Thread: Poll of change: Obama’s job approval slipping to ‘50-50â

Poll of change: Obama’s job approval slipping to ‘50-50’

By Joe Dwinell
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - Updated 7h ago

(315) Comments

The honeymoon is over, according to a national poll out today as President Obama’s job approval stumbles to about 50 percent over the lack of improvement with the crippled economy.

The sobering numbers come as the president backpedals from two prime-time gaffes - one comparing his bowling score to a Special Olympian and another awkwardly laughing about the economy, which prompted Steve Kroft of “60 Minutesâ€

Released: March 24, 2009

Those Saying U.S. Headed in Right Direction Continue to Increase, Now 45%

However, Obama's Job Performance Drops Under 50%

UTICA, NY - A March 20-23 Zogby Interactive survey shows 45% of likely voters believe the nation is headed in the right direction, a gain of five points from a similar survey completed on March 5. At the beginning of the year, only 14% held that positive view.

However, President Barack Obama's ratings for job performance and favorability did not improve over earlier this month. In the most recent survey, 49% rate his job performance as excellent or good and 50% as fair or poor (less than 1% were not sure.) That is a dip of three points from the previous poll. The percentages who feel very or somewhat favorable toward Obama remained unchanged between the two polls, with 55% now and 56% in the previous poll.

There are still huge partisan differences in opinions about Obama. For example, 91% of Democrats rate Obama favorably, compared to 14% of Republicans. On Obama's job performance, 87% of Democrats grade it as excellent or good, compared to 9% of Republicans.

Sample size of the survey was 4,523, with a margin of error of +/- 1.5%. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

This table shows attitudes about the nation's direction from Zogby Interactive polls this year:

go to the link below to view the table

The movement toward "right direction" from January 8, prior to the Obama Inauguration, to January 26 came from Obama voters, and that has continued. For example, these are the increases in those choosing "right direction" between the March 5 poll and this most recent one: Democrats +9, Obama voters +8, liberals +7 and African-Americans +13.

There has been virtually no change in the direction question among Republican base voters. Choosing "right direction" in the most recent survey were: Republicans 9%, McCain voters 5% and conservatives 6%. Among Born-again Christians, 32% chose "right direction", an increase of 6 points from Jan. 26.

For a methodology statement on this poll, please visit:

http://www.zogby.com/methodology/readmeth.cfm?ID=1394

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1686