So much for President Obama’s bravado that voters want him to stay.
Ten days after his hype, a new poll shows that slightly more want Trump as president than Obama.
Morning Consult delivered the results of their poll, done with Politico, on Wednesday morning and reported: “When asked who they would rather see as president for the next four years, 45 percent said Trump while 44 percent said Obama.”
That is a slap at Obama, who has been in a policy tug-of-war with Trump and his tweets.
Obama in late December said, “I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I — if I had run again and articulated it — I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.”
The poll did show that he had part of the equation right. He holds a five point election advantage over Trump, even though voters choose Trump as the president they want for the next four years.
Other highlights from the Morning Consult release:
— Voters Want Trump to Focus on Jobs and Healing the Country in Inauguration Speech. Some 75 percent said it is important to them that Trump mentions bringing manufacturing jobs back to U.S. from other countries in his inauguration speech, while 74 percent said it is important that he talks about healing the country after the election season.
— Least important was building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border (41 percent said important, 47 percent said not important) and temporarily banning Muslims (43 percent said important, 43 percent said not important).
— Most think White House Press Briefings Important, but Support Changing Format, Frequency. 78 percent think White House press briefings are important. That being said, 48 percent support a different, potentially less frequent briefing, while 37 percent oppose a change.
— Traditional Methods Beat Social Media When It Comes to Presidential Communications. When asked which are effective ways the president communicates with people and the press, “presidential speeches” topped the list with 83 percent saying it is effective, followed closely by “press releases or official statements” (83 percent), and daily press briefings (75 percent). Twitter and Facebook received the lowest rankings with 44 percent saying Twitter is effective and 47 percent saying ineffective. For Facebook, 46 percent said effective, while 46 percent said ineffective.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
