Zogby: Obama Needs To Energize His Base

Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending.

John Zogby on Week 90:

It's been a quiet week at the White House, as Congress has gone home to campaign. Our polling, along with some others, shows Democrats closing the gap in the congressional generic ballot. When it appears that one side is headed for a big win more than a month out from an election, polls normally tighten. Given that Republicans are no more popular (perhaps less so) than the Democrats, this movement should not be surprising. However, there is still a lot of variation among different polls, as we all try to identify who will actually vote. The starkest reality for Obama and his party is that the primarily Republican older white middle-class voters are always more likely to vote in a midterm than are the Democratic majorities among the young, the poor and racial minorities. Those Democratic voters elected Obama, and he had better do more to roust them out to vote than he has so far.

This week's grade: C-

Last week's: C

John Zogby is president and CEO of Zogby International, a public opinion, research, and business solutions firm with experience working in more than 70 countries around the globe. Founded and led by Zogby since 1984, Zogby International specializes in telephone, Internet, and face-to-face survey research and analysis for corporate, political, nonprofit, and governmental clients. The firm is headquartered in Utica, N.Y. John Zogby is also the author of The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House).

• Read more about the 2010 elections.
• Check out our editorial cartoons on the 2010 campaigns.
• See which industries give the most to Congress.

Reader Comments Read all comments (3)

Add Your Thoughts

Comment Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Incorrect please try again

Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear:

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.