NBC/WSJ poll: Voters planning to use midterms to punish Obama

By Robert Laurie —— Bio and Archives March 12, 2014

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There's a new NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll out today and it contains a whole host of ugly news for the left. If Democrats are looking for comfort after their loss in Florida, they're going to have to look elsewhere. Obama's approval rating has hit a new low and, even worse, voters are ready to use the 2014 midterms to punish him.

Check out this data:

• Obama’s job-approval rating has dropped to a low point of 41 percent, never a good position for the party controlling the White House
• By a 33 percent to 24 percent margin, Americans say their vote will be to signal opposition to the president rather than to signal support, though 41 percent say their vote will have nothing to do about Obama
• Forty-eight percent of voters say they’re less likely to vote for a candidate who’s a solid supporter of the Obama administration, versus 26 percent who say they’re more likely to vote for that candidate
• And Republicans hold a one-point edge over Democrats on which party registered voters prefer to control Congress, 44 percent to 43 percent. While that’s within the poll’s margin of error, Republicans have traditionally fared well in elections when they’ve held a slight lead on this question.

Frankly, the approval numbers alone don't mean all that much. Both sides of the political aisle are currently unpopular, with just about everyone despising both major parties. What's interesting is how Obama's low approval number is impacting voter's intentions. If 48% of voters say they're less likely to vote for Obama-supportive candidates, and 33% plan on using their vote to punish signal their opposition to the President, Democrats are starting this race behind an enormous eight ball. The poll was conducted by a pair of pollsters, Fred Yang of Hart Research - a Democrat - and Bill McInturff, a Republican. According to Yang, “The wind is in our face. There is an advantage for Republicans right now.” If these numbers hold, that's the understatement of the year. Obama's job approval is currently at the lowest this poll has ever recorded. Even a record high 20% of Democrats disapprove. That means that - in order to improve the punishment numbers - he'd have undo five years of failure in about five months. Then he'd have two months to let his sudden, improbable, popularity filter down to Democrat candidates before Election Day. Given that there's no way his ego would ever allow him to admit ObamaCare was a massive mistake, that's something he probably can't do. His party knows this. So, as I've written before, he's become a deeply toxic political pariah.

“The president is being taken off the field as a Democratic positive,” says McInturff, the GOP pollster. “When you have the most powerful person in the world [on the sidelines], that’s a big deal.”

A big deal indeed.