Last year I wrote posts on how disapproval of the healthcare law passed in March of last year reflected the fact that the law was not “liberal enough” and if you included those who thought it wasn’t liberal enough with those who thought supported it you would have a majority. In the most recent CNN Poll on President Obama’s job approval ratings Obama’s approval rating is listed as 45% and disapproval at 54%. The next question in the poll of 856 Americans, plus 153 cell phone users, tries to break down the reason why they disapprove into either ‘too liberal’, ‘not liberal enough’, or ‘unsure.’ The overall margin of error is +/- 3%. Of the 54% who disapprove, 38% said too liberal, 13% said not liberal enough, and 3% were unsure.
This result is very similar to ones found for approval of the health care law which I’ve linked to below. When the 13% who think he is not liberal enough is added to the 45% who approve that adds up to 58%. The last time this poll was conducted from April 29 to May 1, 51% approved of his performance and 7% said he was not liberal enough which adds up to the same 58%. The poll does not ask voters to describe what “liberal enough” means. Later questions ask voters about approval ratings of other major figures in the debt ceiling debate such as House Speaker John Boehner (43% favorable, 32% unfavorable, 12% never heard of) the ratings for other major figure from the poll are summarized below. None of them fare any better than the President.
4. We’d like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say
if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people — or if you have never heard of
them. (RANDOM ORDER)
|
|
Favorable
|
Unfavorable
|
Never
heard of
|
No
opinion
|
|
VP Joe Biden
July 18-20, 2011
|
43%
|
43%
|
6%
|
8%
|
|
Speaker of the House John Boehner
July 18-20, 2011
|
43%
|
32%
|
12%
|
13%
|
|
House Democratic Leader House Nancy Pelosi
July 18-20, 2011
|
35%
|
52%
|
7%
|
6%
|
|
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell
July 18-20, 2011
|
27%
|
32%
|
27%
|
14%
|
|
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
July 18-20, 2011
|
29%
|
37%
|
25%
|
9%
|
|
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
July 18-20, 2011
|
27%
|
33%
|
28%
|
12%
|
|
Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor
July 18-20, 2011
|
18%
|
21%
|
46%
|
15%
|
|
The Democratic Party
July 18-20, 2011
|
45%
|
49%
|
1%
|
5%
|
|
The Republican Party
July 18-20, 2011
|
41%
|
55%
|
1%
|
4%
|
|
The Tea Party movement
July 18-20, 2011
|
37%
|
47%
|
4%
|
12%
|
As stated before, the poll does not ask what too liberal or not liberal enough means. It does ask if the respondents believe that President Obama should compromise with Congress 68% say yes and a virtually equal number (66%) say that Congress should compromise with the President. The poll does not say which compromises the respondents would like to see. Given the low favorability ratings of the Tea Party and majority who either approve of Obama’s or disapprove because he is ‘not liberal enough,’ I would not anticipate that the majority of them would support compromises on entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
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