New poll finds majority disapprove of Obama's handling of health care

The Wall Street Journal reports that "voters are less optimistic about his ability to succeed and no longer clearly favor keeping the Democrats in control of Congress, according to the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. 

The trends point to an increasingly difficult political climate for President Obama as he hopes to push his domestic agenda beyond health care this year and preserve his party's majorities in the House and Senate. ... [The loss in Massachusetts] may not be an anomaly. Nationally, the new survey finds, voters now are evenly split over which party they hope will run Capitol Hill after the November elections—the first time Democrats haven't had the edge on that question since December 2003."

"[The] grueling health-care debate has hurt Mr. Obama and the Democrats. The new poll shows, for the first time, a majority of voters disapprove of the job he is doing on health care" (Wallsten, 1/20).

MSNBC reports that "the American public has grown increasingly skeptical over [Obama's] promises to change Washington and his 'yes-we-can' agenda, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. ... Only 33 percent say that Obama's health care plan is a good idea, compared with 46 percent who believe it's a bad one. That result is essentially unchanged from last month's poll. However, the number saying that Obama's health plan is a bad idea has increased 20 percentage points since April, when the public supported the reform effort by a 33 percent to 26 percent margin. Moreover, 48 percent consider the health care legislation to be a step backward if it becomes law, versus 42 percent who say it would be a step forward" (Murray, 1/19). 

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: "Those numbers may not be very encouraging for Democrats but they're in line with the previous WSJ/NBC News poll conducted before the Senate approved its version of the overhaul. Last month, 47% said it was a bad idea while 32% said it was a good idea" (Davis, 1/19).