Washington - President Barack Obama earned his lowest marks ever on his handling of
the economy in a new Associated Press-GfK poll, which also found that an
overwhelming majority of Americans now describe America's financial
outlook as poor.
A frustrated electorate could take it out on the
party in power - Obama's Democrats - in the November congressional
elections.
Eleven weeks before the November 2 balloting, just 41%
of those surveyed approve of the president's performance on the
economy, down from 44% in April, while 56% disapprove. And 61% say the
economy has gotten worse or stayed the same on Obama's watch.
Still,
three-quarters also say it's unrealistic to expect noticeable economic
improvements in the first 18 months of the president's term. And Obama's
overall approval rating was unaffected; it remained at 49%, in part
because most Americans still like him personally.
Americans' dim
view of the economy grew even more pessimistic this summer as the
nation's unemployment rate stubbornly hovered near 10%. That's been a
drag on both Obama and Democrats, who control Congress.
Viewpoints
like those have Democrats on edge as they try to hang onto comfortable
majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in a political
environment made ever more challenging by economic woes.
Top
problem Republicans are trying to convince Americans that
the Republicans can create the jobs that Obama hasn't delivered. Obama
and his Democrats are pleading for the frustrated public to give them
more time to prove that their economic fixes will work.
"The
truth is, it's going to take a few years to fully dig ourselves out of
this recession. It's going to take time to bring back 8 million jobs,"
the president said on Tuesday while campaigning for Democratic
candidates in Seattle. "Anybody who tells you otherwise is just looking
for your vote."
Democrats are keenly aware that they face strong
headwinds; 60% of people say the country is headed in the wrong
direction. And it's hard to overstate the importance of the economy to
voters; 91% of Americans say it's a top problem, with unemployment close
behind.
A whopping 81% of people now call the economy poor or
very poor, up from 72% in June, and just 12% say it has improved in the
past month, compared with 19% in June. Both are record measurements
since AP-GfK started asking those questions.
People have little
trust in Democrats or Republicans on handling the economy; less than
half trust either. But voters older than 64 and whites lean heavily
toward the Republicans.
While Congress' overall performance
rating is at a miserable 24%, Democrats in Congress are slightly more
popular than Republicans; 37% approve of Democrats while 30% approve of
Republicans in Congress.
Other areas But in a
shift from earlier this summer, when Democrats had an advantage,
Republicans now are about even with Democrats on the question of which
party should win control of Congress. Among registered voters, 49% say
they would vote for the Republican candidate in their congressional
district - half say to express their opposition to Obama - while 45% say
they'd cast their ballot for the Democrat.
Obama is suffering in
other areas, too.
Just 34% now call him an above average or
outstanding president, down from 42% in January. And 28% call him
average, while 38% say he's even worse. Marks on how people view him
personally have fallen: 89% liked him personally in January, but now 82%
do.
Also, more people disapprove of his performance on the
following issues than approve: the federal budget deficit, unemployment,
health care, taxes and immigration. Conversely, he's viewed more
favourably than not on his handling of terrorism, the environment,
relationships with other countries and education. About equal
percentages of people view him positively and negatively on Iraq,
Afghanistan, energy and gas prices.
The AP-GfK Poll was conducted
on August 11-16 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate
Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1
007 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or
minus 4.5% points.