By IANS,
Washington: President Barack Obama enjoys an edge over Republicans in the battle for public support as Americans blame former president George W. Bush, Wall Street and Congress much more for the nation’ s economic problems, according to a new poll.
A majority say the president has yet to offer a clear plan for creating jobs, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll published Friday found.
But they credit Obama more than Republicans with making an effort at bipartisanship, and they back the White House’s policies on a variety of disputed issues, from allowing gays to serve openly in the military to repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
The poll suggests that both parties face a toxic environment as they prepare to face voters in November, the poll said.
Public disapproval of Congress is at a historically high level, and huge numbers of Americans think Congress is beholden to special interests, it found. Fewer than one in ten Americans say members of Congress deserve re-election.
As the party in power, Democrats face a particular risk from any wave of voter discontent; unfavourable views of the Democratic party are as high as they have been since the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, though Republicans continue to register an even worse showing on that measure, the Times said.
The percentage of Americans who approve of Obama’s job performance, at 46 percent, is as low as it has been since he took office, it said. “Still, the poll suggests that Obama and his party have an opportunity to deflect the anger and anxiety.”
They can do so “if they can frame the election not as a referendum on the president and his party, but as a choice between them and a Republican approach that is far less popular with Americans and yielded results under Bush that much of the nation still blames for the country’s woes,” the Times said. “That is what the White House has been attempting to do since the beginning of the year.”
For all the erosion in support for Obama, Americans say Obama better understands their needs and problems and has made more of an effort to be bipartisan than Congressional Republicans, the poll found.
Americans say that Obama is far less likely to favour special interests over the American people than Congress. Obama and his party continues to have an edge over Republicans on which party would do better in dealing with health care and job creation. But Republicans have gained an edge on handling of the economy.
The poll also found that 51 percent of Americans now view the Democratic Party unfavourably, nearly matching the highest in the history of the Times/CBS News poll. At the same time, 57 percent have an unfavourable view of the Republican Party.
The nationwide telephone poll of 1,084 adults was taken from Feb 5 to Feb 10, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all adults.