President and Congress at Lowest Approval Ratings Ever

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Aug 18, 2011, 10:23 ET

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.

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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**
	TREND	%	%
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
	Total	Political Party			Political Ideology
	Total	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				Education
	Total	East	Midwest	South	West	H.S. or less	Some college	College grad	Post grad
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	32	32	28	29	38	24	36	36	39
Excellent	5	5	4	6	5	5	6	3	9
Pretty good	26	27	24	23	33	19	30	33	30
NEGATIVE	68	68	72	71	62	76	64	64	61
Only fair	27	30	30	24	24	28	24	26	29
Poor	42	38	42	47	38	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
	Total	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**
	TREND	%	%
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
	TREND	Right Direction	Wrong Track
	TREND	%	%
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 9	May 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
	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.

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SOURCE Harris Interactive