According to the latest polling data, Rob Ford, Toronto's notoriously inappropriate mayor, is more popular among his constituents than President Obama is among Americans.
Rob Ford and Barack Obama/Wikimedia Commons
A CBS News poll released last week found that Obama's job approval rating has hit 37 percent, the lowest of his presidency yet and a nine-point drop since October. By comparison, a Forum Research survey of 1,049 Toronto voters found that 42 percent support Mayor Ford's job in the city.
The CBS poll found what may be the most significant contributing factor to Obama's dismal ratings: strong disapproval of Obamacare. From CBS News:
A rocky beginning to the opening of the new health insurance exchanges has also taken its toll on how Americans perceive the Affordable Care Act. Now, approval of the law has dropped to 31 percent—the lowest number yet recorded in CBS News Polls, and a drop of 12 points since last month. Sixty-one percent disapprove (a high for this poll), including 46 percent who say they disapprove strongly. President Obama has also taken a hit on views of his honesty. During the presidential campaign last fall, 60 percent of voters said Mr. Obama was honest and trustworthy, but just 49 percent of Americans think that today.
Obama's disapproval rating is also at a record high of 57 percent.
Rob Ford's approval rating remarkably dropped by only two percentage points from earlier this month (since he made lewd sexual remarks in a live press conference, trampled over a Councilmember during a city hall meeting, and was caught on video shouting about wanting to kill a man), and is actually three percentage points higher than it was last year (before he admitted to smoking crack in a "drunken stupor.")
The Telegraph reports, "The result suggests that Mr Ford could still be competitive in next year's municipal election, although only 33 per cent of those polled said they would vote for him in 2014."
In addition to the CBS poll, Gallup's daily poll measuring three-day averages shows Obama's approval rating today as equal to Ford's at 42 percent.
Congress meanwhile, is pulling a 7.5 percent approval rating according to a Huffington Post poll.
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