Obama, Democrats Get Low Marks from Machinists

Think President Obama's national approval ratings are bad? Just look at his poll numbers among machinists.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) polled 1,200 of its members and found that just 38.5% approve of the job Obama is doing, while 60.2% disapprove.

That's about the same as Obama polls in Kentucky and Arkansas, where Republicans appear poised to win Senate elections in 2010, according to Rasmussen.

Nationally, Obama polls at 46.4% approval, 48.8% disapproval, according to Pollster.com's average of major surveys.

Perhaps the machinists are cool on Obama because they feel his party isn't looking out for the working class: a whopping 88% agreed with the statement, "The Democratic Party doesn't represent working people as strongly as they used to."

Another point of interest: machinists solidly oppose the Senate's excise tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans, to the tune of 67.9%. Top labor leaders had worked with Democrats to massage that provision, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today that the House had altered them further in its package of reconciliation fixes.

The poll was conducted internally by IAM, which has members in every state. No regional distribution was provided; a spokesman provided a wide array of states where IAM membership is strong. Florida, Georgia, Texas, California, New York, and Washington, spokesman Rick Sloan said, are among the union's strongest.