Post Bin Laden Death, President Obama's Job Rating Rises 8 Points

Highest rating for President Obama since September, 2009

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May 09, 2011, 09:52 ET

NEW YORK, May 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With the news that the most wanted man in America had been killed by Navy Seals, President Obama had one reason to breathe a sigh of relief last week. Now, he has another as Americans seemed to rally around not only him but also feel better about the state of the country. Currently, just under half (46%) of U.S. adults give President Obama positive ratings on the overall job he is doing, a rise of eight points from last month when only 38% gave him positive marks. Just over half (54%) give the President negative ratings, down from 62% who did so last month. This is also the highest rating for the President since September of 2009 when almost half (49%) of Americans gave him positive ratings.

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These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,104 adults surveyed online between May 4 and 6, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

Democrats and Independents contribute the most to this rise. Over three-quarters of Democrats (77%) now give President Obama positive marks for his overall job approval, up from seven in ten (69%) last month. Among Independents, almost two in five (38%) give the President positive ratings up from three in ten (31%) in April. There is even a small rise among Republicans – in April, just 9% gave the President positive ratings; now, 12% do.

Congress also sees a small rise in their job ratings. Currently, just over one in ten Americans (13%) give the overall job Congress is doing positive ratings, up five points from last month when just 8% gave them positive marks. However, almost nine in ten (87%) still give them negative ratings.

The largest positive jump is in how the country overall is doing. In April, just one-quarter of Americans (26%) thought the country was heading in the right direction while 74% thought it was going off on the wrong track. Now, two in five U.S. adults (39%) say it is going in the right direction while 61% believe it is on the wrong track – a jump of 12 points.

So What?

The news from the White House late on Sunday, May 1st has caused many Americans to feel more positive about life in general and the way this country is going. This, in turn, translates into positive feelings about the President and even, albeit to a lesser extent, Congress. The question is does this hold or is it a temporary rise until something brings it back down. If the election were held today, the country is split on President Obama's re-election as 46% of Americans would be likely to vote for him and 47% would not be likely to do so. More than his approval ratings, these are the numbers the White House and re-election committee are watching closely.

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	May
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	40	41	41	42	39	40	38	37	38	36	44	42	39	38	46
Excellent	9	9	9	10	6	9	9	8	8	7	10	11	8	7	12
Pretty good	31	32	31	32	33	31	29	29	30	28	34	32	31	31	34
NEGATIVE	60	59	59	58	61	60	62	63	62	64	56	58	61	62	54
Only fair	30	28	26	28	29	26	28	30	29	31	28	29	29	27	26
Poor	30	31	33	30	32	34	34	33	33	34	29	29	32	35	28
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 2 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING – BY PARTY "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" Base: All adults
	Total	Political Party
		Republican		Democrat		Independent
		April	May	April	May	April	May
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	46	9	12	69	77	31	38
Excellent	12	2	1	14	23	4	8
Pretty good	34	7	11	55	54	27	30
NEGATIVE	54	91	88	31	22	69	62
Only fair	26	25	30	24	16	29	34
Poor	28	66	58	7	6	40	28
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+	Men	Women
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	46	47	47	44	49	43	44	54	44	48
Excellent	12	12	11	11	14	11	10	14	14	9
Pretty good	34	35	36	33	35	32	34	40	30	39
NEGATIVE	54	52	54	56	51	57	56	46	57	52
Only fair	26	26	29	24	26	27	28	23	28	25
Poor	28	26	25	32	25	30	28	23	29	27
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	13	7	18	11
Excellent	1	-	3	1
Pretty good	12	7	15	10
NEGATIVE	87	93	81	88
Only fair	46	44	50	42
Poor	41	49	31	46
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	May	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. 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	May	39	61
	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
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
	Total	Political party			Political Philosophy
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.	Cons.	Mod.	Lib.
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Likely	46	10	78	42	16	53	78
Very likely	33	4	62	25	8	37	61
Somewhat likely	14	6	17	17	8	16	17
Unlikely	47	87	18	50	80	39	16
Somewhat unlikely	7	7	4	9	5	8	4
Very unlikely	40	79	14	41	75	30	12
Not at all sure	6	4	4	8	4	8	6
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between May 4 to 6, 2011 among 2,104 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.

The Harris Poll® #55, May 9, 2011

By Regina 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.

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SOURCE Harris Interactive