Poll: Support sags for Obama on Afghan warBy Richard Wolf - USA Today
Posted : Monday Aug 2, 2010 18:43:03 EDT
WASHINGTON — American support for President Obama’s Afghanistan war policy has plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll and the unauthorized release of classified military documents, a new USA Today/Gallup Poll shows.
Support for Obama’s management of the war fell to 36 percent, down from 48 percent in a February poll. Now, a record 43 percent also say it was a mistake to go to war there after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
The decline in support contributed to the lowest approval ratings of Obama’s presidency. Amid a lengthy recession, more Americans support his handling of the economy (39 percent) than the war.
Even Obama’s handling of the war in Iraq received record-low approval, despite a drawdown of 90,000 troops and the planned, on-schedule end of U.S. combat operations there this month.
Those surveyed Tuesday through Sunday disapproved 53-41 percent of the way Obama is handling his job, his lowest ratings since January 2009. Those ratings change daily; his approval in Gallup’s daily tracking poll Monday was back up to 45 percent.