Perhaps nothing sums up the precariousness of President Obama's reelection chances better than a Quinnipiac Poll released on Thursday morning. In "the most heavily Democratic large state" (in the estimation of National Journal's Almanac of American Politics), 49 percent of voters disapprove of the job the president is doing, while only 45 percent approve--the first time that Obama has received a negative score in New York, according to Quinnipiac.
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Voters split 48 percent to 46 percent over whether he deserves reelection. This in a state that Obama won with 63 percent of the vote three years ago. Still, he has managed to hold onto a lead over a generic Republican, with 49 percent saying they would vote for him to 34 percent for the GOP candidate.
“The debt-ceiling hullaballoo devastated President Barack Obama’s numbers even in true-blue New York,” said Quinnipiac Poll Director Maurice Carroll.
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The poll clearly reflected the toll that the summerlong debate on the debt ceiling took on the president’s popularity. The high disapproval rate represented a huge drop from his June 29 approval rating of 57 percent, compared with 38 percent disapproval. Disapproval rose among all three party identifications: Democrats (a 7-point increase), Republicans (a 12-point increase), and independents (a 9-point increase).
The poll of 1,640 registered voters contacted by land line and cell phone was taken between August 3 and 8; it has a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points.
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