Obama Rebounds in New Poll, Possibly Thanks to Congress
December 19, 2011 | 5:35 PM
Mitt Romney isn't the only politician making a comeback these days.
A new ABC News-Washington Post poll shows rising numbers for President Obama. The man presiding over a nearly imperceptible recovery from the Great Recession is now at 49 percent job approval.
That's substantially higher than Obama's career low of 42 percent in the same poll in October, and better than George W. Bush's 47 percent three months before he defeated John Kerry in 2004. It's also more than twice as high as the 20 percent approval rating the poll found for Republicans in Congress.
The Republican candidates for president constantly depict Obama as
hapless, weak and out of his depth. But in this poll he is winning some
key political arguments. People trust him over congressional Republicans
to protect the middle class (50 percent to 35 percent) and handle taxes
(46 percent to 41 percent), and he's running even with the GOP on jobs
and the economy.A new ABC News-Washington Post poll shows rising numbers for President Obama. The man presiding over a nearly imperceptible recovery from the Great Recession is now at 49 percent job approval.
That's substantially higher than Obama's career low of 42 percent in the same poll in October, and better than George W. Bush's 47 percent three months before he defeated John Kerry in 2004. It's also more than twice as high as the 20 percent approval rating the poll found for Republicans in Congress.
Gary Langer, who handled the poll for ABC, says Obama is doing well because he has a dysfunctional Congress as a foil. It's unclear if the president's numbers will hold. But the results certainly suggest Obama won't lose any points for bashing Congress.
They also suggest that House Republicans are not winning points for doing things like torpedoing a short-term Senate deal to extend jobless benefits and payroll tax cuts. That would be the bipartisan deal that drew 89 of 100 Senate votes and would have allowed members of Congress to go home.
Many members of the large class of freshman Republicans in the House say they don't care what the nation thinks of them. Their indifference is admirable in a way, and politically advantageous insofar as it makes Obama seem powerless. The danger now to the GOP is that they're making their own leaders seem weak, and jeopardizing their party's chances of winning the White House next year.
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