TELEGRAPH BLOGS – NILE GARDINER: You know things are really going badly for the White House when even The New York Times, the most powerful bastion of liberalism in America, is warning the president he is in serious trouble. Today’s New York Times/CBS News poll makes devastating reading for Barack Obama’s advisers, showing the nation’s mood at its lowest level for two years:
Americans are more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.According to the poll, a staggering 70 percent of Americans believe the country is moving down the “wrong track”, nearly three times more than the number who believe it is heading in the “right direction” (26 percent). 39 percent believe the economy is getting worse, 16 points higher than the number who think it is getting better, and 59 percent disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling the federal budget deficit. Read on and comment » | Nile Gardiner | Friday, April 22, 2011
Amid rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government’s ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone… Disapproval of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy has never been broader — at 57 percent of Americans — a warning sign as he begins to set his sights on re-election in 2012.
