Congress Scrambles As New Year Looms

Congress Scrambles As New Year Looms
With Days Dwindling Before 2010, Lawmakers Rush to Finish Year-End Legislation on Defense, Unemployment, Debt
Obama: 'New' or 'business as usual?'

by Mark Silva

While President Barack Obama's approval rating has slipped to 49 percent in another poll released today, most Americans surveyed still say that Obama has "a new approach'' to politics in Washington.

That's a slim majority, however, according to the results of a Pew Research Center poll: While 53 percent of those surveyed say the president who campaigned with promises of "change'' has a new approach to politics, the percentage of those saying the president's approach is "business as usual'' near the end of his first year in office has grown from 30 percent in September to 37 percent in the newest poll.

"This shift in opinion has been driven in large part by Republicans and independents,'' the Pew Center reports.

"In September, by nearly two-to-one, more independents said Obama's approach to politics was new (62 percent) than said it was business as usual (34 percent). In the current survey, 48 percent of independents view Obama's as approach new compared with 42 percent who say it is business as usual. And among Republicans, the percentage saying Obama has a new approach to politics has declined from 50 percent in September to 39 percent today.''

That loss of confidence among independent voters also registered in a new Battleground Poll released today, which points to political implications for the president's party in the midterm 2010 congressional elections.

While the president's overall approval rating in the nonpartisan Pew poll is 49 percentthe same approval measured in the bipartisan Battleground PollPew has found that the percentage of people expressing "at least a fair amount of confidence in Obama to do the right thing'' in fixing the economy has slipped from 59 percent in October to 52 now.

" Smaller percentages express confidence in Obama on health care reform (44 percent) and reducing the budget deficit (41 percent,"' Pew notes.

The survey of 1,504 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was conducted Dec. 9-13. For more, see the full Pew report on Obama at year's end.

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