Asked which one or two words best describe the current state of the union before President Obama’s address Tuesday night, the top responses are “divided” (40%), followed by “recovering” (23%), “troubled” (19%), and “deteriorating” (19%), according to a new NBC/WSJ poll.
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When we asked this same question a year ago, “divided” (37%) and “troubled” (23%) were the top responses, while “recovering” was third (19%).
Also in the same poll, 45% of Americans say President Obama has been too stubborn in his dealings with congressional Republicans – which is up 20 points since we first asked this question at the beginning of Obama’s presidency (April 2009). Thirty percent say he’s struck the right balance, and 16% say he’s too willing to compromise.
By comparison, 55% of Americans say congressional Republicans are too stubborn in dealing with Obama – which is unchanged from 2009. Twenty-four percent say they’re too willing to compromise, and 15% say they’ve struck the right balance.
The poll was conducted Jan. 14-17, and the margin of error on these questions is plus-minus 4.9 percentage points.
The rest of the NBC/WSJ poll will be released on Tuesday.
Mark Murray