Poll finds growing number unhappy with Obama, Dems

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan poll released Wednesday indicates President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party may be putting themselves in political jeopardy with their expensive and ambitious agenda, which has yet to show benefits for the country.

“There are warning signs for Democrats heading into 2010,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said. “Despite trusting and supporting the Democratic agenda, majorities think the administration is spending too much and doing too many things.”

Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who conducted the Battleground Poll with Lake for George Washington University, said it showed signs of a shifting landscape that could help Republicans start rebounding from back-to-back election losses in 2006 and 2008, when they lost control of Congress and the White House.

“It’s a lot more fun on the way up than it is on the way down, and we’re already starting to see signs of that,” Goeas said. “The demise of the Republican Party has been overanalyzed and overestimated.”

The bipartisan Battleground Poll, which surveyed 1,007 registered likely voters nationwide July 19-23, has an error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Overall, Obama and the Democrats still have popular support.

The survey found that 53 percent of likely voters approve of the way Obama is doing his job. It also found that the president and congressional Democrats had an advantage over Republicans on such issues as health care and energy independence and characteristics such as honesty and middle-class values.

“Obama continues to be very strong as a personal brand. Voters still like him,” Lake said at a breakfast with reporters.

Yet he’s facing public skepticism about his agenda and potential problems with the key voting bloc of independents.

A solid majority of 61 percent, for example, said Obama was spending too much money. A similar majority of 63 percent said he was trying to do too many things at once.

Skepticism was rampant among Republicans but also evident among independents.

Among independents, the poll found Obama’s job approval dropping to 42 percent and his disapproval rising to 50 percent. Of that 50 percent who disapprove, the vast majority disapprove strongly, the poll found.

Independents also were much more likely than Democrats to say Obama is spending too much money — 76 percent of independents said that. Sixty-eight percent of independents said he is trying to do too much.

Independents supported having government power divided between the major political parties by 53 percent to 29 percent, rivaling Republicans and potentially signaling dissatisfaction with Democratic control of the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Looking ahead to 2010, when the entire 435-member House and one-third of the Senate are up for election, Goeas and Lake said Republicans as of now had more intensity — a passion that could turn into an edge in getting their voters to turn out.

The poll found 75 percent of Republicans saying they definitely will vote, a clear edge over the 66 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents who say they will.