Negative Job Ratings for President Obama and Congress

Congress at lowest rating ever

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Apr 21, 2011, 12:04 ET

NEW YORK, April 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The spring season is supposed to be a time of renewal and hope. For President Obama and Congress, the winter was rough and spring hasn't been much better with a heated budget showdown and talk of a potential government shutdown. While it may be expected at this point, Americans do not like seeing their elected officials spar so bitterly and this is reflected in lower job ratings across the board. For President Obama, more than three in five U.S. adults (62%) give him negative ratings on the overall job he is doing while 38% give him positive marks. This is down from last month when 39% of Americans gave the President positive ratings and 61% negative. This month marks the President's lowest ratings this year.

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These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,402 adults surveyed online between April 11 and 18, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

It's not surprising that nine in ten Republicans (91%) and Conservatives (90%) give the President negative marks. But he is also receiving negative ratings from over half of Moderates (55%) and over two-thirds of Independents (69%). Support among his base is also not as strong as the White House would probably like. Three in ten Democrats give President Obama negative marks (31%) as do one-quarter of Liberals (27%).

Congressional approval and direction of the country

While President Obama may be in negative territory, he is still doing better than Congress. Just 8% of Americans give Congress positive marks for the overall job they are doing while over nine in ten (92%) give them negative ratings. This is a new low point for Congress and down from 10% positive and 90% negative last month.

Also, even though Republicans may control the House and Democrats the Senate, there are no partisan differences in congressional job ratings. Over nine in ten Republicans (92%), Democrats (93%) and Independents (93%) give Congress negative marks. In fact, three in five Independents (60%) give Congress a rating of poor – the lowest in our scale.

The mood of the country is also turning more negative. Just one-quarter of Americans (26%) feel that things in the country are moving in the right direction while three-quarters (74%) believe they are heading down the wrong track. This is down from last month when 28% felt things were moving in the right direction and 72% believed they were going off on the wrong track and the lowest since 2009.

So What?

There is a saying that you shouldn't air your dirty laundry in public. With the current budget showdown, that's exactly what Congress and the White House seemed to do and the American public did not like it. They know it's not easy and they know there are confrontations, but with the threat of a government shutdown only averted at the 11th hour, voters seemed to believe everyone was to blame for that messy display. There are still months to go before all these individuals face a re-election, so hopefully Americans forget the past few weeks by then.

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										2011
	Jan	Mar	April	May	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	April
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	40	41	41	42	39	40	38	37	38	36	44	42	39	38
Excellent	9	9	9	10	6	9	9	8	8	7	10	11	8	7
Pretty good	31	32	31	32	33	31	29	29	30	28	34	32	31	31
NEGATIVE	60	59	59	58	61	60	62	63	62	64	56	58	61	62
Only fair	30	28	26	28	29	26	28	30	29	31	28	29	29	27
Poor	30	31	33	30	32	34	34	33	33	34	29	29	32	35
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	38	9	69	31	10	45	73
Excellent	7	2	14	4	2	5	19
Pretty good	31	7	55	27	8	39	55
NEGATIVE	62	91	31	69	90	55	27
Only fair	27	25	24	29	19	30	23
Poor	35	66	7	40	71	25	4
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				Education				Gender
	Total	East	Midwest	South	West	H.S. or less	Some college	College grad	Post grad	Men	Women
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	38	39	39	31	45	32	35	45	60	39	37
Excellent	7	6	5	5	12	5	5	12	14	9	5
Pretty good	31	33	34	26	34	27	31	33	46	31	32
NEGATIVE	62	61	61	69	55	68	65	55	40	61	63
Only fair	27	32	26	25	27	28	29	26	22	24	31
Poor	35	29	35	44	27	41	36	29	18	37	33
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	8	8	7	7
Excellent	1	1	2	2
Pretty good	6	6	6	6
NEGATIVE	92	92	93	93
Only fair	40	44	44	33
Poor	53	48	49	60
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	%	%
2011	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. 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	%	%
2011	April	26	74
	March	28	72
	February	36	64
	January	37	63
2010	December	29	71
	November	33	67
	October	34	66
	September	36	64
	April	39	61
	March	33	67
2009