in April.

In this poll, they asked for the first time about Glenn Beck's favorable-unfavorable rating. Drum roll....it stands at 14-19, with 15% neutral and 51% not knowing or not sure who he is! So much for the man who is supposedly rallying the country...

Posted by: Steven J. Berke on September 23, 2009 at 10:36 AM | PERMALINK

so since the polls are the scientific proof that our minders are getting their shit together, it's now officially time to cue gene kelly?

for some reason, i'm not automatically overjoyed, you know, like the polls and the teevee tell me to be...i'll let the lucky people follow the polls and buy the lottery tickets...

Posted by: neill on September 23, 2009 at 10:39 AM | PERMALINK

On the over-exposure, the media is probably upset since the talking heads can not control the message.

And their masters are irritated since they were able to some-what step on Prez. Obama's non-political school speech, they can't stop him everywhere.

Posted by: sduffys on September 23, 2009 at 10:47 AM | PERMALINK

...off topic: FOR GOD'S SAKE, STOP WITH THE POP-UPS! This is the only site I got to that has unblockable pop-ups! I'm going to quit coming here if you don't stop it.

Posted by: anonymous on September 23, 2009 at 10:52 AM | PERMALINK

do not even try to adjust your screen.
We control the vertical.
We control the horizontal...

shift command k will not stop us!

Posted by: neill on September 23, 2009 at 10:54 AM | PERMALINK

NOticed that the spread for the"generic ballot" is only 3 points nationwide. But what about a regional breakdown? Seems at least possible that the numbers are heavily skewed republican in the south, therefore the Democrats aren't in bad shape nationwide, in swing districts, etc.

Posted by: Bill on September 23, 2009 at 11:13 AM | PERMALINK

In easily the best results of the year, the number of people who are satisfied with the state of the economy has jumped 20 points since July.

According to the survey results (question 18), 21% said they were somewhat satisfied and 2% very satisfied with the economy, compared to 11% "somewhat" and 2% "very" in July. So it seems that NBC made an error in the writeup of the poll (rather than an error in the listed results, as 10 point change seems more likely than a 20 point change in just two months). Still very good news for Obama though... also worth noting that, while the drop in overall "dissatisfied" mirrors the gain in overall "satisfied", the "very dissatisfied" number has dropped from 56 to 41. So the net difference is 5% going from very dissatisfied to somewhat dissatisfied, and 10% going from very dissatisfied to somewhat satisfied.

Posted by: ibid on September 23, 2009 at 12:01 PM | PERMALINK

read the NBC/WSJ poll (msnbc.com) in PDF and deep in the bowels of the data, you'll find that 80% personally like President Obama. (77% do, 2% not sure, 1% didn't understand the question). further, 68% are confident President Obama is right in his goals and policies. now call me silly, but that means something...and none of it's bad.

Posted by: julia on September 23, 2009 at 12:24 PM | PERMALINK

It should be understood that Obama's general popularity and approval of his health care "plan" are bound to go down but not just because the right opposes it. Many of the left are very disappointed, even enraged, at how timid and conciliatory Obama is in getting things done. That explains the high likability with the much lower approval rating.

Posted by: Frak on September 23, 2009 at 12:43 PM | PERMALINK

anonymous--use Firefox as your browser and never suffer pop-ups again.

Posted by: Frak on September 23, 2009 at 12:44 PM | PERMALINK

Not only do 54% say Obama has been seen about the right amount, an additional 9% want to see more of him.

So when Peggy Noonan says he's overexposed and "boorish", 63% of Americans think she's full of it.

Posted by: Newton Whale on September 23, 2009 at 12:47 PM | PERMALINK

I use Firefox and the pop-up appears, but then goes to the bottom of the screen.