A new poll funded by CNN shows President Barack Obama’s overall favorability remains just above 50 percent, while his support on current hot-button issues is stuck well below 50 percent, and falling sharply on immigration.
He has a 45 percent approval rating on guns, and is facing 52 percent disapproval for his handling of the issue. In a January CNN poll, 46 percent of respondents approved of his handling of the issue, while 49 percent disapproved.
On immigration, he’s at 44 percent approval, and is facing 50 percent disapproval. That’s a shift of 18 points from the January CNN poll, when he had 51 percent approval and 43 percent disapproval.
On taxes, he’s at 46 percent, while 52 percent disapprove. On the economy, he’s only at 44 percent approval, while 54 percent say they disapprove of his policies.
His approval rating is being held up by strong support from progressives and minorities, and has recently been nudged up by young people and women, partly because of his gay-friendly policies.
His 51 percent approval is up four points from the previous month, according to the poll of 1,012 adult Americans conducted by ORC International on April 5-7, 2013.
But he remains underwater on current controversies, despite lengthy, expensive and intensive efforts to move the polls his way.
Obama’s ratings have been “typically boosted by positive views of him as a person rather than his policies, and that dynamic seems to be still in force in his second term,” according to Keating Holland, CNN’s polling director
On April 8, Obama flew to Hartford, Conn., to revive his flagging gun-control efforts with the aid of parents whose children were murdered at the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook school massacre.
“Your families still grieve in ways most of us can’t comprehend … many of you have mobilized, and organized, and petitioned your elected officials “with love and logic,” … as citizens determined to right something gone wrong,” he told a friendly rally at Connecticut’s University of Hartford.
But the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups have rallied opposition to his plans, sharply reducing his chance of winning even a symbolic victory in the Democratic-run Senate.
The CNN poll showed his gun policies garner support from only 37 percent of independents, and opposition from 60 percent of independents.
On immigration, Obama has kept a low profile, partly to minimize latent GOP opposition to the pending amnesty and guest-work bills being drafted behind closed doors in the Senate and House.
The CNN poll showed that only 40 percent of independents support his immigration policy, while 55 percent oppose those policies.
Behind closed doors, in Washington and elsewhere, he has pushed the immigration issue strongly.
“He wants this accomplishment,” his 2012 political strategist, David Axelrod, said in March. “This is a legacy item for him. There is no doubt in my mind he wants to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” Axelrod said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“In the next couple of months … I believe that we can get comprehensive immigration reform passed — (applause) — and that is going to mean that America can continue to be a nation of laws, but also a nation of immigrants, and attract the best and the brightest from all around the world,” Obama told a roomful of wealthy business donors at an April 4 fundraiser in Atherton, Calif.
Obama has been aided by a huge lobbying campaign funded by progressive and business groups, and has received much support from the media.
Yet widespread public worries about the economy, the impact of imported workers, and distrust about the government’s willingness to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants, have keep his immigration-related approval rating well below 50 percent.
CNN’s poll, for example, showed that his immigration policies are strongly supported by liberals, younger voters and non-whites, while those policies draw equal support and opposition numbers from urban voters, university grads and women.
The immigration policies are overwhelmingly opposed among conservatives by 54 points, among GOP voters by 67 points, and among suburban voters by 12 points, or 54 percent opposed, 42 percent supportive.
Obama has also pushed hard on taxes, yet the business and social-conservative wings of the GOP haven’t yielded an inch, reflecting the GOP’s deep opposition to Obama’s big-government vision.
“Our top priority as a nation, and my top priority as President, must be doing everything we can to reignite the engine of America’s growth: a rising, thriving middle class,” he declared in his April 6 weekend remarks.
“We’ll enact commonsense tax reform that includes closing wasteful tax loopholes for the wealthy and well-connected – loopholes like the ones that can allow a billionaire to pay a lower tax rate than his or her secretary,” he said, in a veiled call for increased taxes.
Yet only 44 percent of independents support his tax policies, while 55 percent oppose.
