Published: August 18, 2011
President and Congress at Lowest Approval Ratings Ever
Less than two in five Americans likely to vote for President Obama if election were held today
NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After weeks of bad economic news and battling Congress over the debt ceiling and deficit discussions, President Obama is heading off for a little vacation time with his family to end the summer. Unfortunately, he is also ending the summer with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency so far. This month, just one-third of Americans (32%) give the president positive ratings on the overall job he is doing while two-thirds (68%) give him negative ratings. Last month, almost two in five (38%) gave the president positive marks while 62% gave him negative ones.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,450 adults surveyed online between August 8 and 15, 2011 by Harris Interactive.
Looking at the ratings on a partisan level, it's not shocking that almost all Republicans (95%) and nine in ten Conservatives (92%) give the President negative marks, but so do almost three-quarters of Independents (73%) and two-thirds of Moderates (64%). Certain groups are probably more divided than the White House would probably like as two in five of both Democrats (39%) and Liberals (43%) have a negative opinion of the job President Obama is doing.
While the President's ratings may be at his lowest, one small piece of comfort he has is that he is doing a better job than Congress. Right now, almost all Americans (95%) have a negative view of the overall job Congress is doing and just 5% give them positive ratings. This is a further drop from last month when 8% of U.S. adults gave them positive marks and 92% gave them negative ones.
Continuing the trend of low ratings, more than four in five Americans (84%) say things in the country have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track and just 16% say things are going in the right direction. Last month, one-quarter (25%) said things were going in the right direction and 75% said they had gotten off on the wrong track. There have only been two other times since 1991 when this number has been lower: June of 1992, when just 12% of Americans thought things were going in the right direction and October of 2008 when 11% felt this way.
Even more disturbing for the White House are the numbers on likelihood of voting for President Obama. If the election for president were to be held today, over half of Americans (55%) say they would be unlikely to vote for Barack Obama while 37% say they would be likely to vote for him. Almost half (48%) say they would be very unlikely to vote for President Obama. This is down from last month when 52% of Americans said they were unlikely to vote for the current president and 42% were likely to do so.
Again, looking at this on a partisan level, nine in ten Republicans (92%) and Conservatives (88%) say they are unlikely to vote for President Obama as are three in five Independents (59%). Among Moderates, half (50%) say they are unlikely to vote for the President while 43% are likely to do so and 8% are not at all sure. Even among the two groups who are the President's more staunch supporters one in five of both Liberals (21%) and Democrats (21%) say they are unlikely to vote for the President if the election were to be held today.
So What?
There is no arguing that all politicians had a very rough July and early August and Americans are telling them with these current numbers that they are not at all happy with the job they've done in these past few weeks. Economic concerns are still top of mind and when people see partisan bickering standing in the way of solving some of these concerns, it definitely irritates them. In a little over a year, all of the House of Representatives, the President, and one-third of the U.S. Senate is up for re-election. If this negativity in the American electorate continues, they should all be very concerned for their election chances.
TABLE 1
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING - TREND
"How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?"
Base: All adults
TREND Positive* Negative**
% %
2011 August 32 68
July 38 62
June 38 62
May 19th 45 55
May 9th 46 54
April 38 62
March 39 61
Feb. 42 58
Jan. 44 56
2010 Dec. 36 64
Nov. 38 62
Oct. 37 63
Sept. 38 62
Aug. 40 60
June 39 61
May 42 58
April 41 59
March 41 59
Jan. 40 60
2009 Dec. 41 59
Nov. 43 57
Oct. 45 55
Sept. 49 51
Aug. 51 49
June 54 46
May 59 41
April 58 42
March 55 45
*Positive = excellent or pretty good. **Negative = only fair or
poor.
TABLE 2
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING - BY PARTY & IDEOLOGY
"How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?"
Base: All adults
Political Political
Total Party Ideology
Rep. Dem. Ind. Cons. Mod. Lib.
% % % % % % %
POSITIVE 32 5 61 27 8 36 57
Excellent 5 * 13 3 1 7 9
Pretty
good 26 5 47 24 7 29 48
NEGATIVE 68 95 39 73 92 64 43
Only fair 27 21 28 26 20 30 26
Poor 42 73 12 48 72 34 16
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding
TABLE 3
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING - BY REGION, EDUCATION & GENDER
"How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?"
Base: All adults
Total Region
East Midwest South West
% % % % %
POSITIVE 32 32 28 29 38
Excellent 5 5 4 6 5
Pretty good 26 27 24 23 33
NEGATIVE 68 68 72 71 62
Only fair 27 30 30 24 24
Poor 42 38 42 47 38
Education
H.S.
or Some College Post
less college grad grad
% % % %
POSITIVE 24 36 36 39
Excellent 5 6 3 9
Pretty good 19 30 33 30
NEGATIVE 76 64 64 61
Only fair 28 24 26 29
Poor 48 39 38 32
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding
TABLE 4
CONGRESS' OVERALL JOB RATING
"How would you rate the overall job Congress is doing?"
Base: All adults
Total Political Party
Rep. Dem. Ind.
% % % %
POSITIVE 5 4 8 3
Excellent * * 1 *
Pretty good 4 4 7 3
NEGATIVE 95 96 92 97
Only fair 30 37 31 24
Poor 65 60 61 73
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding
TABLE 5
CONGRESS' OVERALL JOB RATING - TREND
"How would you rate the overall job Congress is doing?"
Base: All adults
TREND Positive* Negative**
% %
2011 August 5 95
July 8 92
June 11 89
May 19th 12 88
May 9th 13 87
April 8 92
March 10 90
February 14 86
January 16 84
2010 December 11 89
November 13 87
October 11 89
September 13 87
August 15 85
June 14 86
May 15 85
April 16 84
March 10 90
Jan. 16 84
2009 Dec. 17 83
Oct. 16 84
Sept. 19 81
Aug. 22 78
June 25 75
March 29 71
2008 October 10 86
August 18 77
June 13 83
February 20 76
2007 December 17 79
October 20 77
April 27 69
February 33 62
2006 September 24 73
May 18 80
February 25 71
January 25 72
*Positive = excellent or pretty good. **Negative = only fair or
poor.
TABLE 6
RIGHT DIRECTION OR WRONG TRACK
"Generally speaking, would you say things in the country are going in
the right direction or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the
wrong track?"
Base: All adults
Right
TREND Direction Wrong Track
% %
2011 August 16 84
----
July 25 75
June 32 68
May 39 61
April 26 74
February 36 64
January 37 63
2010 December 29 71
April 39 61
2009 August 46 54
January 19 72
2008 October 11 83
February 23 69
2007 December 18 74
February 29 62
2006 May 24 69
February 32 59
2005 November 27 68
January 46 48
2004 September 38 57
June 35 59
2003 December 35 57
June 44 51
2002 December 36 57
June 46 48
2001 December 65 32
June 43 52
2000 October 50 41
June 40 51
1999 June 37 55
March 47 45
1998 December 43 51
June 48 44
1997 December 39 56
April 36 55
1996 December 38 50
June 29 64
1995 December 26 62
June 24 65
1994 December 29 63
June 28 65
1993 June 21 70
March 39 50
1992 June 12 81
January 20 75
1991 December 17 75
January 58 32
------- --- ---
TABLE 7
VOTING FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA
"If the election for president were to be held today, how likely
would you be to vote for the current president, Barack Obama?"
Base: All adults
May
May 9 19 June July August
% % % % %
Likely 46 43 41 42 37
Very likely 33 32 30 30 27
Somewhat likely 14 11 11 12 10
Unlikely 47 49 52 52 55
Somewhat
unlikely 7 8 7 8 7
Very unlikely 40 41 45 44 48
Not at all sure 6 8 6 6 7
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding
TABLE 8
VOTING FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA - BY POLITICAL PARTY
"If the election for president were to be held today, how likely
would you be to vote for the current president, Barack Obama?"
Base: All adults
August
Rep. Dem. Ind. Cons. Mod. Lib.
% % % % % % %
Likely 37 6 71 33 7 43 70
Very likely 27 1 57 21 4 29 58
Somewhat likely 10 5 14 12 3 14 12
Unlikely 55 92 21 59 88 50 21
Somewhat
unlikely 7 7 8 7 4 10 5
Very unlikely 48 85 14 52 84 40 15
Not at all sure 7 2 7 8 5 8 10
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding
Methodology
This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between August 8 to 15, 2011 among 2,450 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.
The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of Harris Interactive.
J40515
Q1205, 1210, 1215, 1218
The Harris Poll(®) #91, August 18, 2011
By Regina A. Corso, SVP, Harris Poll, Public Relations and Youth Research, Harris Interactive
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us - and our clients - stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
Press Contact:
Corporate Communications
Harris Interactive
212-539-9600
press@harrisinteractive.net
SOURCE Harris Interactive
Copyright © 2012, PRNewswire
Copyright © 2012, NewsBlaze,
Daily News
Search News
