Millennials Now Split On Obama's Job Performance; 45% Now Approve, Was 67% a Year Ago

Change.

A USA Today/Pew poll of 2,001 adults, including 229 adults between the ages of 18-29, or "millennials" showed people in that age group are almost evenly divided when it comes to their opinion of the president, USA Today reports.

The poll showed 45 percent of the millennials approve of how Obama is handling his job, but 46 percent disapprove. But less than a year ago, the president was enjoying a 67 percent approval rating among young adults. Now that approval rating mirrors the general population's.

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Several other polls in recent days mirror the USA Today survey. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll last week showed 49 percent of adults between the ages of 18-34 disapprove of the job Obama is doing, while 45 percent approve.

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Even those millennials approving of Obama don't feel strongly about his job performance. Twenty-two percent said they approve strongly, compared with 41 percent feeling strongly in January.

Meanwhile, at the Boston Globe:

Happy days are here again, and we can thank Obama

It's about how great the economy is. Or rather, how great it's poised to be.

You know -- like it's been poised for growth for four years.

IN HIS speech at the 2012 Democratic convention, former President Bill Clinton argued Barack Obama’s case, saying “No president, not me, not any of my predecessors, no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years.”

How about five?

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As 2013 ends and we turn the page to a new year, the US economy appears poised for a significant rebound, and with it, Obama’s fortunes.

The economic news from November has been strikingly good.

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And all of this good news came during a time when the US government was getting over another one of its frequent crises — this time, the partial shutdown in October as federal workers were furloughed and uncertainty reigned. What that suggests is that there’s a strong resiliency to the US economy. Policies put in motion by Obama shortly after he took office (particularly the economic stimulus law and the restructuring of the automobile industry) are now bearing fruit, and short-term kerfuffles — even a shutdown — won’t stop it.

Meanwhile, the “broken city” is suddenly starting to look a little less broken. We’ve spent the last several months bemoaning the logjam in Washington, the intransigence of extremists (especially the Tea Partiers; the left flank poses nowhere near the same problem to Obama as the right does to Speaker John Boehner), and the lack of goodwill that prevents simple compromise. And now, suddenly, a budget deal is in the works, one that would end the automatic sequester, stop another shutdown, and, at least for the next two years, assure some measure of government stability.

Happy days are here again? I think so.

I like his suggestion that one of the few government moves that can harm the economy is the minor, brief shutdown of October.

posted by Ace at 07:56 PM

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