Earlier in the week the lefty meme was that despite the cloud of scandal hanging over the White House President Obamas approval ratings were unaffected. Not any more. Fox News new poll of registered voters contains all sorts of unpleasant news for the West Wing:
- The presidents job approval rating has dipped underwater at 45/51 an eight-point negative swing since last month. Hes at 40/52 among independents.
- Attorney General Eric Holders job approval has plummeted to 28/40 with approximately a third of voters not knowing enough to answer. This may fuel whispers that Holder may be on his way out.
- Obamas trustworthiness quotient is now split evenly down from positive territory in the months leading up to the election.
- A whopping 68 percent of Americans believe the federal government is out of control and threatening basic liberties. Republicans ought to concentrate on articulating an agenda that speaks to that widespread disaffection.
- More Americans label Obama a lame duck president than say hes still effective.
The poll asks a few questions about the scandals themselves which yielded results not too dissimilar from the WaPo and CNN findings weve highlighted this week. In short people are concerned think the stories are legitimate and want to know more. Fox just released a second tranche of data which also features some interesting nuggets. On gay marriage a clear majority (41/52) opposes amending the Constitution to define marriage as one man and one woman down from (58/34) in favor ten years ago. And as much as the trio of current scandals may be weighing down Obamas numbers theres another big wet blanket draped over his presidency: 22. Do you think it would be better to leave the new health care law in place or would it bebetter to go back to the health care system that was in place in 2009? Better to keep law: 34 percent Better to go back to previous system: 56 percent Foxs 34 percent support level is nearly identical to Kaisers figure we reported in April. In the new poll Obamacare is upside down by double digits on this question among men women voters of every age group Republicans and independents. Only Democrats and non-whites say they prefer the new law to the previous system. By a two-to-one margin Americans say their families will be worse off under the Affordable Care Act than prior to its passage. So much for the presidents assurances that the laws roll-out is already over for 90 percent of Americans who should already be enjoying its benefits. Obamacare is toxic and its likely to get worse as the logistical train wreck of implementation plays out premiums continue to rise costs explode and the tainted IRS kicks off enforcement of the hyper-unpopular mandate tax. It could be that the health law is hurting the president just as much as any of the scandals. John Nolte notes that the presidents job approval has sunk below the 50 percent mark in four new surveys including this one. Ill leave you with one of Philip Kleins five reasons why Obamas scandals arent prone to backfire on Republicans like Bill Clintons impeachment saga did: Clintons scandal involved sex - Without re-litigating the entire impeachment debate its fair to say that Clintons scandal revolved around his sexual relations with that woman Miss Lewinsky. This made it a lot easier for Clinton to appeal to Americans sense of forgiveness and portray political opponents as prying into his personal life as opposed to dealing with the nations problems. In contrast though both sides debate Obamas culpability the issues at the heart of the current scandals are all very serious dealing with a terrorist attack on a U.S. ambassador IRS targeting ideological groups of a certain stripe and the Department of Justice spying on journalists. According to a CNN poll released Sunday Americans appear to be taking all three controversies very seriously with 55 saying the IRS and Benghazi matters are very important to the nation and 53 saying the same thing about the AP case." So its harder to put Republicans on the defensive for investigating these issues than it was to attack the 1998 GOP for expending so much effort investigating Clinton for lying about oral sex. Click through for the other four. I wonder how the publics opinion on Benghazi might be impacted by this story which we mentioned on Tuesday but hasnt quite broken through yet -- particularly in light of this data point from the administration. Guy Benson is Townhall.coms Political Editor.
