SHAKE-UP AT THE WHITE HOUSE : Support for Clinton Slipping, Poll Finds

On the eve of President Clinton’s decision to shake up his staff, increasing numbers of Americans said Clinton was a mistake-prone leader lacking in decisiveness and losing his sense of the real problems facing families, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Although Clinton’s overall approval rating held steady from a month earlier at 50%, the new poll confirms that the President has lost ground with the public since the beginning of the year on a broad variety of issues. The poll also found an upsurge in concern about the state of the economy.

Opinion on the overall Clinton health care plan is increasingly negative, but those polled say the President is right in seeking a major overhaul of the system to require employers to pay most of the bills for everyone’s health insurance. If those polled had their way, however, abortion would be dropped from the basic benefits package in the plan.

Clinton’s overall approval score is 8 or 9 percentage points below where it had stabilized in the first three months of 1994. His disapproval is at 44%.

But 55% said Clinton is not a strong and decisive leader, up from 44% in January.

What has been a pillar of support for Clinton--his empathy for average Americans--is suffering erosion. In January, 55% said he understands problems of people like themselves and 39% said he does not. Now the numbers are 52% yes and 46% no.

That may be related to increasing worries about the economy. Despite several months of low inflation and increasing employment, economic confidence is lower than it was last winter. In January and February, the number of people who saw the economy improving exceeded, by 9 or 10 percentage points, the number who saw it declining. Now, 42% say it is getting worse and 39% say it is getting better.

The telephone survey, taken Thursday through Sunday, with 1,531 randomly selected adults interviewed. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. When the poll was taken, economic news was dominated by reports that the dollar was dropping against the Japanese yen and the German mark. As a result, Clinton’s approval scores on handling the economy, which had been in positive territory from December through May, dipped to 46% approval and 48% disapproval in the latest poll.

Economic anxiety was highest in the West and his economic performance scores were notably low there and in the South, and among women, working-class and poor people.

Among independents, approval of Clinton’s economic performance dropped 10 points to 37% between January and June.

Crime continues as the overriding concern, with the economy edging health care on the voters’ priority list for Clinton and Congress. Neither Clinton nor Congress earns public approval for their current handling of health care, but the public expresses slightly more confidence in the lawmakers than in Clinton--44% to 36%--to do the job right.

These negative trends clearly threaten Clinton’s effort to put public pressure on Congress to enact his plan. Still, only 22% of those polled say Congress should reject it entirely.