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Secretary of State John Kerry revealed that Arab countries were offering to bear all the financial costs of unseating President Assad if the United States took the lead on military action during Wednesday’s House hearing on the Obama Administration’s proposal for Syrian intervention. The hearing, held by the House Committee of Foreign Relations, hosted Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey to provide testimony on the Administration’s proposed resolution to use military force against the Assad Regime for its use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians....

A Republican lawmaker is rallying support to pressure President Barack Obama into seeking congressional authorization for military strikes against Syria. Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia is asking colleagues to sign a letter to Obama that urges him to reconvene Congress and seek approval for any military action. …

“I don't usually write emails like this…” -- Senior White House Adviser Dan Pfeiffer in a mass email touting a series of economic speeches Obama will give in the weeks to come. President Obama’s poor job approval ratings have become as much a part of late July as sweet corn and a fire sale on the Cubs’ roster. But this time, Team Obama has a plan to prevent the second-half slump that played out in every year of his presidency. Maybe. But with his Real Clear Politics Average approval rating down to 45.8 percent today, massive battles ahead and no...

<p>The disappointing results come as the White House this week looks to turn the national conversation back to the economy. Obama will deliver the first of a series of speeches Wednesday aimed at offering his vision for boosting economic growth, even as the new poll found that just 37 percent of the respondents approved of his handling of the economy, while 56 percent disapproved.</p>

Since June 24, there have been five major polls released on President Obama's approval rating. All except one showed more people disapprove of Mr. Obama's performance than those who approve. Of those polls, the closest Approval/Disapproval spread for the President was negative six; that is, six percent more people disapproved of Mr. Obama than approved. In fact, that poll, conducted by The Economist/YouGov, was Mr. Obama's strongest performance, save one poll. The others, conducted by Reuters, Fox News, and Rasmussen, showed the President at, respectively, -7, -8, and -8. And then you have Gallup, which has the President at +7....

Despite ridiculous hype about a recent CNN poll that showed an exaggerated 8-point drop in Obama’s approval rating, there’s no doubt that his approval rating is about 4 points lower than it was in January 2013. There’s lots of speculation as to why—see, e.g., Nate Silver. But I want to say why it matters. Justin Wolfers, for one, is dubious. And a journalist also emailed me on this subject today. [Update: That journalist was John Dickerson. See his piece here.] The decline matters for three reasons. First, it matters for the 2014 election. A simple model of House election outcomes...

The ongoing Benghazi investigation, the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, the DOJ collecting journalists’ phone records, the NSA surveillance revelations, the continuously bumpy ObamaCare rollout, and etcetera — it’s tough to pinpoint the precise effect any one debacle is having on the president’s approval rating, but it looks like the collective effect of the snowballing scandals and bureaucratic failures is definitely starting to manifest itself. A new national CNN/ORC poll pegs Obama’s approval rating at just 45 percent — the lowest he’s scored in over a year and a half and a drop of eight percentage points over just the...

At first, Democrats were quick to claim that the scandals erupting over the last month were just flashes in the pan. When that proved to just be wish-casting, the meme changed to the dangers of Republican overreach. According to a new poll from a series normally friendly to the White House, that meme will soon disappear, too. Solid majorities in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll say that the scandals raise doubts about the integrity of the Obama administration — although they’re not impacting Barack Obama himself, at least not on job approval.The Hill provides a good analysis of...

An interesting snapshot poll put out by Quinnipiac today. It shows the president's support dropped significantly from the last poll taken on May 1 by the same outfit. It also shows that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of a special prosecutor to look into the IRS scandal - including 63% of Democrats. Politico: President Barack Obama's approval rating took a hit amid three controversies surrounding his administration, including an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, a new poll Thursday showed. Obama has a 45 percent approval rating and a 49 percent disapproval...

[SNIP] Here are top line numbers from the Washington Post poll that should worry Mr. Obama and his team: Q: Changing topics, in general do you think the federal government is doing more to (protect) the rights of average Americans or more to (threaten) the rights of average Americans? 54% - threaten. 38% - protect. The Washington Post didn't ask "threaten" respondents if they connect their fears to the president. With more to come from the IRS scandal -- and with links to the White House probable -- the majority feeling threatened by government will grow. Q: Republicans in Congress...

After a week of revelations about government spying on reporters and the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservatives, most voters feel “like the federal government has gotten out of control and is threatening the basic civil liberties of Americans.” At the same time, a new Fox News poll finds disapproval of President Obama’s job performance is above 50 percent for the first time in a year, his honesty rating is at a new low and half of voters already think he’s a lame-duck. More than two-thirds of voters -- 68 percent -- feel the government is out of control and threatening...

President Barack Obama comes out of what was arguably the worst week of his presidency with his approval rating holding steady, according to a new national poll. But a CNN/ORC International survey released Sunday morning also indicates that congressional Republicans are not overplaying their hand when it comes to their reaction to the three controversies that have consumed the nation's capital over the past week and a half. And the poll finds that a majority of Americans take all three issues seriously. According to the survey, which was conducted Friday and Saturday, 53% of Americans say they approve of the...

Bad-week-after-bad-week for the besieged Obama White House- and this one still ain't even over yet! At a point in time when Obamacare's most unpleasant periods of implementation -and massive tax hikes- are yet to have hit, seems reality has already penetrated much of the public awareness...  at least to the point so that somebody besides medical professionals and small-businesses are frightened by this legislative Frankenstein.  Obamacare has never enjoyed 50% support in any poll I've ever seen- now today, barely a third of regular Joes and Josephines approve, just one point better than the all time low of 34%...

I have previously noted my skepticism of claims that there were overwhelming support for the Senate gun control bill that was voted down about 10 days ago. Well, now there is another poll by the PEW Research Center that I think is much more accurate. It asks people whether they are happy that the Senate gun control bill was stopped. Apparently, both Republicans and Independents are generally happy that it was stopped. My guess is that Republicans should pay a lot more attention to what Independents and Republicans wanted than Democrats who wouldn't never have voted for the Republicans...

Former President George W. Bush's approval rating is up to 47%, a seven-year high for the former president, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The mark stands as Bush's highest approval rating since December 2005, one year through his second term in office. By October 2008, Bush's approval rating had sunk to an abysmal 23% before inching up to 33% as he left the White House. One possible cause for the bump — besides the former Commander in Chief's time out of the spotlight — could be the upcoming dedication of his presidential library. On Thursday, the $250 million...

Well over a month ago, Sean Trende warned me that the numbers had started to shift away from Barack Obama, and that his election-cycle rise in approval had come to an end. We have seen that in a number of polls already, and last night Pew confirmed it with its latest survey results — and in a big way. Obama has dropped eight points since his re-election, and five points since his win on tax rates in January: Barack Obama’s job approval rating has tumbled since shortly after his re-election, as the public’s economic expectations for the coming year have...

We started seeing this with the Reason/Rupe poll almost two weeks ago, which Sean Trende insisted wasn’t really an outlier. Barack Obama’s approval rating started sliding in Gallup, and last week Reuters had him at 43%. Today, the Washington Post reports that Obama has lost five points in approval in their latest poll, with the most significant decline in his economic policies: The afterglow of President Obama’s reelection and inauguration appears to have vanished as increasingly negative views among Americans about his stewardship of the economy have forced his public approval rating back down to the 50 percent mark, according...

What with the recent changes to various regulatory aspects regarding the lives of American citizens I was expecting a bit of backlash against President Obama, but I certainly didn’t see this coming. President Barack Obama’s approval rating in New York fell precipitously in the past month, according to a poll released Monday, and three-fifths of the state’s registered voters now believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.Obama’s approval rating remains high in New York, at 56 percent, with 41 percent disapproving, according to the Siena College poll.But the president’s approval rating was at 66 percent last month, with...

President Obama’s approval rating dipped slightly after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a deal to avoid the sequester, according to a Gallup survey released Tuesday. Obama’s approval rating had been holding steadily above the 50-percent mark since last October. But over the weekend, following Friday’s sequester deadline, the president’s approval rating fell as low as 46 percent. Obama averaged 49-percent approval for the week ending March 3, down from the previous week’s average of 51 percent, and down from 53 percent, where he started February. Obama’s highest weekly average in 2013 came shortly before his second inauguration in early...