OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL

Is Obama losing his luster?

President's approval index hits negative digits for 1st time

Posted: June 21, 2009
7:33 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

For the first time in his administration, according to the Rasmussen daily presidential tracking poll, more people strongly disapprove of the job President Barack Obama is doing than strongly approve, giving Obama a presidential approval index of -2, the lowest rating to date and the first time the index has fallen below zero.

According to Rasmussen's telephone surveys, 32 percent of the nation's voters now strongly approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president, while 34 percent strongly disapprove.



This follows a report earlier in the week that President Obama's job approval rating fell to 58 percent in the Gallup poll daily tracking for June 16-18, a new low for Obama in Gallup tracking and a sharp decline from the 69 percent approval Obama enjoyed immediately after his inauguration.

The Gallup poll decline reflected a drop in President Obama's approval ratings among independents and Republicans, with the president's approval ratings among Democrats remaining over 90 percent, as shown in the following graph:



A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll published last week shows nearly seven in 10 respondents said they had concerns about federal intervention into the economy, including the government's decision to take ownership stakes in Chrysler and General Motors, as well as doubts over the prospect of more government involvement in health care.



The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggested doubts about the Obama administration's specific policies are beginning to overshadow the president's personal popularity.

President Obama's overall job approval in the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll was down to 56 percent, from 61 percent in April.

Among independents, President Obama's overall job approval rating has dropped from nearly 2-to-1 approval to evenly divided.

In recent days, President Obama's response to the post-election chaos in Iran has been controversial, with his supporters insisting the administration must avoid strong statements of support for the protestors in order to avoid giving the Iranian regime an excuse for more violent suppression of demonstrations.

Critics, on the other hand, have charged that President Obama needs to speak out strongly to support the demonstrators as part of the new Middle East he envisioned in his Cairo speech reaching out to moderates in the Islamic world.

World Net Daily has previously pointed out that Obama's 63 percent approval rating at the end of the administration's first 100 days in office is identical to Carter's 63 percent in 1977.

By comparison to President Obama, President Carter's approval ratings did not drop below 60 percent on Gallup polls until August 1977, seven months after he had been in office.

In 1977, inflation hit 11 percent, beginning the upward double-digit trend that plagued the Carter years, with inflation hitting 12.4 percent in 1978, 13.3 percent in 1979 and 13.5 percent in 1980.

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