Gallup poll: John Boehner's favorable numbers slide
By JAKE SHERMAN | 4/27/11 3:34 PM EDT
House Speaker John Boehner has become less popular with Americans across the political spectrum since taking the gavel in January.
A USA Today/Gallup Poll released Wednesday showed that 56 percent of Republicans view him favorably, down from 65 percent in January.
Among independents, his net favorable ratings are down a whopping 27 percentage points. About 29 percent of independents said they hold a favorable view of the speaker.
And 46 percent of Democrats find him unfavorable, up from 34 percent.
“The Speaker is focused on the big challenges facing our country — and, thus far, the Democrats who still run Washington seem more focused on partisan attacks that real solutions,” Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel said in response to the numbers.
In the first four months of his term as speaker of the House, the Ohio Republican has been through several epic battles, including a number of short-term government funding measures, extending the Patriot Act and shepherding through a controversial 2012 spending blueprint.
Overall, the poll said that Boehner’s favorable/unfavorable ratings are identical: 34 percent of Americans see him favorably, and 34 see him unfavorably. In January — the last time Gallup polled — 42 percent of people saw him favorably, nearly double the 22 who had the opposite view.
Gallup isn’t the only poll that finds Boehner’s numbers slipping. A Washington Post-ABC News poll said 40 percent of Americans do not approve of the job Boehner is doing — a spike from January, when 27 percent didn’t approve of his job performance.
Still, 43 percent approve of Boehner’s work, up 4 percentage points from a January poll.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53831.html#ixzz1KoBd72WF
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