By: Jose DelReal
October 30, 2013 06:49 PM EDT
President Barack Obama’s job approval has dropped to an all-time low, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
A new ABC News/Wall Street Journal survey shows that a mere 42 percent of Americans approve of President Obama’s job performance, down a full five points from a poll conducted in early October. The president’s disapproval rating stands at 51 percent, tying an all-time high for Obama.
In all, 41 percent of respondents say they have a less favorable opinion of the president since the 16 day government shutdown, compared to 21 percent who say they have a more favorable view since the shutdown.
The Affordable Care Act has made headlines since the flawed launch of HealthCare.gov on Oct. 1, and the poll shows that the website’s glitches might have raised concerns about the entire law’s tenability. Forty percent say they are less confident in the law based on what they have heard about it in the last several weeks, while 50 percent say the last few weeks have had no influence on confidence in the law.
Forty-seven percent believe that the law is a bad idea, compared to 43 percent who said they believed it was a bad idea in early October.
Congress didn’t fare well in the poll, with 63 percent of voters saying they want to replace their own member of Congress; that is the highest percentage on record since the question was first asked in 1992.
The GOP’s favorability is at an all-time low as well, with only 22 percent of those surveyed seeing the Republican Party in a positively compared to 53 percent who see it in a negative light.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans are carefully watching the polls in the wake of the government shutdown fallout, looking ahead to how it could influence the 2014 elections. On that point, the poll revealed that 45 percent of those surveyed would prefer a Democrat-controlled Congress following the 2014 election, compared to 41 percent who say they would prefer a Republican led Congress.
Fourteen percent said they were not sure who they preferred.
The survey of 800 adults was conducted Oct. 25 to Oct. 28 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.46 percentage points.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/obama-approval-rating-poll-99135.html?hp=l2
