As I watched cable news programs yesterday, there seemed to be one main theme to most of the political discussions -- that President Obama is in political trouble. These discussions were based on a new ABC News / Washington Post Poll (conducted between November 14th and 17th of 1,006 nationwide adults, with a margin of error of 3.5 points), which showed that the president's job approval had dropped to about 42% among the general public (a drop of about 5 or 6 points from a few months ago).This 5 or 6 point drop in job approval is undoubtably due to the computer problems the federal health care exchange has been having since it went online -- and that is understandable. The public has a right to be angry or disappointed that things have not gone smoothly with the exchange -- even those who support the president and his health care reform.
But the question posed is not whether people are angry or disappointed with the roll-out of Obamacare. It is whether the president is in political trouble, or not. And I would disagree with those pundits who say that he is in trouble.
Note that while the president's job approval rating has fallen, it remains much higher than the job approval rating of Congress. In fact, it is more than four times higher than congressional job approval. If the president is in political trouble, then Congress is politically dead. And the Republicans are in the worst trouble of all -- with 7% less of the general public supporting their politics than the politics of the president.
It may make for good television to claim the president is in political trouble, but the truth is that he still has better approval ratings than either party in Congress (especially the Republicans). And I suspect if the glitches can be worked out of the online federal exchange in the next couple of months, the president's number will rebound.
