New CNN Poll: Obama Unpopular, Voters Angry
BLITZER: Just a week to go until the midterm elections, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows Democratic candidates' biggest problem may be -- may be President Obama himself. The poll shows the president remains unpopular. His approval ratings stuck in the mid- 40s, which is where it stayed for most of the year. Let's bring in our chief national correspondent John King, and our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. The new numbers in this CNN/ORC poll show, point out that for Democrats, 30 percent of Americans say they're very angry about the way thing are going in the country right now, 22 percent said that in 2012, the percentage today is about the same as it was in 2010 when the Democrats suffered a shellacking, in the words of President Obama, as you remember. So, what's going on here?</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very similar dynamic, absent that the Republicans don't have the intensity, I don't think they had in 2010. But you do have, look, that presidential number, that's the national number. Remember, most of the competitive terrain, the competitive terrain this year is in red states. Most of the Senate races, the count in red states. A few of them in states the president carried. But even in those states like Colorado and Iowa, the Republican candidates are leading at least by a little at a moment. So, you look at the national number, then you look at that anger. What does that tell you? The president is weak. The voters are mad. And in a midterm year, the history is they take it out on the president and his party. Now, no incumbent should be happy in this environment, but history tells you, the president and his party get the bigger whack.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, one of the numbers we looked at, Wolf, is we asked people if they're satisfied with the way they're being governed. And the answer was 74 percent, no. So, to John's point, that really hurts Republicans as well as Democrats. One of the reasons you may not see one of these wave elections, is that people are so dissatisfied with everybody. They're going to hole their noses and vote no matter whom it's for. But there is no sense like, oh, right, the Republicans would be so much better than the Democrats. They really don't feel that way.</s>BLITZER: Yes, two-thirds say they're angry. As many as 60 percent say they're very or somewhat scared right now. So, that's a pretty significant number right there.</s>KING: And you look at the terrain of the last couple months -- yes, there's been better economic news, but what are we talking about? We're talking about beheadings of American journalists. We're talking about a military campaign against ISIS. Now, we're talking about the threat of Ebola, you know, in West Africa, and the isolated cases here in the United States. So, the American people are processing grim, bleak, depressing, scary, anxious news. And that makes them anxious as voters. And again, history says, you know, Democrats think this isn't fair. But history just says they take it out more on the president and his party in the midterm election. That's the way it goes. But to Gloria's point, look at the Senate race in Kentucky. Barack Obama carried four counties. So, if there was ever a year where the Republicans should be winning a state easy, it is that state. The president is an issue in the midterm election. It's a state where he's hugely unpopular. But Mitch McConnell is in really close race. Why? Because he's a poster child for Washington.</s>BLITZER: Gloria, in this new poll, only 26 percent of Democratic voters said they're extremely or very enthusiastic about voting, 36 percent of Republican voters said they're enthusiastic about voting. So, that presumably is going to hurt the Democrats.</s>BORGER: It's going to hurt the Democrats. It is clear there's a Republican advantage on enthusiasm. But if you go back to 2010 when there was a wave election, 54 percent of Republicans said they were enthusiastic. So, you know, you saw that more in 2010 than you're seeing it now. Again, yes, Republicans are anxious to go out to vote. Yes, Republicans dislike the president more than Democrats do. But are they as enthusiastic as they were when Barack Obama lost control of the House of Representatives and John Boehner became speaker? No.</s>BLITZER: Let's talk quickly about Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. Some of all of sudden, some of his relatives are saying, you know what, he's serious thinking about running for president.</s>BORGER: Yes. It's kind of been a little drip, drip, drip. We saw George P., his son, his eldest son over the weekend telling ABC that his father was more than likely that he's giving this serious thought. I spoke with someone who is close to Jeb Bush today who said, wanting to do this and doing it are two different things, and nobody understands better about what it takes than Jeb Bush and also, of course, Hillary Clinton.</s>BLITZER: But significantly, his son, they are very close. George P. is running for office in Texas. They're very, very close. His son says the family concerns are being mitigated. He says the wife is onboard, he said Barbara Bush, the mother is willing to be quiet. So, if that's the case, if the family issues are settled or at least close to settled, then Jeb Bush has this decision to make. He's against his party based on immigration. He's against his party based on Common Core, the education standards, because he want to run for president and essentially plant a flag, look the base in the eye and say, to win, you have to admit you're wrong.</s>BLITZER: I just got a tweet from George P. Bush saying he is following me on Twitter.</s>BORGER: Well, we hope he's watching, right?</s>BLITZER: I don't know what that means but he's following me. Guys, thanks very much for joining us.</s>BORGER: Sure.</s>BLITZER: That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. If you want to follow me on Twitter, go @WolfBlitzer. "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.