AJC poll
This Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll surveyed 853 registered voters statewide from Jan. 4 to Jan. 7. The margin of error for each response is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
The survey used both traditional land-line and cell phones. The data are weighted based on mode (cell only, land-line only and mixed), region (metro vs. non-metro), gender, age, race, education and ethnicity (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic). Some totals may not equal 100 percent due to rounding.
Sources: Scientific Research-Based Interventions; AJC analysis
For complete results, log on to myAJC.com
State of the Union
Time: 9 p.m.
TV: ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, PBS
President Barack Obama will deliver his final State of the Union address on Tuesday with a sunny speech packed not with policy proposals but an optimistic vision of what the country could look like under his successor. His positive outlook, though, will come as a sharp contrast to the anger and disappointment of much of the Georgia electorate.
Before what could be the largest television audience in his remaining year in the White House, Obama plans to highlight a falling unemployment rate, a surge of new jobs, and climate change and gun control initiatives embraced by the voters that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is relying upon to win the White House.
The Republicans who seek to replace him have a starkly different view, painting a picture of America’s declining international prestige and waning military might amid a rising threat of terrorism at home and abroad.
It’s a scathing assessment of the nation’s challenges that appears to be largely shared by Georgia voters. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found that 62 percent of Georgia voters said the country was on the wrong track, while only one-third said U.S. policy was headed in the right direction.
Yet, as Obama enters the final year of his presidency, Georgia voters are surprisingly split on his performance. Some 49 percent of Georgians gave him a favorable rating, and 47 percent disapproved. That comes after years of dismal poll results that had his job approval rating hovering below the 45 percent mark.
The numbers were more pronounced when carved up along party lines, with 89 percent of Georgia Republicans giving him a negative review and 92 percent of the state’s Democrats swinging the opposite way. Independents generally had a more balanced take — 43 percent approved of Obama and 54 percent disapproved.
Terror fears drive responses
Georgia’s electorate is most sour about Obama’s national security policy.
Wide majorities of voters disapprove of his approach to terrorism and his strategy to defeat the Islamic State, the terror group that has seized a swath of Iraq and Syria.
Even many Democrats have their doubts. About one in three said they opposed his policy toward the Islamic State, which relies on Syrian and Iraqi troops and militias, reinforced by American airstrikes, to dislodge the extremist group’s forces.
“Here’s the thing: I don’t care for the way he’s handling the Islamic State,” said Priscilla Watson, a 46-year-old from Marietta. “But, overall, I think he’s done a good job with what he’s had to work with. We were in a pretty ugly place when he came to office, and he’s done as a good a job as he could.”
Other onetime supporters aren’t as forgiving.
Malcolm Lane, a 41-year-old who lives in Lawrenceville, voted for Obama in 2008 but, disillusioned, sat out the presidential contest in 2012. Now, he said, among his biggest concerns is the rise of the Islamic State on Obama’s watch.
“He’s not doing anything about the Islamic State,” Lane said. “He’s too busy worrying about being nice rather than the security of the nation. He’s more concerned with how they look at us rather than how we look at them. He’s just too politically correct with the whole issue.”
A split on the economy
The top Republican candidates for president have seized on that sentiment. Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has said of the Islamic State that he would "carpet bomb them into oblivion." Republican front-runner Donald Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants to the U.S., and during an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" he declared that "the state of our union is a mess."
Democrats pit them as doom-and-gloom naysayers. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Republican contenders are "seeming to run down America" and pointed to economic figures that show nearly 300,000 new jobs were created in December. And Obama, in a preview of his address, said he wants to focus on the nation's ability to "come together as one American family" and work toward "what we all need to do together in the years to come."
That’s the outlook embraced by William Weldon. He was among the Georgia voters who said Obama’s handling of the economy is the single most important issue of his presidency.
Voters across the board were evenly split on the question, with Democrats overwhelmingly approving of Obama’s efforts, Republicans solidly opposing them and most independents lodged somewhere in between.
Weldon, a 63-year-old metro Atlanta man, is jobless. But he’s optimistic about what his future holds.
“The economy has ticked up. And that says it all,” Weldon said. “I’m unemployed, but I am confident. More and more jobs are being created, and I know I’ll be OK.”
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