Q-poll shows Obama sliding again

Quinnipiac reports this as Barack Obama’s bounce disappearing, but it was really more of a blip than a bounce — not even outside of the margin of error.  Obama slid back to a 44/46 job approval/disapproval rating in the Q-poll, slipping from the post-ObamaCare high of … 45/46.  The President may want to consider one other fact when selecting a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, too:

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President Barack Obama’s job approval, which bounced slightly to a 45 – 46 percent split March 25 in the wake of his health care victory, has flattened out at 44 – 46 percent, his lowest approval rating since his inauguration, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

A total of 53 percent of American voters are “very confident” or “somewhat confident” President Obama will make the right decision in nominating a U.S. Supreme Court justice, while 46 percent are “not too confident” or “not confident at all,” the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN- uh-pe-ack) University survey finds. …

American voters approve 49 – 21 percent of the job John Roberts is doing as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and approve 52 – 32 percent of Obama’s nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Court.

Why does Sotomayor score higher? Thus far, she’s been a non-factor on the court, which means no controversy, either. As Chief Justice, Roberts can’t fade into the background and gets more blame (and credit) for the direction of the Supreme Court. Even with that, Roberts still gets better ratings than Obama.

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A majority of registered voters may trust Obama to pick the next Supreme Court justice, but this result seems a little surprising:

Voters trust the President rather than Senate Republicans 46 – 43 percent to make the right choice for the Supreme Court, but say 48 – 41 percent that Senators who do not agree with the nominee on key issues should filibuster the choice.

That first number works out to a virtual tie, which is also surprising, since the Senate doesn’t get to pick nominees to the bench.  Republicans complained that Democrats had attempted to arrogate that power during the Bush administration by filibustering several nominees in an unprecedented show of obstructionism.  They may have succeeded too well in making their case in that period.  The judicial-nomination filibuster has now gone mainstream, and Democrats can thank themselves for that evolution in Constitutional theory.

On the issues, Obama is still mainly underwater:

  • Opposition to ObamaCare remains in double digits, 39/53
  • Health care in general: 40/55
  • Economy: 40/55
  • Job creation: 38/56
  • Budget deficit: 34/59
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The numbers on the economy have been relatively stable for months now.  Obama did get a “bump” on health care just after the passage of ObamaCare, improving from 36/58 five weeks before its passage to 44/50 on March 25th.  He’s lost nine points in the gap since then, which tends to indicate that voters aren’t impressed with what Pelosi promised they’d discover after its passage.

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