Republican voters are not satisfied with the candidates running for the Republican nomination and wish they had more choices, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. None of the candidates currently hoping to challenge President Obama in 2012 has earned enthusiastic support from more than 7 percent of Republican voters. At the same time, Americans are closely divided over Mr. Obama’s handling of his job as president: 47 percent approve and 44 percent disapprove. With the exception of a short-lived jump in approval ratings after the death of Osama bin Laden, the public’s evaluation of Mr. Obama’s stewardship has remained steady — ranging from 44 percent to 49 percent over the past year.
Americans are especially critical of the way Mr. Obama has handled the economy, though they are more likely to blame the Bush administration and Wall Street for its dismal state than Mr. Obama.
More than twice as many Americans say the country is seriously off on the wrong track as say it is headed in the right direction: 63 percent versus 28 percent. Americans have been more gloomy than not about the direction of the country since 2003. The public’s opinion about the country’s direction was at its worst just before Mr. Obama was elected when nearly 9 in 10 Americans said the country was on the wrong track.
Bleak assessments of the economy and the country’s direction along with a job approval rating below 50 percent are a potential danger signs for an incumbent. So far, though, the field of prospective Republican nominees has not stirred up much anticipation among voters.
Nine candidates have officially declared they are running for the Republican nomination. About 70 percent of Republican voters said they wished there were more candidates; only 23 percent said they were satisfied with the current field.
When asked to name a Republican presidential candidate they were enthusiastic about right now, two-thirds of Republican voters said they were not excited by any of them. The former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota did best, each named by 7 percent of Republican voters.
Nine percent of conservative voters said they were enthusiastic about Mr. Romney; 7 percent said the same of Mrs. Bachmann. Supporters of the tea party have similar opinions: 10 percent are enthusiastic about Mr. Romney and 8 percent are excited about Mrs. Bachmann.
These numbers are sure to change as the primaries draw closer. Currently, only 27 percent of all voters are paying a lot of attention to the presidential campaign. Looking forward to November 2012, most voters said they were no more or less enthusiastic about the election than usual.
Four years ago, Times/CBS polls registered a similar lack of enthusiasm and attention in the campaign. As the election grew closer, both measures of voter interest rose.
The telephone poll was conducted with 979 adults nationwide, of whom 886 said they were registered to vote. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for all adults and for voters. For the 257 Republican voters, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 6 percentage points.
Additional results from this survey will be released after 6:30 p.m.
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