President Barack Obama's approval rating sunk to a low of 41 percent in a new poll published Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News.
Just eight months before November's midterm elections, the president collected his "worst job approval rating in the survey's history," NBC News reported of the just-released poll.
U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to speak about the situation in Ukraine in the briefing room of the White House on February 28, 2014 in Washington. (AFP PHOTO/Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
Further, the WSJ/NBC poll found that 48 percent of voters say they are less likely to vote for candidates who consider themselves to be enthusiastic supporters of the Obama administration.
“The wind is in our face,” Democratic pollster Fred Yang of Hart Research, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, told NBC News. “There is an advantage for Republicans right now.”
[sharequote align="center"]“There is an advantage for Republicans right now.”[/sharequote]
However, Yang says the poll doesn't only spell trouble for Democrats.
“What makes 2014 so different [from past cycles] is that the voters are in a rebellious state against the whole Congress and the establishment in Washington,” Yang told NBC News. “Both parties are in jeopardy.”
In fact, he added that "if this were a beauty contest, the Republicans would not win any prize."
Instead, popular candidate characteristics include being able to compromise and work across the aisle (86 percent of voters are more likely to vote for such a candidate) and cutting federal spending (67 percent of voters are more likely), according to the poll.
Voters rejected those supporting reductions to Social Security and Medicare benefits when tackling the deficit (69 percent less likely to vote for such a candidate) and those wanting to interfere with conflicts abroad (47 percent less likely), the poll added.
On health care, the poll found that 48 percent of voters are more likely to support Democrats who want to fix and keep the Affordable Care Act versus 47 percent who would back a Republican that supports repealing the controversial law.
Nevertheless, the law remained quite unpopular.
Only 35 percent of Americans view the Affordable Care Act as a good idea and 49 percent oppose it, saying it was a bad idea, according to the poll.
NBC News and the Journal said the poll was conducted by surveying 1,000 adults between March 5-9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
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