Entering into sequester negotiations, new Bloomberg poll shows President Obama with highest job approval rating in three years, and the popularity of Republicans at record lows.

Courtesy of Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama enters the latest budget showdown with Congress with his highest job- approval rating in three years and public support for his economic message, while his Republican opponents’ popularity stands at a record low. 

Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of Obama’s performance in office, his strongest level of support since September 2009, according to a Bloomberg National poll conducted Feb. 15-18. Only 35 percent of the country has a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest rating in a survey that began in September 2009. The party’s brand slipped six percentage points in the last six months, the poll shows. 

Americans by 49 percent to 44 percent believe Obama’s proposals for government spending on infrastructure, education and alternative energy are more likely to create jobs than Republican calls to cut spending and taxes to build business confidence and spur employment. 

“The Republicans are not offering any new solutions,” said poll respondent Cynthia Synos, 62, a political independent who lives in the St. Louis suburb of Greendale, Missouri. “Their answer is always tax cuts and incentives for business. I’ve never heard them say anything innovative to spark the economy that would help the other 85, 90 percent of people that have to deal with the economy as it is.” 

Obama’s positive standing with the public provides him with political leverage as Americans assess blame for any furloughs, disruption of government services or damage to the economy if the spending cuts aren’t averted. The repercussions also could help shape the battleground for the 2014 midterm congressional elections. 

Public views of congressional Republicans’ record places an added burden on them in the standoff over automatic spending cuts. Americans by 43 percent to 34 percent say they are more to blame than Obama and Democrats for “what’s gone wrong” in Washington. Still, another 23 percent aren’t sure which side bears more responsibility. 

Republicans “are not willing to work at all with the president,” said poll respondent Horace Lee Boyd, 64, a political independent and retired wholesale merchandiser who lives in Cullman, Alabama. “When you cease to compromise, you cease to accomplish anything. We’re at a stalemate. He’s willing to compromise and they aren’t.” 

From most perspectives it does not appear that the Republicans have much to work with, especially since the public cannot help but notice that most of the fighting is actually going on within the party itself, between the establishment GOP and the upstart Teabaggers, instead of with the Democrats.

While it is clear that the President wants to do everything he can to avoid the sequester it is clear that he stands to benefit from it politically once it happens and that the Republicans will suffer an even larger slip in the polls as a result.

In other words it appears that the Republicans are still trying to play chess while Obama is beating the pants off of them in a game of three dimensional chess.

P.S. By the way for those still a little confused about what the sequester does, here is a great article which lays the whole thing out in easy to understand language and graphics.