Saturday, December 10, 2011

CBS News Poll: Majority (54 Percent) Don't Think Obama Should Be Reelected

By Susan Duclos



CBS News Polling provides bad news for Barack Obama's chances at being reelected as President in 2012.

The majority of voters, 54 percent, does not think Obama has performed the job he was elected to do, well enough to be elected into a second term with just 41 percent thinking he has.



Furthermore, 54 percent also do not believe Obama shares their priorities with only 41 percent believing he does.

Other findings show that while Obama receives high marks for "handling terrorism" with 57 percent approving, he does not get high marks for "job creation" or the "economy" with 58 percent disapproving of how Obama has handled job creation and 60 percent disapproving of his handling of the economy.

Views on the national economy remain very negative: since early 2008, roughly three in four Americans (and sometimes even more) have said the economy is in bad shape. Now, 86% of Americans characterize the economy as at least somewhat bad, including 42% who say it is very bad. Although the national unemployment rate recently dropped below 9% for the first time since 2009, Americans are skeptical that a recovery is on the horizon. Just 21% think the economy is getting better, and 39% think it is getting worse, up from 32% last month.

More:

• 68 percent believe Obama has not made any real progress on fixing the economy with only 28 percent believing he has made progress.

• 57 percent think Obama has worked hard to bring about change but a plurality, 48 percent, believe Obama has divided the country in doing so with only 37 percent saying he brought the country together.

• 51 percent of voters continue to disapprove of Obama's "signature accomplishment", Obamacare, with only 35 percent approving. 13 percent think Obamacare will help them personally while 32 percent saying it will hurt them and 46 percent stating it will have no effect.

• 75 percent think the country is on the wrong track and 21 percent say it is going in the right direction.

• 46 percent disapprove of Obama's overall job performance with 44 percent approving.

Worth noting that the CBS News poll's disapproval figures Obama do not match the national average. Gallup shows 51 percent disapproving, CNN/Opinion Research shows 54 percent disapproving, Fox News shows 51 percent disapproving and Rasmussen, the only one that uses likely voters as their sample, has 55 percent disapproving.

Once again we see that voters like Obama personally but do not see his likability translated into capability.

CBS News analysis of polling results found here.

Full CBS News poll results (PDF)

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