Is the honeymoon over?

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18 June 2009

Not quite, but an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out today does have the President’s approval rating slipping slightly, down to 56% from 61% in April.

It should be noted that this number is still very high for a President facing so many challenges. However, his biggest problem is that the poll has Independents’ approval of him dropping from 60% to 46%. They cite worries about increasing deficits and the accumulation of debt for the future. The poll also shows responders’ concerns about the government intervening too much in the economy with initiatives like the GM and AIG bailouts.

This poll will not be a “wake up call” for the White House – strategists like Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod are certainly aware of the perils that lie before them. They know that they have had to deal with a generation’s worth of challenges in a matter of months and are right to argue that inaction would have been much worse.

However, the poll also indicates that there is opportunity - it still appears that voters like the President personally, so he can continue to make the case for what he is doing and thereby reassure the American people. On the positive side, the poll shows that 46% of respondents believe that the economy will get better, suggesting that while they might be worried about the tactics being used, they do have a degree of faith in the President and his plan for the future. The risk here, of course, is that the stock market takes a tumble in the coming months, exacerbating people’s fears and eroding his personal support even further.

Interestingly, the poll also showed a slight increase in approval ratings for former Vice President Dick Cheney. While this probably shows nothing more than Republicans returning to their base, it does seem to indicate that his attacks on the President and his defense of his Administration’s actions may be gaining a little traction with someone. This might only be a small ray of light for Republicans however, as their numbers in this poll remain very low.

There is no question that as time passed and voters’ sense of apportioned responsibility for the nation’s problems shifted from the former Bush Administration to the current Obama Administration, there would always be a dip in the polls for the President. But while this poll is certainly not a problem for the President, it does map out some of the challenges ahead.