CBS Buries Results of Own Poll Showing Poor Ratings for Obama, Democrats Ahead of Midterms

On Wednesday night, the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley made no mention of the results from the latest CBS News poll [1] that gave President Obama and Democrats poor marks ahead of the November 4 midterm elections on issues ranging from the economy to ISIS to terrorism to who voters are most likely to vote for. 

Regarding the midterm elections, Republicans find themselves ahead of Democrats on both a generic ballot and specific issues. Republicans have a six point lead against Democrats overall (49 percent to 43 percent with those leaning left or right, 46 percent to 40 percent without) and a five point lead who voters would like most to see takeover the Senate (47 percent to 42 percent). Independents sided with the GOP by a full 30 points over Democrats (57 percent to 27 percent).

When it came to who voters trust to do a better job on the economy, foreign policy, and terrorism, the picture is the same. On the topic of terrorism, the GOP holds an massive lead of 21 points over Democrats at 52 percent to 32 percent and then advantages of 9 and 11 percentage points on the economy and foreign policy, respectively.

For President Obama, voters are not giving him high remarks either. While CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes said [2] Tuesday night that criticizing Obama on his handling of ISIS is “a tricky campaign issue” because he “does have a plan now,” voters are proving Cordes otherwise, as only 36 percent of voters said that he does have a plan, while 56 percent still say that he doesn’t.

Also, a mere 36 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of foreign policy while 56 percent disapprove. On how he has been handling ISIS and terrorism, 51 percent of Americans disapprove of the job he’s doing in both categories. Additionally, 52 percent of voters disapprove of his handling of the economy (53 percent approve). 

In two final results, only 29 percent of Americans believe the country is currently moving in the right direction, while 65 percent believe the U.S. is on the wrong track. Regarding the state of the economy, 55 percent said that “it is in bad shape” with “[j]ust 29 percent” answering that “it is improving.”

While the numbers were released [3] in an article on CBSNews.com at 6:30 p.m. ET (which is when the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley begins in the east), networks nearly always have access to them prior and often unveil them during their evening newscasts. In this instance, however, CBS choose to do the President and Democrats a favor and not share them on air with their viewers.