president obama s numbers. 41% approve his foreign policy handling. to me, those are really tough numbers. the public is saying, we re not sure we approve of how this has been sold so far. correct me if i m wrong, and i follow this stuff pretty closely, foreign policy has long been a place where he was stronger than, say, where he was on the economy, when it relates to people supporting his position, correct? i think this is several years after the bin laden killing. which that boosted his numbers. it is interesting, his economic numbers have gone up. but i do think, you know, one thing our pollsters opponent out is once an action occurs if president explains this to the american public, once things, if things end up happening, public opinion can flip on a dime. so this is the situation right now. it could change if strikes occur. a very changeable situation.
campaign, it was folks raising questions about the commander in chief credentials of one barak obama. not just republicans doing it back then, remember, it was democrats like joe biden who were saying he was going to be tested. he was a young senator. didn t have a lot of experience. they obviously believe in chicago, the president has been tested and passed the test, shep. shep: and that attack on the consulate in libya clearly put the president, at least to some degree on defense. no doubt about it. if you look at our polling in recent weeks, for example, on the question of who do you trust more to handle foreign policy? the president had a small dip. 352% say they trust him more. 41% would trust mitt romney. that s down for the president from 54% back in september. so clearly that terrorist attack in benghazi has had some effect. that is why mitt romney sees an opening here. he s trying to pounce on it. but the bottom line is even with that dip, the president has a double digit
independents approve of the president s foreign policy handling, versus 53% who did so last month. according to the this poll. that is a significant drop in a short time. when it comes to foreign policy. and one would think it is surrounding the handling of this situation. back with the panel. steve? well, i think that is exactly what it suggests. look, you can t have the middle east, the greater middle east on fire. or these demonstrations across the globe and not have it have impact on the man who has been in charge for three-and-a-half years. people recognize this their gut this is paying the price for weakness. whatever the president wants to say, however he wants to eng plain what has happened here, we are paying the price for weakness. this is another reason that romney was wise to step in and say something. i think highlights the fact that the president has done this if you look at what is
did the administration have any sort of heads-up that violence was increasing specifically in libya before the attack? i m in the aware of any, ed. this is a matter that is under investigation in terms of what precipitated attacks, what the motivation of the attackers were, what role the video played in that. bret: the answer is changing a bit as the days continue here to the questions about who knew what when and exactly what role the anti-islam video has played. there is new poll out tonight by nbc and the wall street journal about the president s handling of foreign policy. it came out after all of the embassy and consulate back and forth and the attacks. it says that 49% approve of the president s handling. 26% disapprove. that is down from 54% approving last month. his foreign policy handling. what you don t see here is and it s written up on the website, that only 41% of
think it will get better within the next 12 months. lowest number for the poll since last november. the president still earning high marks on his foreign policy handling, 47 to 32%. job approval with 49% saying they approve, 48% disapprove. chuck todd, what s the headline of this poll? the negative campaign and i think both the president and romney taking on water. the president had capital to give away in his personal rating, and he s been giving it away. romney hasn t. i mean that s sort of where you look at this. if you re the obama folks you say well, yes, we ve we re hurting ourselves a little bit. we re hurting romney more, at least that s their justification. the romney folks say hey, those net negatives they ve been that way for six months, they haven t really changed and look all of those hits, those attacks, they re actually taking a little toll on obama. but i think sort of the negative