IF Americans could cast a "confidence" vote in the style of European parliaments, US President Barack Obama would not fare well. A 56 per cent majority would give his administration a vote of "no confidence".
In addition, there's more bad news for the White House in a FOX News poll released today. By a wide 68-29 per cent margin, voters say they do not see "any signs the nation's economy has started to turn the corner".
The 56 per cent "no confidence" number includes 30 per cent of Democrats and 62 per cent of independents. By comparison, 40 per cent of voters overall would cast a "vote of confidence" for the administration.
That's similar to Obama's overall job performance rating. Currently 42 per cent of voters approve and 48 per cent disapprove. This is the fifth month in a row where more voters have disapproved than approved of Obama. Last month 43 per cent approved and 50 per cent disapproved.
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By a 13 percentage-point margin more voters think Obama's economic policies have hurt (48 per cent) rather than helped (35 per cent) the economy.
Forty-four per cent think Obama's economic policies will help in the long run, while 48 per cent think they will hurt. Clearly the administration has failed to convince voters that their policies will ultimately pay off, as the current views are little changed from last year, when 45 per cent said the policies would eventually help and 44 per cent said they would hurt (October 2010).
