April 2, 2010 11:58 PM
President Obama: Hitting His Stride
President Obama has hit his stride. As March drew to a close he has achieved a number of victories.Healthcare legislation was passed and has now been signed into law. The student lending system has been modified substantially, resulting in additional sums being available to be lent to students.
Negotiations of a new nuclear treaty with Russia have been successfully completed. The Senate Banking Committee has cleared a financial reregulation bill for Senate floor action. It is anticipated that the Senate will act and that a conference with the House will be successfully completed.
And finally, having decided enough is enough, Obama has made 17 recess appointments of nominees to significant Executive Branch positions that had been languishing in the Senate for months because of the refusal of Republicans to cooperate.
Now the question for Obama is the extent to which he can parlay these achievements into further legislative successes. Financial reregulation legislation is likely to be enacted. Whether members of the House and Senate will be in the mood to take "hard" political votes on other issues remains to be seen. At least at the moment, it does not appear that they are excited about that prospect.
Roughly speaking, President Obama's overall job performance rating in late March is where it was in December. However, a CNN/OR survey taken just before final passage of healthcare legislation was significantly more negative, with 51% disapproving his overall job performance.
| NBC/WSJ | NYT/CBS | WP/ABC | |
| Obama overall job approval | |||
| March 2010 | 48/47% | 49/41% | 53/33% |
| February | xxxx | 46/45% | 51/46% |
| January 2010 | 48/43% | 50/40% | 53/44% |
| December | 47/46% | 50/39% | 50/46% |
| October | 51/42% | -- | 57/40% |
| September | 51/41% | 56/33% | 54/43% |
| August | 51/40% | -- | 57/40% |
| July | 53/40% | -- | 58/37% |
| June | 56/34% | 63/26% | 65/31% |
| April | 61/30% | 66/24% | 69/26% |
| February | 60/26% | 62/15% | 68/25% |
When matched against the approval ratings of the last 8 Presidents in March of the 2nd year of their initial terms in office, Obama is now 8th, just ahead of Ronald Reagan. [Based on Gallup surveys]
| Approve | Disapprove | |
| GW Bush (II) | 79% | 17% |
| Kennedy | 79 | 12 |
| G Bush (I) | 74 | 15 |
| Eisenhower | 66 | 22 |
| Nixon | 54 | 34 |
| Carter | 48 | 39 |
| Clinton | 52 | 41 |
| Obama | 46 | 46 (3/25-27) |
| Reagan | 44 | 45 |
Personal feelings about the President remain in relatively high positive territory, but here too, the period of the healthcare debate appears to have taken its toll.
| Positive | Negative | |
| March 2010 | 50% | 38% |
| January 2010 | 52% | 35% |
| December 2009 | 50% | 30% |
| October | 56% | 33% |
| September | 56% | 33% |
| April | 64% | 23% |
| February | 68% | 19% |
| January 2009 | 66% | 14% |
| [NBC/WSJ] | ||
As healthcare reform legislation heated up late in 2009 and the President sharply increased his attention to the issue, approval of the job he is doing on the economy went negative for the first time in his tenure.
| NBC/WSJ | NYT/CBS | WP/ABC | |
| Obama job approval / disapproval on the economy | |||
| March 2010 | 47/50% | 45/45% | 45/52% |
| February | xxxx | 42/52% | 45/53% |
| January 2010 | 43/49% | 46/48% | 47/52% |
| December 2009 | 42/51% | 47/43% | 46/52% |
| October | 47/46% | 54/38% | 50/48% |
| June | 51/38% | 57/35% | 56/41% |
| February 2009 | 56/31% | 55/24% | 60/34% |
In a survey taken 3-5 days after healthcare legislation was finally passed in the House and Senate, the country was split 48%-49% as to whether it approves/ disapproves how the President has handled healthcare. [WP/ABC 3/10]
53% approve of the job that Obama is doing in handling the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Opinion is split 35% to 33% as to how he is doing in improving America's image around the world. [NBC/WSJ 3/10]
Here is how Obama is rated on his handling of the Federal budget deficit.
| Approve/Disapprove | |
| March | 43/52% |
| February | 40/45% |
| January 2010 | 38/56% |
| December 2009 | 37/56% |
| October | 45/51% |
| September | 39/55% |
| August | 41/53% |
| July | 43/49% |
| June | 48/48% |
| April 2009 | 51/43% |
| [WP/ABC] | |
Attitudes about whether Obama will/or has done a good job in handling certain issues have declined over the past year. Here is the report card on three issues. [Gallup 3/10]
| 2009 | 2010 | |
| Protecting the environment | 79% | 52% |
| Improving energy policy | 72% | 43% |
| Making America prosperous | 61% | 38% |
Michelle Obama has very much come into her own. In addition to paying special attention to military families, she is leading the Administration’s effort to come to grips with one of the country's most imporant health issues – the fatness (obesity) of children and young people. Currently, her approval rating is 78%.
