Swept up in the Presidential Primary Sweepstakes? President Obama still matters.

Between Donald Trump’s insistence that New Jersey Muslims were celebrating on the rooftops after the 911 tragedy, Ben Carson’s Thanksgiving vacation in Jordan and Hillary Clinton’s post-Thanksgiving announcement (yawn!) of a new $275 million infrastructure proposal, it’s often easy to forget that we still have the incumbent President (Obama) for another thirteen-plus months.

 

And, yes, President Obama still matters.

 

Here’s why:

 

  1. Obama’s job approval scores (RCP average) have not been “right-side-up” since the end of July 2013 (28 months ago). And, Obama’s under-water approval scores increase the Democrats’ degree of difficulty in the ’16 election.

  Obama_approval_trend

  1. How voters feel about President Obama has a lot to do with how they say they are going to vote in ‘16. And, that’s bad news for Democrats in 2016.

 Obama_approval_presidential_pref

*data from NBC News/ WSJ poll conducted October 25-29, 2015

  1. Despite President Obama’s weak approval scores nationally, he’s still in position to help Hillary Clinton – his image is more positive than hers, and he has strength among key Democratic constituencies that she’s going to need next November.

obama_vs_hillary_image

*data from NBC News/WSJ poll conducted October 25-29, 2015

President Obama may very well be the lamest of lame-duck Presidents, but his impact on the ‘16 election will be undeniable.

Public Opinion Strategies