Obama 'too soft' in negotiating with Iran, deal won’t work

More voters than not think President Barack Obama is giving away too much in the nuclear talks with Iran -- and that it’s pointless to make a deal with Iran anyway.

So it’s unsurprising that approval of the president’s handling of Iran hits a record low in the latest Fox News poll.

By a 51-34 percent margin, voters think Obama is “being too soft” rather than “striking the right balance” in talks with Iran.

Democrats think Obama is striking the right balance by a 27-point margin. Republicans (by 69 points) and independents (by 17 points) say he is being too soft.

Almost no one thinks Obama is “being too tough” with Iran (two percent).

Voters don’t think the deal will work. Half say negotiating is the wrong thing to do because Iran can’t be trusted to honor any agreement (50 percent), while 40 percent think negotiating is the right thing to do because it’s the best way to prevent a nuclear Iran.

Just 32 percent of voters approve of the job Obama’s doing on Iran, while 57 percent disapprove. Last month (the previous low) was 33-58 percent.

Among Democrats, nearly a third disapproves of the job Obama is doing on Iran (29 percent), feels he is being too soft in negotiating (28 percent) and thinks making a deal on Iran’s nuclear program is the wrong thing to do (30 percent).

Overall, 65 percent of voters think Iran poses a real national security threat to the United States. That’s little changed from the 62 percent who felt that way in 2006.

By comparison, eight of 10 (81 percent) think ISIS poses a real threat to the nation.

The Obama administration announced the framework of a deal with Iran over its nuclear program April 2. There are plans to continue talking through a late June deadline.

Seventy-six percent of all voters, including 64 percent of Democrats, said the president “should be required” to get Congressional approval for any deal he makes with Iran about its nuclear program in a March 29-31 Fox News poll.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,012 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from April 19-21, 2015. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.