Poll: Obama neglecting focus on the economy

On the same day President Barack Obama canceled a jobs event to
focus on Haitian relief efforts, a new poll shows a majority of voters think
the president isn’t focused on the economy.

In a survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute
released Wednesday, 47 percent of respondents said the president wasn’t
spending “enough time” on the issue.

{mosads}“What that reflects is that the economy is issue one, issue two
and issue three in terms of voters’ concern,” said Peter Brown of Quinnipiac.

Earlier this week, administration officials trumpeted a new report
that says the stimulus package created or preserved close to 2 million jobs
last year. Still, the Quinnipiac poll of some 1,700 registered voters
nationwide found people remain concerned about unemployment.

“The stock market may be doing well and the recession may
technically be over. Voters don’t think so — they don’t think so because they’re
worried about the security of their job, and they’re worried about their friend
or cousin or brother-in-law who lost theirs,” Brown said at a breakfast
Wednesday sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

Anxiety about the economy is making people angry, and incumbent
Democrats should be on alert, Brown added. “Just as two years ago and four
years ago the momentum was with Democrats because their people were motivated
to go to the polls because they’re angry, it’s a fair assumption that the
situation is reversed this time.”

To mitigate that sentiment, Democrats need to chalk up some
legislative successes that resonate with average voters.

“The first thing they need to do is deal with healthcare,” Brown
said. “If you’re gonna pass it, pass it. Get it done, because they’re committed
to it.” But even passing healthcare reform may not help Democrats, Brown
noted. “The economy is what everybody cares about.”

On Obama’s handling of the economy, 41 percent of respondents said
they approve while 54 percent said they disapprove. “That’s worse than his
overall job approval rate,” which is at 45 percent, Brown said.

He compared Obama’s poll numbers with those of President Ronald
Reagan after his first year in office.

“Ronald Reagan was a four-letter word in much of America in
January 1982, which is where we are in the same cycle. In fact, unemployment
was worse,” Brown said. “People were making fun of the fact that his
administration thought ketchup was a vegetable. And people thought Reagan and
conservatism was an aberration that would be quickly washed away in 1984.”

But as the unemployment rate dropped going into the 1984
presidential election, Reagan gained popularity, capturing the country’s mood
with his famous “Morning in America” TV spot. “By 1984 Americans thought Ronald
Reagan was pretty spiffy,” Brown said.

Obama could benefit from a similar arc in the country’s economic
cycle, according to Brown. “Things have been really bad as he came into office;
they haven’t gotten any better; but if we look at American history, the economy
gets better and it benefits the incumbent.”

Still, Obama will have to rebuild his coalition heading into the
2012 election. “Many of the white men, political moderates who voted for Obama,
have peeled off,” Brown said. “Barack Obama’s viewed as a Democrat — that’s what
this data shows.”

That’s not how he was viewed on Election Day, Brown said. “His
coalition was broader.”