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Majorities of Americans Give President Obama Negative Ratings on his Handling of 12 Major Issues

NEW YORK - (BUSINESS WIRE) - As President Obama's overall approval rating continues to slide, he cannot find much solace in Americans' opinions on his handling of 12 different issues as he does not have a positive rating on any of these. The top one for President Obama is reducing the threat of terrorist attack with 41% giving his job on this a positive rating, down from 49% who said so in August. Two in five Americans also give the President positive marks on the environment (40%, down from 43% in August) and education (40% up from 37% in August).

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,293 adults surveyed online between October 5 and 12, 2009 by Harris Interactive.

President Obama is dealing with two different wars - one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan - and the American public is not pleased with his handling of either of them. In August two in five U.S. adults (42%) gave the president positive marks on his handling of the war in Iraq. Currently, that number has dropped to 34% while 66% give President Obama negative ratings on this war. The numbers for Afghanistan have gone down even more. In August, two in five (41%) gave the president positive ratings on the war in Afghanistan but now just one-quarter of Americans (27%) give him positive marks while 73% give him negative ratings.

The president has also spent a great deal of time trying to win the American public's support for his health reform plan but does not seem to be making much headway on this issue. Just three in ten Americans (31%) give President Obama positive ratings on his handling of health care while 69% give him negative ratings. In August, over one-third (35%) of U.S. adults gave the president positive ratings on this issue.

Looking at economic issues at least two-thirds of Americans give him negative ratings on all of these issues. On the economy overall, 67% give the president negative marks while one-third (33%) give him positive ones. In September, 40% gave President Obama positive marks on his handling of the economy. More specifically on his handling of regulating the financial system three in ten Americans (31%) give the president positive ratings while 69% give him negative marks. In August, 37% of Americans gave the president's job on this positive marks.

When it comes to the issue of taxes, three in ten Americans (29%) give the president positive marks on his handling of this issue while 71% give him negative ratings. Just one-quarter of Americans (26%) gives the president's handling of employment/unemployment a positive rating, down from 31% who felt this way in August. And, his lowest number is on the federal budget deficit where almost four in five Americans (78%) give President Obama negative marks and only 22% give him positive ratings.

So what?

The President needs a win, whether it is health care reform, some good economic numbers that matter to the American people or a change in Afghanistan. But, until he has something that resonates with the American public in a positive light, there is a sense that a negative attitude will permeate over all issues. One thing to note, education has actually ticked up a little and the White House had put forth their new education initiatives recently. Maybe this is the one issue that they should focus on for the near term, as long as they don't take their eye off of the economy.

TABLE 1 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S RATING ON CERTAIN ISSUES "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?"
Base: All adults
		POSITIVE		Excellent		Pretty good		NEGATIVE		Only fair		Poor
		%		%		%		%		%		%
Reducing the threat of terrorist attack against the U.S.		41		8		33		59		30		29
The environment		40		6		33		60		38		22
Education		40		8		31		60		36		25
The war in Iraq		34		6		29		66		35		31
The economy		33		7		26		67		28		39
Regulating the financial system		31		7		25		69		32		37
Health care		31		7		24		69		30		39
Taxes		29		5		24		71		35		36
Social Security		28		5		23		72		36		36
The war in Afghanistan		27		4		22		73		39		35
Employment/Unemployment		26		4		22		74		33		41
The federal budget deficit		22		4		18		78		30		48
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 2 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S RATING ON CERTAIN ISSUES - TREND "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?"
Base: All adults
Percent saying "Excellent/Pretty good"
		August 2009		October 2009
		%		%
Reducing the threat of terrorist attack against the U.S.		49		41
The environment		43		40
Education		37		40
The war in Iraq		42		34
The economy		39		33
Regulating the financial system		37		31
Health care		35		31
Taxes		33		29
Social Security		30		28
The war in Afghanistan		41		27
Employment/Unemployment		31		26
The federal budget deficit		23		22
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 3 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING ON THE ECONOMY - TREND "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing on the economy?"
Base: All adults
		March		April		May		June		Aug.		Sept.		October
		%		%		%		%		%		%		%
POSITIVE		47		49		46		43		39		40		33
Excellent		13		13		10		3		9		7		7
Pretty good		34		36		36		34		31		33		26
NEGATIVE		53		51		54		57		61		60		67
Only fair		30		27		30		27		25		27		28
Poor		23		24		24		30		36		33		39
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

The Harris Poll #116, October 19, 2009

By Regina A. Corso, Director, The Harris Poll

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States October 5 and 12, 2009 among 2,293 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com

(c)2009 Harris Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.

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