McClatchy/Ipsos - Poll: With 69 percent approval, Obama has political firepower

[Pirate Smile]

Poll: With 69 percent approval, Obama has political firepower

By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Nearly seven in ten Americans approve of the way President Barack Obama is doing his job, giving him enormous political capital as he pushes Congress to give him unprecedented tools to fight economic crisis, according to a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll.

Obama outpolls Congress by more than 30 points, and he also can point to an uptick in the number of people who think the country's headed in the right direction even as a majority thinks the worst is yet to come in the economy.

The survey found that 69 percent of Americans approve of Obama's performance — with a robust 38 percent "strongly" approving.
At the same time, 26 percent disapprove of the way he's doing his job, with 12 percent "strongly" disapproving.

Notably, the solid approval was recorded Feb. 6-9, after Obama admitted that he "screwed up" in the ill-fated nomination of former Sen. Tom Daschle to be Health and Human Services secretary. Daschle withdrew under a torrent of criticism for tax problems. The survey of 1,042 adults has an error margin of plus or minus 3.04 percentage points; a subset of 841 registered voters has an error margin of plus or minus 3.38 percent points.

The poll underscores the most potent weapon Obama has as he presses Congress not only to approve a proposed $789.5 billion plan to stimulate the economy, but also perhaps to approve hundreds of billions of dollars more to shore up the nation's banking system.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/310/story/61991.html

[PM Martin]

1. Then he should use it.

[DFLforever]

2. Plus like the Prez, the American people are realists.

54% say the worst in the economy is yet to come.

[Paulaguyon]

4. In some cases, Americans are realists

That new Gallup poll showing that belief in evolution is at 40% doesn't help.

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. I love it. This is the shiz-nit that keeps Hannity & Limbaugh up nights.

The more they pile on, the more popular he becomes. You would think they would have figured this out in the primaries. Oh well.......