Three in Five Americans Give President Obama Negative Job Ratings

Three in five also believe he tries to do too many things at once

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May 21, 2010, 11:02 ET

NEW YORK, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- While President Obama has focused on the economy and working with Democrats in Congress to overhaul the financial industry, other crises have come into play – most prominently, the oil spill in the Gulf. This again has forced his attention from the one thing the public cares most about – finding jobs and getting the economy back on track.

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Currently, two in five Americans (42%) give President Obama positive ratings on the overall job he is doing while 58% give him negative ratings. This is almost unchanged from last month when 41% gave him positive ratings and 59% gave him negative ones.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,503 adults surveyed online between May 10 and 17, 2010 by Harris Interactive.

While it is not surprising that 92% of Republicans give the president negative ratings, one-quarter of Democrats (25%) also give him negative marks as do 68% of Independents. There is also an educational gap on his approval ratings. Two-thirds of those with a high school degree or less (65%) give the president negative marks while three in five of those with a post-graduate education (61%) give him positive ratings. Just over half of those with some college or a college degree (55% and 56% respectively) give the president negative marks on his overall job.

President Obama as a Leader

It took the president some time to get his health care bill through Congress and that might have hurt perceptions of him as a strong leader. But, three-quarters of Americans (77%) agree that President Obama is a tough fighter for what he believes in, while two-thirds say he is someone who usually gets his own way (65%) and that he is usually able to get Congress to support his policies (64%).

However there is also a perception that President Obama has bitten off more than he can chew and that he changes his position frequently. Three in five Americans (62%) say President Obama tries to do too many things at once, while 58% say he is a strong leader. Public opinion is divided however on whether President Obama "flip-flops" as 44% say he is not someone who changes his position if he is strongly opposed while 43% believe the opposite.

For the most part, the differences between Republicans and Democrats are not as large as one might expect. In fact, 68% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans believe President Obama is usually able to get Congress to support his policies. Most of the other differences are around twenty percentage points, yet there is one notable exception. While almost nine in ten Democrats (87%) say President Obama is a strong leader, only 23% of Republicans agree.

So What?

In April almost two in five Americans (39%) thought the country was going in the right direction; this was a high not seen since October of last year. This month, it has dropped again and just 36% believe the country is going in the right direction while 64% believe things have gotten off on the wrong track. When the attitudes of Americans are this negative about the country as a whole, for a president's numbers to really increase he would have to accomplish something that impacts people where they are hurting the most. Right now, that is still economically, and the recent volatility of the stock market further reinforces that in people's minds, even if they are not serious investors. Until this changes, President Obama's approval ratings will mostly likely not change.

TABLE 1 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING - TREND "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" Base: All adults
	2009									2010
	Mar.	April	May	June	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Jan.	Mar.	April	May
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	55	58	59	54	51	49	45	43	41	40	41	41	42
Excellent	17	18	17	14	11	11	10	9	7	9	9	9	10
Pretty good	38	40	42	39	39	38	35	33	33	31	32	31	32
NEGATIVE	45	42	41	46	49	51	55	57	59	60	59	59	58
Only fair	27	26	25	25	25	25	27	29	30	30	28	26	28
Poor	18	15	16	21	24	26	28	29	30	30	31	33	30
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 2 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING – BY PARTY, EDUCATION & GENDER "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" Base: All adults
	Total	Political Party			Education				Gender
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.	H.S. or less	Some college	College grad.	Post grad.	Men	Women
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	42	8	75	32	35	45	44	61	39	45
Excellent	10	1	20	6	7	10	11	16	9	10
Pretty good	32	7	56	26	28	35	33	45	30	35
NEGATIVE	58	92	25	68	65	55	56	39	61	55
Only fair	28	28	20	36	30	24	33	20	27	29
Poor	30	64	5	32	35	31	23	19	34	26
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 3 OBAMA LEADERSHIP STATEMENTS "Do you agree with the following statements about President Barack Obama or not?" Base: All adults
	Agree (NET)	Strongly Agree	Somewhat Agree	Disagree (NET)	Somewhat Disagree	Strongly Disagree	Not at all sure
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Is a tough fighter for what he believes in	77	45	33	16	9	7	7
Is someone who usually gets his own way	65	23	42	23	18	5	12
Is usually able to get Congress to support his policies	64	17	47	27	19	8	9
Tries to do too many things at once	62	35	27	29	20	9	9
Is a strong leader	58	32	25	38	14	24	4
Changes his position if he is strongly opposed	43	16	27	44	29	15	13
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 4 OBAMA LEADERSHIP STATEMENTS – BY GENERATION & POLITICAL PARTY "Do you agree with the following statements about President Barack Obama or not?" Percent saying "Strongly/Somewhat agree" Base: All adults
	Total	Generation				Political Party
	Total	Echo Boomers (18-33)	Gen X. (34-45)	Baby Boomers (46-64)	Matures (65+)	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Is a tough fighter for what he believes in	77	71	76	82	79	66	88	78
Is someone who usually gets his own way	65	56	65	69	74	78	61	64
Is usually able to get Congress to support his policies	64	54	63	69	71	66	68	62
Tries to do too many things at once	62	55	60	63	73	77	52	64
Is a strong leader	58	62	63	57	46	23	87	53
Changes his position if he is strongly opposed	43	38	41	43	54	54	36	46
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 5 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	May	36	64
	April	39	61
	March	33	67
	January	37	63
2009	December	37	63
	October	39	61
	August	46	54
	June	43	57
	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 May 10 to 17, 2010 among 2,503 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.

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Q1205, 1210, 1215, 1220

The Harris Poll® #70, May 21, 2010

By Regina A. Corso, Director, The Harris Poll, Harris Interactive

About Harris Interactive

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