Obama's Handling of Afghanistan Drops Eleven Points

11/22/2009, by Proloy Bhatta

HIGHLIGHTS

• CBS Poll: Approve 38%, Disapprove 43%.
• Poll of Poll Averages: Approve 42%, Disapprove 49%.
• Prior Average: Approve 46%, Disapprove 42%.

I recently wrote a highly critical article of Obama, and one of the points I brought up was his indecisiveness on Afghanistan as being an issue for him. Although I titled the article "Obama: The Weak and Indecisive President", I tried to bring up criticisms of Obama that I have heard from many Democrats.

CBS recently released a poll that found 43% disapproved of Obama's handling of Afghanistan, 38% approved. This was major because when they conducted this very same poll in early October, they found Obama's approval to have an eight-point margin -- a thirteen point swing.

This is what CBS News had to say on November 17:

Sixty-nine percent now say things are going badly for the U.S. in Afghanistan, a sharp increase from the 53 percent who said so in September. Just 23 percent say things are going well, down 12 points from September.

The findings reflect the most negative assessment of the war ever measured in CBS News polls.

The new poll also suggests that Americans have become increasingly skeptical about President Obama's handling of Afghanistan. Just 38 percent now approve of the president's performance on Afghanistan, down from 43 percent in October and 58 percent in April. Forty-three percent disapprove, an increase of nine points from last month.

Most of the change can be attributed to independents. While 44 percent approved of Mr. Obama's performance on Afghanistan a month ago, just 30 percent approve today.

If we look at the results from three other, we see that disapproval has a seven point margin.

Now let's look at how each of these pollsters' prior polls look.

Obama's approval has a four point margin -- a swing in the margin of eleven points.

Dan Balz, from the Washington Post, wrote an article about this today.

In summary, this is what he had to say:

Public opinion has put Obama in a box politically. Views of the president and the war are politically asymmetrical.

Obama is still at the opening of his presidency, and faces risks to his political standing. A significant commitment of troops risks deterioration of support among Obama's Democratic base. Not backing the military leaders' request will draw Republican criticism that he lacks spine as commander in chief.