45% Now Rate Obama’s Economic Performance As Poor

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. voters now give President Obama poor marks for his handling of the economy, the highest level of disapproval this year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% believe the president is doing a good or excellent job on the economy following the announcement last week that unemployment in October rose to 10.2 percent, the highest level in 26 years.

Only once all year have fewer people said the president was doing a good or an excellent job. That came in late September when just 38% offered such positive reviews.

When Obama first took office, 19% offered up a poor assessment of Obama’s handling of the economy the week. But that figure rose into the low 40s in early July and has largely remained there ever since.

The latest survey was taken Monday and Tuesday nights. On Tuesday, officials from the Federal Reserve Board publicly forecast that the U.S. unemployment rate could remain at these high levels even beyond next year.

After being knocked out of first place last month for the first time in nearly two years, the economy is back as the issue voters view as most important. Eighty-five percent (85%) of voters consider the issue of the economy as very important, topping a list of 10 key electoral issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of men say the president is doing a poor job on the economy, compared to 39% of women.

The partisan divide on the question, as is often the case, is startling. Seventy-two percent (72%) of Democrats say the president’s handling of the economy is good or excellent. Only 10% of Republicans and 27% of voters not affiliated with either party agree.

Voters this week are also giving the president low marks for his handling of national security. Forty-two percent (42%) say his performance in this area is good or excellent, roughly comparable to where these numbers have been since the end of August. But 39% say Obama’s handling of national security is poor.

Fifty-five percent (55%) rated the president’s national security performance as good or excellent the week he took office.

On the national security front, the president is wrestling with an expansion of the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan and last week’s murderous assault at Fort Hood, Texas by a Muslim Army officer who reportedly was in contact with anti-American terrorists.

Again, male voters are more critical of the president.

The partisan gap is also equally noticeably. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of GOP voters and 50% of unaffiliateds think the president is doing a poor job handling national security, a view shared by just seven percent (7%) of Democrats.

As part of his effort to improve America’s international standing, Obama has spoken of the world as a community of nations with more in common than divides us. But just 32% of voters agree with the idea that the world is a community of nations, more alike than different in outlook and interests.

Sixty percent (60%) of voters say last week's shootings at Fort Hood should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) say it is at least somewhat likely the next president of the United States will be a Republican.

Obama’s approval ratings as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll appear to have stabilized again after dipping slightly in October.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... ce_as_poor