September 27, 2010, NEW YORK, (Calcutta Tube): President Obama is still trying hard to focus on the economy, especially jobs, but it may prove to be a little too late as more than three in five Americans (62%) give the president negative ratings on the overall job he is doing while fewer (38%) give him positive ratings. This is slightly lower than August, when 40% of U.S. adults gave him positive ratings and 60% gave him negative ones, now marking the lowest ratings of his presidency.
| PRESIDENT OBAMA’S JOB RATING – TREND | ||||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| Jan | Mar | April | May | June | Aug | Sept | ||
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | ||
| POSITIVE | 40 | 41 | 41 | 42 | 39 | 40 | 38 | |
| Excellent | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 9 | 9 | |
| Pretty good | 31 | 32 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 31 | 29 | |
| NEGATIVE | 60 | 59 | 59 | 58 | 61 | 60 | 62 | |
| Only fair | 30 | 28 | 26 | 28 | 29 | 26 | 28 | |
| Poor | 30 | 31 | 33 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 34 | |
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,620 adults surveyed online between September 14 and 20, 2010 by Harris Interactive.
Looking at President Obama’s ratings from a political perspective, Republicans are the most likely to give him negative ratings (93%) followed by Conservatives (86%), while Liberals and Democrats are most likely to give him positive marks (69% and 67%, respectively). Independents, however, give him more negative than positive marks, as seven in ten of them (69%) give the President negative ratings on his job compared to 31% positive.
There are regional differences in the president’s support, as well. Almost half of those living in the East (47%) give him positive marks, as do 42% of Westerners. However, almost seven in ten Southerners (68%) and two-thirds of Midwesterners (67%) give President Obama negative ratings. Interestingly, there is no evidence of a gender gap. Over three in five men (63%) and women (62%) give the president negative marks on his job performance.