David Cameron's Fightback Hit by Poll Slump

THE GUARDIAN: Conservatives eight points adrift in new Guardian/ICM poll as prime minister admits, 'I want us to raise our game'

The scale of the challenge facing David Cameron as he began a political fightback has been laid bare by a new Guardian/ICM poll showing Labour has leapt into an eight-point lead.

In the wake of a series of government mishaps since the budget, the poll showed the Conservatives down six points in a month from 39% to 33% while Labour had risen from 36% to 41%, giving the party its best poll lead for five years. The slump overturned what had appeared to be a stable Tory three-point lead ahead of the budget. The Lib Dems remain on 15%.

The Conservative slide is the biggest seen in the monthly Guardian/ICM series since the autumn of 2008, when the onset of the credit crunch briefly produced very volatile political conditions.

The sudden Tory collapse also appeared to be tarnishing Boris Johnson's chances of being elected as London mayor, with a separate YouGov poll showing Johnson with a two-point lead, down from his previous steady six-point advantage over Ken Livingstone. » | Tom Clark and Patrick Wintour | Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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Obama bin White House Goes Upbeat on the Economy
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has launched an upbeat strategy over the economy in the face of approval ratings that have dipped below those of George W Bush at the same stage of his presidency.

President Brack Hussein Obama realizes that being downbeat on the economy doesn’t pay. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Mr Obama is changing his rhetorical course after criticism from fellow Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, that he has sounded too negative in the first weeks of his presidency.

This week he will speak forcefully to Congress and the public about the need to pass his $3.6 trillion budget, which will double the national deficit, while stressing his belief that there is hope ahead.

Mr Obama's sky-high approval ratings have fallen in the past couple of weeks amid widespread gloom over the economy. His approval rating is between 56 and 60 per cent, lower than George W Bush's at a similar stage of his presidency. Barack Obama Goes Upbeat on Economy After Popularity Declines >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Sunday, March 15, 2009

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Struggling Sarkozy to Remind French: ‘I’m a Man of Action’
Photo of Nicolas Sarkozy courtesy of The Independent
THE INDEPENDENT: A year after his victory in the first round of French presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy will attempt tonight to refloat an administration which threatens to sink into a morass of internal bickering and popular discontent.

President Sarkozy will use a prime-time television interview to try to recapture the lost image of a reforming man of action, close to the people, which took him to the ElyséePalace in the two-round election last April and May.

After a slight recovery in his poll ratings, M. Sarkozy has floundered in three surveys this week. His approval ratings, varying between 28 and 35 per cent, are the lowest for any year-old presidency since the launch of the Fifth Republic half a century ago.

In other words, M. Sarkozy, who had sold himself to voters as "anti-Chirac" – a man of action and a man of his word – is even less popular than President Jacques Chirac after a first, calamitous, shilly-shallying year in office in 1995-96.

President Sarkozy can point to economic difficulties outside his control, which have made it impossible to deliver his promise to be the "president of purchasing power". He can point to a series of social and economic reforms, some completed, some half-abandoned, some hardly begun. He is expected to promise to push ahead with his reform agenda, despite growing dissent within his own centre-right political camp and reports of repeated quarrels with his prime minister, François Fillon.

Most of all, however, President Sarkozy will try to erase the image of the "bling-bling" president: the man whose film-star lifestyle, divorce and rapid marriage to the pop singer Carla Bruni seemed to absorb most of his attention and energy in three disastrous winter months. Polling officials say that M. Sarkozy's popularity – still in the mid-60s in September – was exploded by a chemical reaction between the falling living standards of ordinary people and his glamorous "personalisation" of the presidency.

President Sarkozy has adopted a quieter tone in recent weeks. That, and the decorous behaviour of Mme Bruni-Sarkozy as first lady, had begun to restore his popularity in the polls. In the past fortnight, however, his government has drifted into a series of public rows between ministers and embarrassing U-turns. Struggling Sarkozy to Remind French: 'I'm a Man of Action' >>> By John Lichfield in Paris | April 24, 2008

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