By: John Zogby Forbes.com Contributor
Our new Zogby Analytics of 1000 likely voters shows President Barack Obama holding on to a majority job approval rating, while 46% disapprove. The new poll was taken online April 17-18 and has a margin of sampling error of +/-3.2 percentage points. See the X-tabs.
John Zogby's Obama Weekly Report Card is
Featured in Paul Bedard's "Washington Secrets"
Published weekly in The Washington Examiner
Grade for April 14 - April 21: B+
"We have had presidents who have been able to rally local communities and the nation when people are hurting. This president is truly one of the great ones. He carried the right message to the people of the Boston area and beyond when he told them Thursday 'we will finish this race.' He also has a strong shot at gaining an immigration reform victory with the package drawn up by Sen. Marco Rubio and his fellow 'Gang of Eight.' Obama lost in the short run when the Senate voted down the Manchin-Toomey gun purchase background check amendment, despite Obama's tout that 90 percent of the public backed it. But he still has an approval rating about four-times that of Congress. So he may not have won that round but the other side has definitely lost something more."
By: John Zogby Forbes.com Contributor
I wrote last week about the fact that the Newtown incident is a defining moment that requires reflection, action, and sacrifice. Just yesterday, the Senate rejected the very mild Manchin-Toomey compromise that would have add background checks to gun shows and internet sales, but not to private and family transfers. This is a very mild reform and no one has really been able to show how it infringes upon anyone's rights. The only arguments actually revolve around a sort of domino theory: i.e. this step will lead to a national gun registry, which will lead to… which will lead to…
By: John Zogby Forbes.com Contributor
Just when you think that things have it rock bottom in Washington, someone is standing there with a jackhammer ready to go even lower. This week’s winner (or loser) is a fellow named Alan Gottlieb, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation. Gottlieb says he was present during the discussions between Senators Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey and helped write the final version of their background check amendment, which he endorses. But, in what can only be described as a tacky, tasteless and gratuitous exercise, Gottlieb claims that the amendment is “… a Christmas Tree. We just hung a million ornaments on it. If you really read what’s in Manchin-Toomey bill – man it’s a godsend.” In what is supposed to be a signal that he personally has not let his supporters down, he felt compelled to go even further by saying that “We win (gun) rights back like crazy. I think we snookered the other side. They haven’t figured it out yet”.
