Obama on the Upswing in New AP Poll
By Michael Mcauliff
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Congress' approval ratings may be headed south, but President Obama's have spiked upwards for the first time in the Associated Press poll.
The AP/GfK survey out today finds Obama's approval rating at 56%, compared to 50% last month. He had been sliding steadily in the survey since his inauguration.
The uptick is driven by an improvement in how people feel the President is handling the economy and his health care reforms. Fifty percent of voters now say they like his economic efforts, up six points from last month. And they narrowly approve of the health reform push, 48% to 47%, representing another healthy jump.
About the only not-good news in the survey for Obama was on Afghanistan, where approval held steady at 46%, and 57% of Americans oppose the war. Half oppose sending more troops.
A Quinnipiac University survey out today finds just 38% are willing to send more troops, and approval of the Obama's handling of the war is just 42%, compared to 40% disapproval.
Still, Quinnipiac finds that by a 52% to 37% margin, the country thinks it is "doing the right thing by fighting the war."
"The American people are deeply conflicted about the war in Afghanistan. Two-thirds of voters can tell you that the war is related to the 9/11 attacks and see the current effort there as worthwhile to prevent a re-occurrence," said Quinnipiac's Peter Brown. "But they don't want a prolonged military commitment and there is obvious nervousness about requests from the military to send more troops to Afghanistan."
- More coverage from the New York Daily News.
Reader Comments
Can't we walk and chew gum at the same time?
Let's see. Our national deficit is over 11 trillion and counting. Our 2008 trade deficit was 23.2 billion. Our dollar is losing its value. Aren't we bankrupt already?
Health care is consuming over 9% of our GDP, the most expensive in the world and its cost is increasing rapidly. Yet, despite our spending, our health care system lags behind other advanced nations. Wouldn't fixing health care contribute to fixing the economy anyway?
Our nation has been in economic decline for quite some time now. How long does it take to eliminate the debt? How long does it take to reverse the trade imbalance? How long does it take to fix it? Does anyone know? If we were to wait till the economy turns around before we do anything else, we could be waiting for a long time.
Are WE supposed to believe this?
Your own US News Poll shows a 57% F- and the A/B range below 30% for a "grade" of Obama's performance.
The "economy" is in the tank and "healthcare" should be the last thing ANY President should be worrying about given our US circumstances now.
"HOPE" we're not completely bankrupt before WE can "CHANGE" our leadership.
And it should be
For once, we have a US president who's intelligent, articulate, engaging, and more importantly, ready to bring about much needed changes to our country. Obama is tackling, among many other things, 2 very important issues facing our nation, economy and health care. I feel comfortable with him at the helm and trust that he will act wisely. Will all the changes be perfect the first time around? Probably not. But the alternative is analsysi-paralysis and paritsan bickering.
advertisement
