Nov 19, 2013 8:59am
NOTABLES
- OBAMA FACES RECORD DISAPPROVAL NUMBERS: Barack
Obama has been hammered by the botched rollout of the Affordable Care
Act, with disapproval of his job performance reaching a career high,
opposition to the new healthcare law up sharply and evidence of
potential fallout in the midterm elections a year off, ABC NEWS POLLSTER GARY LANGER writes.
The president’s job approval rating has fallen to 42 percent in a new
ABC News-Washington Post poll, down 13 percentage points this year and 6
points in the past month to match the lowest of his presidency.
Fifty-five percent disapprove — a record. And 70 percent say the
country’s headed seriously off on the wrong track — up 13 points since
May to the most in two years. http://abcn.ws/18KYLXq
- THE PRESIDENT’S PERSONAL IMAGE HAS SUFFERED:
President Obama is also at career lows for being a strong leader (down
by 15 points this year and a vast 31 points below its peak shortly after
he took office), understanding the problems of average Americans and
being honest and trustworthy — numerically under water on each of these,
LANGER notes. Just 41 percent rate
him as a good manager; 56 percent think not. And fewer than half — 46
percent — see him favorably overall, down 14 points this year to the
fewest of his presidency. Fifty-two percent now view him unfavorably, a
new high and a majority for the first time since he took office. http://abcn.ws/18KYLXq
- OBAMACARE’S MOST NEGATIVE RATING TO DATE: Americans
by nearly 2-1, 63-33 percent, disapprove of Obama’s handling of
implementation of the new health care law. And the public by 57-40
percent now opposes the law overall, with opposition up by 8 points in
the past month alone. Fifty-six percent describe the cancellation of
health insurance policies that are deemed substandard under the law as
“mismanagement” rather than a normal startup problem. Given the
breakdown of the HealthCare.gov website, a broad 71 percent favor
postponing the individual mandate requiring nearly all Americans to have
coverage. And the mandate’s still widely unpopular in any case; 65
percent of Americans oppose it — a majority of them, strongly. Notably,
even among those who support the individual mandate, 55 percent favor
delaying it. http://abcn.ws/18KYLXq
THE ROUNDTABLE
ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Can a Website wreck a presidency?
The botched Obamacare rollout has blown a hole through the middle of
President Obama’s support, all in the month after the Republican Party
seemed to ruin its own image over a government shutdown and debt
showdown. It’s a staggering turnabout – a new low of 42 percent on his
approval rating, and career lows on the attributes (honest and
trustworthy, strong leadership) that have buoyed his public career. Most
troubling, perhaps, is that Obama has lost the support of independents,
where his approval rating is down to 33 percent. His steepest loss in
approval rating is among young adults under age 30 – one reason Mitt
Romney comes out barely ahead, 49-45, in a hypothetical year-after
rematch. And down the ballot, look out: Support for Obamacare makes
voters more likely to oppose a particular candidate, 31-25, even in the
states the president just carried a year ago.
ABC’s JEFF ZELENY: No poll comes as a surprise to
President Obama, given that the White House polling operation remains
one of the most robust in the city. Yet even though he’s not surprised,
the findings of the latest ABC News-Washington Post survey are sobering
for Democrats. The 42 percent approval rating in today’s poll is not
even the most alarming number for the West Wing. If the president hopes
to regain credibility and restore confidence, this is the data point
that is the most worrisome: 7 in 10 Americans believe the country is
headed seriously on the wrong track, which is up 13 points in the last
six months. And that explains why every Democrat on the ballot next year
is sweating.
ABC’s MICHAEL FALCONE: “I really just would like to
be there, I would like to see Mitt there. There are so many things that I
would like to have seen been addressed right now,” Ann Romney recently
told CNN when asked how she feels about not being in the White House
right now. Turns out, she’s not alone. If the 2012 presidential election
were being held today instead of just over a year ago, 49 percent of
registered voters would lean toward supporting Mitt Romney compared to
45 percent who would back President Obama, according to today’s ABC
News-Washington Post poll. The change of heart on the part of some
voters is no doubt driven by the angst — and anger — over the
problem-plagued rollout of the Affordable Care Act. In fact, the poll
shows that in the states that backed Mitt Romney in 2012, Americans by a
46 to 15 percent margin, say they’re more inclined to oppose than to
support a candidate who favors the law — a troublesome data point for
vulnerable Democrats in 2014.
ABC’s ABBY PHILLIP: Public support for same sex
marriage is at an all-time high according to a recent Gallup poll, the
Supreme Court invalidated parts of the Defense of Marriage Act earlier
this year, and more states than ever recognize same sex marriages. Yet
the Republican Party remains torn by a conservative Christian base
that’s still very much powerful and the desire to appeal to younger,
less socially ideological voters. Ultimately, however, what made Liz
Cheney’s public disagreement with her sister Mary Cheney so surprising
is that the political necessity of today appears to have outweighed the
power of her personal relationships. “We are reaching the point where
there are a lot of people out there who are simply finding it rather
incredible that—when an individual who is extremely close to someone who
is in a same sex marriage—that that person would oppose legal same sex
marriage,” said Liz Mair, a Republican communications consultant who is
affiliated with the Freedom to Marry campaign. When Sen. Rob Portman,
R-Ohio, announced earlier this year that he supported same sex marriage,
it was because of the influence of his gay college-aged son. Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., is a rare House Republican supporter of
same sex marriage; her daughter is a transgender LGBT activist. In the
end Cheney’s remarks may not have been a departure from Republican
dogma, but it surprised many who expected her to take the public view of
her own father, who supports same sex marriage in light of her sister
Mary’s marriage.
BUZZ
ANOTHER EARLY SIGN OF PROBLEMS WITH OBAMACARE ROLLOUT.
A
document uncovered by Congressional investigators indicates that senior
administration officials at the White House and Department of Health
and Human Services were made aware of the concerns about meeting the
October 1 launch date and the inability of developers to complete end to
end testing as early as March during presentations conducted at the
request of the administration by McKinsey & Co.,
ABC’s JOHN PARKINSON
notes. The Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigation into the
rollout of the health care law has uncovered documents showing Secretary
Sebelius received this briefing on April 4, but two weeks later on
April 18 she testified at the Energy and Commerce Committee that
development was “on track and the contracts have been led and we are
monitoring it every step along the way…I can tell you we are on track.”
