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Poll: Only 30 percent want Obama to take unilateral action

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Just 30 percent of Americans agree with President Barack Obama’s post-State of the Union emphasis on executive power, according to a CNN poll.

“Let’s make this a year of action. That’s what most Americans want,” Obama declared Tuesday night. It was an expected follow-up to his vow to the Cabinet in their first meeting of the year that the executive team might be taking some liberties to act without legislation.

“We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need,” Obama said Jan. 14, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.”

But in a survey sample that skewed heavily toward Democrats, a wide majority of 67 percent said they’d prefer bipartisan compromise with Congress. Just 30 percent of respondents chose taking executive actions without Congress.

Perhaps they felt Obama’s plan for executive action wouldn’t pan out. Just 8 percent thought the array of programs and plans the president outlined were “very likely” to be enacted. Forty-five percent chose “somewhat likely” to become law while 46 percent responded with “not too likely” or “not likely at all.”

Overall, positive reaction to the speech came in at just 44 percent of respondents — a  9-point drop from last January, as Obama’s second term began.

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