Polling Memo: Is Obama Losing His Credibility?

June 13, 2013

Obama’s Credibility: Losing it

As the scandals continue to mount, the Obama Administration continues to be under fire from all sides of the spectrum.  It’s a matter of credibility, and according to the New York Times, the President is losing it.1  What’s worse, Americans seem to agree.

The latest from NBC/WSJ asked respondents to give Obama a 1-5 rating on being “honest and straight forward.”  Let’s take a look at intensity, the 1s and 5s—1s being “very poor” and 5s being “very good.”  Only 23% gave the President a “very good” rating, down from 28% in January.  On the opposite end, 30% gave him a “very poor” rating, up from 24% six months ago.  That’s a net 11 point swing against Obama since the start of his second term.

And, get this.

In January 2009, when President Obama was first sworn in as Commander –in –Chief, a striking 41% gave him a “very good” rating in terms of being honest and straightforward, while a mere 8% said the opposite.  To put that in perspective, compared to today, when contemplating the President’s honesty, Obama has seen a net negative movement of 40 points since he first took office.

Obama-Credibility_FINAL
 

POLLSTER: Hart/McInturff for NBC/WSJ

DATE: Conducted 5/30-6/2/2013

SAMPLE: Sampled 1,000 Adults; MoE ±3.1%

SOURCE: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/11/18885926-nbc-newswsj-poll-affirmative-action-support-at-historic-low?lite

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html