President Barack Obama is getting dangerously close to damaging his party in the same way former President Jimmy Carter did, NBC's Chuck Todd told MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday.
"He's on the precipice of doing Jimmy Carter-like damage to the Democratic brand on foreign policy," Todd told Scarborough.
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Scarborough had commented that the president's favorability rating had dipped "because he's been seen as dragging his feet on this crisis."
According to a new
Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll, Americans say Republicans are favored for sustaining a strong national defense, and Obama's actions, including a highly anticipated speech regarding the Islamic State (ISIS) during primetime Wednesday, could well affect voters' opinions as fall elections come near.
"It's not just him," Todd said. "It's actually impacting the entire party. We did some issue testing between, you know, who handles which issues – Democrats, Republicans. We took out Obama. Republicans lead by 38 points on the issue of ensuring a strong defense."
On Tuesday night, Todd, new host of NBC's "Meet the Press,"
said on NBC News that Americans are seeing a spike in 9/11 terrorism fears after the beheadings of two American journalists, reports
Real Clear Politics.
"We've seen such a flip on somehow we now want to see intervention in Syria," said Todd. "Sixty-one percent in our poll say they'd like to see military action, including 33 percent who would actually like to see us send combat troops."
Meanwhile, though, Obama has "a major political problem on his hands," Todd said.
"Handling foreign policy in our poll has just plummeted. Thirty-two percent approve of the job he's been doing, 62 percent disapprove. It's a huge spike this summer, and it is all about what has appeared to be unsteadiness in handling this ISIS crisis."