President Obama’s Job Approval Ratings Take a Plunge
Americans freeze up with the words, “Internal Revenue Service.”
To no one’s surprise, President Obama’s job approval ratings have taken a plunge – a serious plunge. No doubt based on the series of scandals to hit the White House, fewer than half the registered voters surveyed now believe Obama is “honest and trustworthy,” according to the poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.
Obama’s job approval rating stood at 58 percent in September, 2011 when the survey was last taken. In the most recent it is 49 percent.
The IRS scandal is doing the president the most damage. Voters surveyed between Wednesday last week and Tuesday of this week, believe that controversy is by far more important than Benghazi or the seizure of journalists’ notes.
The Connecticut university’s survey shows that Americans are split down the middle with half approving and half disapproving of the president.
Forty-four percent of those polled saw the IRS scandal as the single most important issue while 24 percent say the terrorist attack in Benghazi, and 15 percent say the records seizure at news organizations is most important.
It’s obvious that the American people are much more unforgiving when it comes to their own privacy.
Other data collected included 76 percent of those surveyed believe a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the IRS scandal. As Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac said, “There’s bipartisan support for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS. Voters apparently don’t like the idea of Attorney General Eric Holder investigating the matter himself, perhaps because they don’t exactly think highly of him.”
Holder himself got a negative 39 percent job approval rating, compared to 23 percent who approved of the way he is doing his job.
Ironically, the same group polled is optimistic that the economy is beginning to improve.
“The fact that voters say, 34 – 25 percent, that the economy is getting better also may be a reason the president’s job approval numbers have not dropped further,” said Brown.
A total of 1,419 registered voters were polled for the survey, with a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points, Quinnipiac said.
