Obama approval rating falls to new low: poll

Obama’s approval rating dropped six
percentage points from the last Gallup poll
© AFP Jewel Samad

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has slumped to just 41 percent, the lowest since he took office, a new Gallup poll showed Friday barely a year ahead of the presidential election.

The survey showed a drop of six percentage points from the group’s prior poll and bodes ill for the Democrat’s re-election prospects.

Gallup said the latest quarterly poll results showed Obama’s rating nearly four points below his previous low of 45 percent during his seventh quarter in office.

The polling organization said Obama’s rating is the second weakest on record in the 11th quarter of a presidency, with the worst rating held by Jimmy Carter, with 31 percent, before he lost re-election.

It said Obama’s re-election prospects should become clearer in the coming months, because Gallup analysis shows that an incumbent president’s 12th and 13th quarter averages give a strong indication of whether he will win a second term.

The results are based on Gallup daily tracking from July 20 to October 19, which showed Obama’s approval rating ranged between 38 percent and 43 percent for all but a few days of the quarter.

The most notable event in the period, according to Gallup, was the stalemate over the federal debt ceiling in late July and early August, which was followed by a plunge in the stock market and a first-ever downgrade of the US credit rating by Standard and Poor’s.

Obama is facing tough sledding with the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent and Congress so far blocking his legislation aimed at boosting jobs.

Gallup surveyed 45,989 people by telephone for the poll and said it has a margin of error of one percentage point.