Blame game

Barack Obama holds a substantial advantage over John Boehner in handling budget negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff: Nearly twice as many Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll approve of the president’s work on the issue so far as favor the speaker’s approach.

That’s at least in part because many more people are in the dark about Boehner’s efforts, underscoring a president’s greater ability to command the spotlight to make his case – and to draw more unified backing from his party’s core supporters.

Obama’s rating is hardly overwhelming: More Americans approve rather than disapprove of how he’s handling the cliff talks by a narrow 7-point margin, 49-42 percent. But Boehner wins approval from just 25 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, while 49 percent disapprove; an additional 26 percent don’t know enough to say. ...ABC News  

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A new poll finds that a majority of voters would blame both President Obama and congressional Republicans equally if efforts to find a deficit deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” fail.

Fifty-six percent surveyed in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll say both sides would be responsible if a compromise is not reached. Nineteen percent would blame Obama and Democrats only, with 24 saying the GOP would be at fault. ...The Hill

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If no deal is reached, far more say congressional Republicans would be more to blame (53%) than President Obama (27%). These opinions are virtually unchanged since early November. ...Pew Research