Emerson College Polling Society: President Obama's Favorability Rating Plunges; Snowden Seen As Traitor

BOSTON, Aug. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Plagued by the summer scandals and controversies of the Associated Press, the Internal Revenue Service and the National Security Agency, President Obama's favorability rating is 39%, with nearly 55% of Americans viewing him unfavorably, according to a new national poll by the Emerson College Polling Society. This represents the same trend found by Reuters/Ipsos on July 23 that showed the president's approval rating at 41%. The ECPS survey included 901 respondents with a 3.2 margin of error.

The President has lost the support of Independents; sixty-two percent (62%) have an unfavorable opinion compared to only 30% who favor the President.

The poll suggests President Obamas popularity may continue to slide with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act over the next few months. The individual mandate, a key part of the law that requires each person to buy health insurance or pay a fine, is opposed by fifty three percent (53%) of Americans and 57% of Independents.

Both Democrats (52%) and Republican (51%) agree on one polled topic, Edward Snowden, the individual who released information about NSAs surveillance program, is a traitor. Only 20% of respondents viewed him as a hero.  Thirty-two percent (32%) are undecided.

Sixty-Eight percent (68%) of Americans across the nation are opposed to Rolling Stone decision to place a celebrity type picture of alleged Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the magazine's cover. Nearly 51% also support to boycott sales of the magazine.

Other issues

--- Hillary Clinton is the clear front runner for the Democratic Party in the 2016 presidential election with 58% of respondents picking Clinton to win the nomination. Vice President Joe Biden came in a distant 2nd, with only 6% thinking he would be the Democratic nominee.

---There is no clear front-runner for the Republican Party nomination for the 2016 presidential race.  Among all polled, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie leads, with 24%, followed by Rand Paul (13%), Marco Rubio (12%), and Jeb Bush (11%). However, among registered Republicans, Rubio leads with 22% followed by Paul at 20% and Christie is in third place at 14%.

Other issues polled:

---The public is evenly divided about whether or not abortions should be legal after 20 weeks of pregnancy (41% to 41%).

--- Fifty percent (50%) of those polled agree with the jury's verdict to acquit George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, while 35% disagree. Interestingly, 56% of Americans believe that racial bias exists in the criminal justice system. 

---Sixty-one percent (61%) of those polled do not favor a bailout for the City of Detroit; only 17% support a bailout.

--- Forty-five percent (45%) favor stricter gun laws as compared to only 20% favoring less laws governing guns.

---Americans are split in their opinions of PRISM, the NSA's once-secret surveillance program of collecting individuals' phone and Internet records - 37% support this policy while 40% are opposed. Partisan divide marks the NSA issue - forty-six percent (46%) of Democrats support the NSA program, compared to only 27% of Republicans.

---People support the collection of biometric information for accurate personal identification (53% to 29%) and support license plate readers (45% to 35%), a technology used by law enforcement to locate the physical movements of vehicles.

Data was collected on July 29th to July 30, 2013 using an automated data collection system. The national sample consisted of 901 U.S adults a margin of error of +/-3.2% at a 95% confident level. Demographics were based on 2010 U.S. Census Data. The full survey and results are available at the ECPS's website. www.emersoncollegepollingsociety.com

About Emerson College Polling Society
Emerson College Polling Society is an organization dedicated to formulating, administering, and analyzing public opinion polls. The results and analysis of this release are the sole views of Emerson College Polling Society and do not reflect the views of Emerson College as a whole.

Media Contact: Juliet Albin
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Email
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SOURCE Emerson College Polling Society