President Obama leads his top two potential Republican challengers by at least 20 points in New York, though the state’s voters are evenly divided over re-electing the first-term Democrat over “someone else,” according a Siena College poll released today.
Despite the 47-47 percent re-election split in a theoretical matchup, Obama remained comfortably ahead of both former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 56-36, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 56-33, according to the survey of 808 registered voters – which found a deep racial divide between whites and blacks.
Obama’s lead over the leading Republican challengers was virtually unchanged from Siena’s last poll last month. His New York favorability rating remained at 52-47 percent for the second month in a row. White voters, though, viewed him unfavorably, by 56-41 percent, while he remained hugely popular among blacks, 94-4.
Following the Sept. 13 special election for a Queens-Brooklyn House seat in which Obama’s Israel policy came under attack by Republican victor Bob Turner, Jewish voters also viewed him unfavorably, 50-48 percent. Catholics also gave him the thumbs down by 60-38, while Protestants approved of him by the same margin.
The poll showed Obama’s policies were also doing better than Republicans’ among New Yorkers.
His “American Jobs Act” got support from 33 percent of respondents, with 19 percent opposed and 47 percent saying they need more information.
By 52-31, respondents preferred Obama’s job creation plan to the Republican Congressional leadership’s plan while by 49-33, respondents preferred Obama’s plan for revitalizing the economy to the GOP leadership’s. The preferences broke strongly along party lines, and while independent voters were evenly divided on the economy, they gave Obama the edge on jobs.
Yet two thirds of voters said the country is headed in the wrong direction, including a large majority of whites and more than half of Hispanics. More than half of African American respondents said the country is headed in the right direction.
And while blacks would vote 92-6 to re-elect Obama, by 58-36 whites said they would not. Hispanics by 55-37 said they would.
While signs were positive for Obama, Romney led him in the suburbs, 48-44.
Nearly half the respondents, 47 percent, said they agreed that Obama “was a great candidate” but right now “is a poor president,” while 49 percent disagreed. And about two-thirds of respondents said the country is headed in the wrong direction, with two-thirds also expressing an unfavorable view of the Republicans in Congress and more than half viewing Congressional Democrats unfavorably. Independents view both parties equally unfavorably.
And 84 percent of respondents were concerned about a “double-dip recession,” with more than half, 55 percent, “very concerned” and 29 percent more “somewhat concerned,” according to the poll, which was conducted Sept. 15-21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Nearly three quarters of voters, including almost half of Republicans, say Obama has tried to get both parties working together, while a majority said Obama is strong enough to be President, has had many accomplishments, has the right policies for America, and makes them proud to be an American. The partisan divide on that question was also stark, with independents generally supportive of the president.
Presented with five potential factors for the record number of Americans now living in poverty, former President George W. Bush’s administration got the biggest share of the blame, 32 percent, followed by the current economic slowdown (23 percent), the partisan climate in Washington (15 percent), Obama administration policies (14 percent), and China’s rise as an economic power (11 percent).
“The bad news for the President is that when voters judge him in the absence of Republican opposition, his numbers are weak,” poll spokesman Steven Greenberg said. “The good news for the President is that when matched up against Republicans – those in Congress or potential presidential challengers – his numbers are strong.”