New Polls Find All-Time Lows For Obama, Congress
WASHINGTON -- Two new polls released on Tuesday confirm that the summer's debt ceiling debate along with the drumbeat of bad economic news have taken a toll, yielding all-time low ratings of both President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress and suggesting real peril for Obama in 2012. Obama's ratings are now lower than those for Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton at the same time in their presidencies.
The latest survey from the Washington Post and ABC News finds approval of Obama has fallen to 43 percent, while for the first time a majority (53 percent) disapproves. The results from the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds nearly identical results -- 44 percent approve and 51 percent disapprove. The low ratings confirm downward trends seen in most other public polls over the summer.
As the Washington Post notes, Obama's ratings are now worse than those of Reagan and Clinton at the same time in their first terms. Both won re-election despite "serious midterm setbacks" in their first terms, but by this stage both "had settled safely above the 50 percent mark" and "stayed in positive territory" throughout their re-election campaigns.
The two surveys also show plunging confidence in Congress. The NBC/Journal poll finds approval of Congress falling to 13 percent, just one point shy of the all-time low measured by that survey in October 2008. The ABC/Post survey shows approval of Republicans in Congress dropping from 34 to 28 percent since April, nearly matching the all-time low of 25 percent in July 2008...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/06/obama-polls-congress-all-time-lows_n_950521.html?1315329758