Obama's Ratings Slip a Little as Those Who Think Country Is on the Wrong Track Increase by 8 Points

The ratings of Congress drop to equal its all time low

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Mar 18, 2011, 06:04 ET

NEW YORK, March 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest Harris Poll finds that President Obama's positive job rating has slipped for the second month running. In January he recorded his best rating (44%) since 2009, but it edged downwards to 42% in February and 39% now. The public's rating of Congress has also slumped, with fully 90% of all adults now giving it a negative rating, compared to 86% in February and 84% in January.

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Another indication of the public's sour mood is that those who think the country is on the wrong track have increased by 8 points from 64% in February to 72% now.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,379 adults surveyed online between March 7 and 14, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

Trends in approval

The president's current job rating (39% positive) is only slightly better than the lowest ratings of his presidency which occurred during the last three months of last year, at 37%, 38% and 36%. His rating is still strongly correlated with education, with only 29% of people who never went to college giving him positive marks compared to 54% of people with post graduate education and 47% of those with a college degree.

The ratings of Congress have, in recent years, only once been as bad as they are now. In March 2010 Congress also had a negative 90% job rating.

The last time that the proportion of the public who think the country is on the wrong track was higher than it is now was in 2008, before President Obama was elected and the country was reeling from the crisis on Wall Street.

So What?

While some Republicans, with their eyes on the 2012 elections, may be pleased to see the President's rating slip, there are no winners in this poll. Rather, the poll underlines the poor opinions that most people have of Washington and especially of Congress, where the Republicans are in control of the House. This is not totally a partisan divide, but rather where all Americans have negative views.

TABLE 1 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING - TREND "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" Base: All adults
	2009
	Mar	April	May	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	55	58	59	54	51	49	45	43	41
Excellent	17	18	17	14	11	11	10	9	7
Pretty good	38	40	42	39	39	38	35	33	33
NEGATIVE	45	42	41	46	49	51	55	57	59
Only fair	27	26	25	25	25	25	27	29	30
Poor	18	15	16	21	24	26	28	29	30


	2010										2011
	Jan	Mar	April	May	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	March
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	40	41	41	42	39	40	38	37	38	36	44	42	39
Excellent	9	9	9	10	6	9	9	8	8	7	10	11	8
Pretty good	31	32	31	32	33	31	29	29	30	28	34	32	31
NEGATIVE	60	59	59	58	61	60	62	63	62	64	56	58	61
Only fair	30	28	26	28	29	26	28	30	29	31	28	29	29
Poor	30	31	33	30	32	34	34	33	33	34	29	29	32
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 2 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING – BY PARTY & IDEOLOGY "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" Base: All adults
	Total	Political party			Political Philosophy
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.	Cons.	Mod.	Lib.
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	39	11	69	33	12	43	72
Excellent	8	1	16	5	2	7	18
Pretty good	31	10	53	28	10	36	53
NEGATIVE	61	89	31	67	88	57	28
Only fair	29	29	24	33	25	34	21
Poor	32	60	7	34	62	23	7
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 3 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING – BY REGION, EDUCATION & GENDER "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" Base: All adults
	Total	Region				Education				Gender
	Total	East	Midwest	South	West	H.S. or less	Some college	College grad	Post grad	Men	Women
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	39	45	36	34	41	29	42	47	54	36	41
Excellent	8	6	5	11	7	5	10	6	14	7	8
Pretty good	31	39	31	23	34	23	32	41	40	28	33
NEGATIVE	61	55	64	66	59	71	58	53	46	64	59
Only fair	29	30	29	27	30	33	29	23	26	30	28
Poor	32	25	34	38	29	38	29	30	21	35	30
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 4 CONGRESS' OVERALL JOB RATING "How would you rate the overall job Congress is doing?" Base: All adults
	Total	Political Party
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.
	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE	10	9	14	5
Excellent	1	1	1	*
Pretty good	9	8	13	5
NEGATIVE	90	91	86	95
Only fair	45	45	51	38
Poor	45	46	35	57
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding; * indicates less than .05%

TABLE 5 CONGRESS' OVERALL JOB RATING – TREND "How would you rate the overall job the Congress is doing?" Base: All adults
	TREND	Positive*	Negative**
	TREND	%	%
2011	March	10	90
	February	14	86
	January	16	84
2010	December	11	89
	November	13	87
	October	11	89
	September	13	87
	August	15	85
	June	14	86
	May	15	85
	April	16	84
	March	10	90
	Jan.	16	84
2009	Dec.	17	83
	Oct.	16	84
	Sept.	19	81
	Aug.	22	78
	June	25	75
	March	29	71
2008	October	10	86
	August	18	77
	June	13	83
	February	20	76
2007	December	17	79
	October	20	77
	April	27	69
	February	33	62
2006	September	24	73
	May	18	80
	February	25	71
	January	25	72
Positive = excellent or pretty good. *Negative = only fair or poor. Note: Prior to March, 2009, this question was asked by telephone.

TABLE 6 RIGHT DIRECTION OR WRONG TRACK "Generally speaking, would you say things in the country are going in the right direction or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?" Base: All adults
	TREND	Right Direction	Wrong Track
	TREND	%	%
2011	March	28	72
	February	36	64
	January	37	63
2010	December	29	71
	November	33	67
	October	34	66
	September	36	64
	April	39	61
	March	33	67
2009	August	46	54
	January	19	72
2008	October	11	83
	February	23	69
2007	December	18	74
	February	29	62
2006	May	24	69
	February	32	59
2005	November	27	68
	January	46	48
2004	September	38	57
	June	35	59
2003	December	35	57
	June	44	51
2002	December	36	57
	June	46	48
2001	December	65	32
	June	43	52
2000	October	50	41
	June	40	51
1999	June	37	55
	March	47	45
1998	December	43	51
	June	48	44
1997	December	39	56
	April	36	55
1996	December	38	50
	June	29	64
1995	December	26	62
	June	24	65
1994	December	29	63
	June	28	65
1993	June	21	70
	March	39	50
1992	June	12	81
	January	20	75
1991	December	17	75
	January	58	32

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between March 7 to 14, 2011 among 2,379 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of Harris Interactive.

J39773

Q1205, 1210, 1215

The Harris Poll® #37, March 18, 2011

By Humphrey Taylor, Chairman, The Harris Poll

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

Press Contact:
Corporate Communications
Harris Interactive
212-539-9600
[email protected]

SOURCE Harris Interactive

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Obama's Ratings Slip a Little as Those Who Think Country Is on the Wrong Track Increase by 8 Points

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