Yet the consensus breaks down when people are asked to point fingers. Most Democrats blame Republicans for government missteps, while most Republicans say it is the president who is at fault. It is a pattern that colors political discourse in the country and almost all results in the poll.
The issue agenda for the coming election could not be clearer. The poll found that 56 percent of Americans cite the economy and jobs as their top voting issue in the upcoming election.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that voters are directing their anger at Washington, and Democrats and Republicans are equally divided on who to blame for a slow economic recovery.
One year out from the 2012 presidential election, a Washington Post-ABC News Poll analyzes Obama’s approval and how he would fare against the top GOP candidates.
No other issue scored in double digits.
But Republicans and Democrats remain at loggerheads about what to do about the economy. About two-thirds of Democrats want fresh spending to encourage job creation, and a similarly high proportion of Republicans favor deficit reduction.
Americans split evenly over whether they trust Obama or congressional Republicans to handle the economy, create jobs and protect the middle class. Asked which party they would like to see control Congress after the next election, 44 percent say the Democrats and 41 percent say the Republicans.
The findings obscure recent slippage for Obama. After his jobs speech in early September, the president had a significant advantage over Republicans on that issue. That is now gone, despite a national campaign to pressure Congress to pass his bill. So, too, is his once-healthy lead on protecting the middle class.
The president’s overall job rating has been mired in the mid- to low 40s throughout the fall, with this latest poll showing 44 percent approving and 53 percent disapproving. Democrats believe Obama has begun to regain some of his footing, but his approval rating puts him well behind where the past four presidents running for reelection were at this stage.
Obama also has lost some ground in the way Americans view him. Those who say he is not a strong leader now constitute a bare majority — 51 percent — of the population, the first time he has dipped into negative territory on that crucial attribute. Criticism of Obama’s leadership is a key part of the GOP’s message in the campaign, and more than three-quarters of Republicans say he is not a strong leader, as do 53 percent of independents. A quarter of Democrats also agree with that assessment.
The Post-ABC poll measured Obama against Romney, businessman Herman Cain and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. One year out, Obama and Romney are essentially tied among registered voters and Obama is ahead of Cain and Perry. Democrats take heart from those kinds of findings, arguing that with such a bad environment, it is surprising that Obama isn’t running behind his potential opponents. Republicans think their nominee will be stronger after going through the primaries.
The battlegrounds
Until the Republican nominee is known, the contours of the playing field on which the general election will be fought will not be entirely clear. But there is widespread agreement across party lines about which states will determine who takes the oath of office in January 2013.
Republicans believe the electoral map of 2012 will look more like those of 2000 and 2004, which were two of the narrowest electoral victories ever, rather than 2008, when Obama won handily. Obama advisers and their allies say that whatever the map looks like, they will have more routes to the necessary 270-vote majority than the GOP nominee.
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*Poll results from Post-ABC polls among registered voters unless otherwise noted. Complete results available in the Post poll archive.
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