Suddenly, all the shutdown nastiness and intense anti-Republican sentiment seems like a distant memory. Obamacare has been front and center for weeks, and public opinion has adjusted accordingly. Pew produced some very negative data for the president late last week, and now Quinnipiac confirms the undeniable downward trend. One upper-cut to the jaw after the next:
(1) President Obama's overall job approval rating is deep underwater at (39/54). It's not pretty across the board: Independents (30/63), women (40/51), Hispanics (41/47), and young voters (36/54). The telling right track vs. wrong track number stands at a miserable (21/78).
(2) On issues, the president's credibility is in the toilet. He's getting pummeled on almost every single question polled: (38/59) on the economy, (38/53) on foreign policy, (35/53) on immigration, (32/62) on the federal budget, and (36/60) on healthcare. Speaking of which...
(3) Obamacare is more unpopular than ever. In Quinnipiac's poll released as the government shutdown began, aggregate public approval of the president's signature law was only upside down by two points (45/47). Today it sits at (39/55) among all respondents, (30/63) among indies, (41/51) among women, (44/50) among Hispanics, and (42/51) among young voters.
(4) Even as Obama's ratings have slid over the last year, he almost always outpaces the GOP on major questions. Not anymore. On all four major issues polled, Americans now narrowly side with Congressional Republicans over the president. An astonishing shift: Boehner and company are +5 on the budget, +4 on the economy, and +1 on both immigration and healthcare.
(5) By more than a two-to-one margin, Americans say the law will make their own healthcare worse, not better. One-third say it will stay the same.
(6) Delaying the individual mandate tax now attracts the support of 73 percent of Americans, with just 20 percent opposed. Such an outcome would accelerate the law's problems. What will Democrats do? By a two-to-one margin, Americans don't believe the White House will meet its November 30 deadline to repair Healthcare.gov. The public splits evenly on the question of whether Obama "knowingly" lied about the law. But then...
(7) People no longer trust Obama in general. On the question of whether the president is "honest and trustworthy," he's crashed from (54/41) to (44/52) since October 1st. Perhaps this lie had something to do with that extraordinary erosion of confidence.
Your move, vulnerable Democrats. Your personal brands are tied into the president's and are therefore in grave danger. Just ask Sen. Kay Hagan, for example. I'll leave you with this:
Obama's approval rating is now the same as George W. Bush's at the same point in his presidency. pic.twitter.com/JeBvfpbl8Z
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 12, 2013
