We Hate Them, But We Want Them. We Love Him, But Don't Want His Policies

I note the following in this NBC/WSJ poll:

Party	Total Positive	Total Negative	Difference
Democratic	36	44	-8
Republican	26	51	-25

Contrast those numbers to this from later in the same survey:

Preferred Party To Control Congress		Percentage
Democrats	42
Republicans	44

Fewer people like Republicans, but more want them in charge of Congress.

One can infer from this that the Democrats have done a much better job in making their core voters happy than the GOP has. If my Twitter feed is any indication, then yesterday's announced budget deal is going to make this dynamic even worse.

A separate tidbit from the survey worth calling out-- they asked people which of the following "best describes your feelings towards Barack Obama." The options and results follow; while they are interesting, I just love this question. I think it is a great combination of "job approval" and "personal favorability."

Perspective		Percentage
Like Obama personally, approve of most of his policies	36
Like Obama personally, disapprove of most of his policies	28
Dislike Obama personally, approve of most of his policies	2
Dislike Obama personally, disapprove of most of his policies	31

Taken together, this means that 64% of people think Obama's a swell fellow, yet 59% do not like his policies.

Put that in the form that the earlier approve/disapprove numbers were presented, and it would look something like this:

Perspective	Approve	Disapprove	Difference
Obama, personally	64	33	+31
Obama's policies	38	59	-21

If you were wondering why President Obama constantly gives speeches to try to sell his policies, wonder no longer. He's trying to leverage the former to improve the latter.

Added:

.@ThePlumLineGS @TheRickWilson A minority position is OCare works or just needs tweaks (40%). 57% say major overhaul or repeal. Big gap.

— Gerry Daly (@GerryDales) December 11, 2013

Repeal is a minority position. So is keeping ACA mostly intact. People want OINO.