President Obama Heads into Midterms at Lowest Approval Rating of Presidency

Two-thirds of Americans believe country going off on the wrong track

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Oct 25, 2010, 09:47 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- President Obama is spending the next week crisscrossing the country in support of Democratic candidates before this year's midterm elections. While the president may do a great job of energizing the base, he may not be able to convert any Independents who have yet to decide for whom they will vote. Currently, two-thirds of Americans (67%) have a negative opinion of the job President Obama is doing while just over one-third (37%) have a positive opinion. This continues the president's downward trend and he is now at the lowest job approval rating of his presidency.

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These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 3,084 adults surveyed online between October 11 and 18, 2010 by Harris Interactive.

It's perhaps not surprising that nine in ten Republicans (90%) and Conservatives (89%) give the job the president is doing negative ratings. What may be surprising is that one-third of Democrats (34%) and Liberals (33%) also give him negative ratings, as do seven in ten Independents (70%) and six in ten Moderates (60%).

Americans who give the president the highest positive ratings are those with a post-graduate education (48%), a college education (47%), and those living in the West (42%). On the other end of the spectrum, almost three-quarters of those with a high school education or less (72%) and two thirds of Midwesterners (66%) and Southerners (66%) give the President negative marks on his overall job.

While the president is at a low point, there is a political body with ratings much lower than his. Just one in ten Americans (11%) give Congress positive ratings on the job they are doing while nine in ten (89%) give them negative marks. While Congress may be under Democratic control, even four in five Democrats (81%) give them negative ratings.

Part of this negativity may have to do with the way Americans believe the country as a whole is going. Just one-third of U.S. adults (34%) say the country is going in the right direction while two-thirds (66%) say it is going off on the wrong track. While not close to the low it was before the 2008 election (11% said things were going in the right direction), this is one of the lower points of this year.

So What?

How this unhappiness with Congress, President Obama and the way things in the country are going translates into voting behavior on November 2nd is still slightly unknown. Momentum seems to be in the Republicans' favor for Congress (at least for the House of Representatives) but what still remains to be seen is if it is just an anti-Democrat year or an anti-incumbent year.

TABLE 1 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING - TREND "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" Base: All adults
	2009
	Mar	April	May	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	55	58	59	54	51	49	45	43	41
Excellent	17	18	17	14	11	11	10	9	7
Pretty good	38	40	42	39	39	38	35	33	33
NEGATIVE	45	42	41	46	49	51	55	57	59
Only fair	27	26	25	25	25	25	27	29	30
Poor	18	15	16	21	24	26	28	29	30


	2010
	Jan	Mar	April	May	June	Aug	Sept	Oct
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	40	41	41	42	39	40	38	37
Excellent	9	9	9	10	6	9	9	8
Pretty good	31	32	31	32	33	31	29	29
NEGATIVE	60	59	59	58	61	60	62	63
Only fair	30	28	26	28	29	26	28	30
Poor	30	31	33	30	32	34	34	33
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

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
	Total	Political party			Political Philosophy
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.	Cons.	Mod.	Lib.
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	37	10	66	30	11	40	67
Excellent	8	5	14	5	2	8	15
Pretty good	29	5	52	25	9	32	52
NEGATIVE	63	90	34	70	89	60	33
Only fair	30	24	27	34	23	36	25
Poor	33	66	7	36	65	24	8
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding; * indicates less than .5%

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				Education				Gender
	Total	East	Midwest	South	West	H.S. or less	Some college	College grad	Post grad	Men	Women
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	37	39	34	34	42	28	40	47	48	35	39
Excellent	8	5	6	8	9	6	8	12	8	10	5
Pretty good	29	34	28	25	32	22	32	35	40	25	34
NEGATIVE	63	61	66	66	58	72	60	53	52	65	61
Only fair	30	30	36	28	28	36	28	25	22	28	32
Poor	33	31	30	39	30	36	32	28	30	37	29
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
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.
	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	11	7	19	6
Excellent	2	3	2	*
Pretty good	10	4	17	6
NEGATIVE	89	93	81	94
Only fair	38	23	51	35
Poor	50	70	30	59
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 the Congress is doing?" Base: All adults
	TREND	Positive*	Negative**
	TREND	%	%
2010	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. Note: Prior to March, 2009, this question was asked by telephone.

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
	TREND	Right Direction	Wrong Track
	TREND	%	%
2010	October	34	66
	September	36	64
	August	35	65
	June	34	66
	April	39	61
	March	33	67
2009	December	37	63
	August	46	54
	March	32	68
	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
Note: Prior to March, 2009 this question was asked via telephone

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between October 11 to 18, 2010 among 3,084 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.

J38848

Q1205, 1210, 1215

The Harris Poll® #127, October 25, 2010

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.