United States President Barack Obama’s approval rating has slumped to 50%, the lowest since his inauguration, according to a poll released on Thursday on the eve of his 200th day in office.
Quinnipiac University said the president’s job approval rating dipped to 50-versus-42%, a reflection of growing unease over Obama’s handling of the economy, which sank into a devastating recession last year prompting his administration to unleash a deficit-stretching stimulus package, and healthcare which faces a critical overhaul in Congress.
The figure is a substantial drop from the 57-33% approval rating he had on July 2, and far less than the glowing numbers he enjoyed in the honeymoon first 100 days of his tenure.
The poll of 2 409 registered voters nationwide conducted July 27 to August 3 found they disapproved 49-45% of the way Obama was handling the economy, and disapproved 52-39% on his handling of healthcare, but approved 52-38% of his foreign policy.
But while Republicans disapproved of the Democratic president’s job performance by an expectedly large margin of 77-16%, the poll found that Americans disapproved 59-29% of how Republicans in Congress were doing their job and that they trusted Obama over Republicans 47-36% to fix the economy and 46-37% to deal with healthcare.
”The president is right on the magic 50% threshold in public approval because of bad grades on the economy and even worse grades on healthcare,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s Polling Institute.
”The good news … is that American voters still see him as better able to handle the economy and healthcare than Republicans in Congress,” Brown said. ”The bad news is his margins are shrinking.”
On July 21 a USA Today/Gallup poll found Obama’s approval rating was 55% six months into his presidency, one point lower than that of his predecessor George Bush at the same point in his tenure.
The Quinnipiac poll said 93% of respondents described the US economy as ”not so good” or ”poor,” with just 28% saying it is improving, and 29% saying it is getting worse.
Forty-one percent saw no change.
The survey also found that ”by a 49-33% margin, voters think his policies will help the economy, but they believe, 36-33%, that Obama’s policies will hurt their personal financial situation,” Brown said.
Obama has pledged to overhaul the US healthcare system. He and most Democratic lawmakers want to introduce a public coverage option, while many Republican members of Congress and some conservative Democrats are against the idea.
On Tuesday a Harris Interactive online survey showed a majority of Americans are in favour, 52-30%, of having a government-run, healthcare option as proposed by Obama. — Sapa-AFP