President Barack Obama’s approval rating continues to slide, according to three new polls released this week.
A Marist-McClatchy poll released Monday finds Obama’s approval at 41 percent, with 48 percent disapproving. That represents a net 11 percent drop from the previous poll in April, and the president’s worst numbers since September 2011.
A Washington-Post-ABC News poll released Sunday has similarly bad news for the president; it finds his approval at 49 percent, while 44 percent disapprove. This represents a net 2 percent drop since May, and Obama’s lowest approval since September 9th, 2012.
Additionally, Public Policy Polling has asserted that its next poll will show “our lowest national Obama approval numbers since right after the first debate,” in which Mitt Romney was widely considered to have trounced the president.
The president’s handling of the economy has driven his decline in the polls. The Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 45 percent approve of Obama’s handling of the economy, while 49 percent disapprove. The Marist-McClatchy poll shows a far worse result, with 37 percent approving, and 56 percent disapproving.
On Wednesday, President Obama will deliver a major address on the economy at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, in an attempt to reconnect with Americans on the issue that matters the most to them.
“When (Obama) gets away from talking about the economy, numbers have a tendency to slide,” Marist Institute for Public Opinion director Lee Miringoff said in a release accompanying the poll.
There is a silver lining in the new numbers for Democrats: Although President Obama’s numbers are sliding, he remains significantly more popular than Republicans in the House of Representatives. In the Marist-McClatchy poll, the House GOP’s approval rating sits at a dismal 22 percent, while the Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 52 percent of Republicans believe that GOP leaders are taking the party in the wrong direction (compared to just 37 percent who say that headed in the right direction). And, unlike President Obama, House Republicans still have to face the voters next November.
