ABC Wa/Po Poll: Most Americans Say Obama Presidency Has Been A Failure

According to a new ABC News/WaPo Poll, most American adults and registered voters now say the Obama presidency has been more of a failure than a success.

American adults say 52-42 percent that Obama has been more of a failure than a success, but among registered voters, which tends to slant Democratic, the gap is a larger 55 – 39 percent. The intensity is against the president, as well, as four in 10 (41 percent) say they “strongly” believe Obama has been a failure.

The results by partisanship are interesting.

Even one in four Democrats (25 percent) agree with the majority, as do nearly three in 10 liberals (29 percent) and a large majority of conservative Republicans (92 percent). Nearly one in five liberals (18 percent) say they feel “strongly” that Obama has been a failure.

When we look at the president’s opposition, we can assume where some of these feelings are coming from.

Nearly one in five conservatives (22 percent) say Obama has been a success (note: this is a different group from “conservative Republicans”), as do 48 percent of moderates. As far as conservatives, this is no doubt due to the fact they believe he has been successful in his efforts to “fundamentally transform” the United States. On the flip side, the number of liberals who say so is no doubt due to the fact they think he could have done more to transform the country.

In fact, self-described moderates are more likely to rate Obama a success (48 percent) than as a failure (44 percent).

Voters and American adults as a whole have had a tremendous amount of voter remorse over the past year.

A July poll released by Quinnipiac University found more Americans say Obama is the worst president since World War II than any other modern president. Not surprisingly, voters say that 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have been a better president.

“Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

“Would Mitt have been a better fit? More voters in hindsight say yes.”

A past ABC News/Washington Post Poll conducted in November found that if a rematch of the 2012 election was held, Romney would have defeated Obama by 49 – 45 percent in the popular vote, while a CNN/Opinion Research Center survey conducted later that same month found Romney would garner 53 percent of the popular vote, with President Obama falling extremely short at 44 percent.

(Want to see what the Electoral Map would have looked like if those results were correct?)

There are some strange inconsistencies with the poll results, however. Overall, the survey found 51 – 42 percent disapproval among all Americans and 54 – 42 percent disapproval among registered voters. Those results are fairly close to the PPD average, 41.9 – 53.6 percent. Yet, 12 percent of Americans who approve of Obama unexplainably say he is a failure, and 8 percent who disapprove of him say he’s been a success. Those cross tabs just don’t add up.

Further, the poll found that Americans think Obama should take action on his own through executive orders reagrding immigration by a 52 – 44 percent margin, which is far and away the outlier in previous examinations.