The FINANCIAL — The government shutdown continues with no end in sight, and the White House and members of both houses and both parties in Congress continue to point fingers at each other in the game of "who's to blame."
Nationally, neither President Obama nor Congress is getting rave reviews for the jobs they are doing – with 34% and 7% positive ratings, respectively – but are there cities in the country where they can go to get some "love"? According to a study utilizing Harris Interactive's new Harris Poll Major Market Query (MMQ) omnibus platform, the answer is yes for President Obama and not really for Congress.
President Obama should stick to the coasts – almost three in five San Franciscans (57%) give him positive ratings for the job he is doing, as do half (51%) of Bostonians, according to the study. Next is his current home town of Washington, D.C. (45%), followed by LA (44%) and NYC (43%). Not surprisingly, he probably wants to avoid Texas, as just three in ten in both Dallas (31%) and Houston (31%) give the President positive ratings; 69% in both cities give him negative marks.
These are among the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,045 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older and living in the top 10 American markets by population (roughly 200 per market), surveyed online between September 25 and October 1, 2013 by Harris Interactive. The study utilized the MMQ platform, an omnibus survey offering a sample of the 10 top major metropolitan areas of the United States. Please note that this survey was in the field in the days leading up to the government shutdown.
Congress, on the other hand, should just stay home. But, if they did want to get out of Washington, D.C. where just 10% give them positive ratings – Members should probably head to Chicago (13% positive ratings) or San Francisco (12% positive). Like the President, they probably want to avoid Dallas (6% positive), but also Boston (6% positive) and Philadelphia (7% positive), according to Harris Interactive Inc.
San Francisco may be at the bottom of the list of America's happiest cities, but its residents are definitely the most positive about the way the country is going. Compared to just three in ten nationally (29%), almost half of San Franciscans (45%) say the country is going in the right direction while 55% say things have seriously gotten off on the wrong track. Bostonians show similar levels of optimism, with more than two in five (42%) saying the country is going in the right direction and more than one-third of New Yorkers (36%), Washingtonians (35%) and Chicagoans (35%) say the same. On the flip side, three-quarters of those in Dallas (75%) and Philadelphia (74%) say the country has seriously gotten off on the wrong track, as do two-thirds of Atlantans (67%) and Los Angelenos (67%).
When it comes to the overall job the President is doing on the economy, nine of the ten metropolitan areas give him better marks than the nation as a whole, where just 29% give him positive ratings. Once again, Dallas is not President Obama's biggest fan, as just 28% of its residents give him positive marks on his handling of the economy while 72% give him negative ones. Just three in then adults in Houston (30%), Los Angeles (30%) and New York (31%) give the president positive ratings on his handling of the economy. The three metro areas where he gets the best marks for how he is handling the economy are Boston (46% positive), Washington, DC (40%) and San Francisco (38%), according to Harris Interactive Inc.
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