- FrontPage Magazine -
http://www.frontpagemag.com -
Majority of Americans Now Disapprove of Obama’s Handling of Terrorism
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On September 17, 2014 @ 6:59 pm In The Point | 6 Comments
It’s a new low. A new, new low for an administration that has had a lot of new lows lately.
A new CBS/New York Times poll found that 57 percent of Americans do not think President Obama has been tough enough while dealing with the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS or ISIL).
Forty-one percent of Americans approve of his handling of terrorism, compared with 50 percent who disapprove. That net figure is down 24 points since March and is also the lowest in Obama’s presidency.
Mr. Obama has lost considerable ground with the public in the month since he announced military action against the Islamic State, which also saw the group release two videotapes showing the beheadings of American journalists. Fifty-eight percent now disapprove of his handling of foreign policy, a 10-point jump from a CBS News poll conducted last month, while 50 percent rate him negatively on handling terrorism, a 12-point increase from March.
That represents the first time since he became president that more Americans rate Mr. Obama negatively on terrorism than they do positively.
While Democrats are more positive about Mr. Obama’s management of foreign policy crises and terrorism, a third of them say he has no clear plan for countering the Islamic State and two fifths of Democrats say he is not being tough enough.
This whole anti-ISIS campaign was supposed to butch up Obama, but instead it backfired. He hasn’t won anyone over, he instead lost a lot of Americans who rate him as not being tough enough and lost some leftists who don’t want ISIS bombed.
“He is ambivalent, and I think it shows,” Jennifer Shelton-Armstrong, a 45-year-old Democrat in Mission Viejo, California, said in a follow-up interview. “There is no clear plan.”
Taken together, the results suggest a profoundly unsettled public mood, with two-thirds of Americans surveyed saying the country is on the wrong track and half disapproving of how Mr. Obama is doing his job, a negative assessment that threatens to be a substantial drag on Democrats going into the midterm elections in November.
The vibes are spreading. Obama’s tan suit was unconvincing. His alternating “No strategy” and “Degrade ISIS” came off weak. Americans see a man who gives a lot of speeches, but they’re not really seeing action or results.
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine:
http://www.frontpagemag.comURL to article:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/majority-of-americans-now-disapprove-of-obamas-handling-of-terrorism/
