President Obama's Ratings Stay the Same, While Congress's Ratings Inch Up and Perceived Direction of the Country Inches Down

NEW YORK, June 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The summer is upon us, and with it the air in Washington, D.C. becomes heavy and oppressive. And, this is just the perfect climate for another month of low approval ratings for government officials.  After making some gains last month, President Obama holds steady with the same numbers this month with almost two in five (38%) giving the overall job he is doing positive ratings and 62% giving him negative ratings, unchanged from May.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,241 adults surveyed online between June 11 and 16, 2014. (Full results, including data tables and detailed breakdowns by political leanings, available here)

Among Republicans, one in ten (9%) give the President positive ratings and nine in ten (91%) give him negative marks while among Democrats, two-thirds (68%) give President Obama positive ratings and one-third (32%) give him negative ratings. Looking at Independents, three in ten (30%) give the overall job the President is doing positive ratings while seven in ten (70%) give him negative marks.

Feelings on the direction the country is going in have gone down a little this month. Last month, just over one-third (35%) said things in the country were going in the right direction while just under two-thirds (65%) said things had gotten off on the wrong track. This month, one-third of Americans (33%) say things are going in the right direction in the country while two-thirds (67%) say things have gotten off on the wrong track. One reason may be that the economy is still weighing on Americans' minds.  Over one-quarter (27%) say the economy is one of the two most important issues for the government to address, while just under one-quarter (23%) say an issue to address is employment and jobs. Rounding out the top five issues for the government to address are healthcare (22%), immigration (17%) and the budget deficit and national debt (11%).

Congress
Looking to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, one in ten Americans (10%) give the overall job that Congress is doing positive ratings while nine in ten (90%) give them negative ratings. This is actually up from last month, when over nine in ten (93%) gave them negative ratings while 7% gave them negative marks. When it comes to their individual Member of Congress, just over one in five Americans (22%) give him or her positive ratings while nearly two-thirds (65%) give negative marks and over one in ten (13%) are not familiar enough with their Congressperson to rate them. This is a little better than March, when 21% gave their Member positive ratings and 68% gave their Representative negative marks.

Where this comes into play is when we look ahead to November and the midterm elections. Half of Americans (49%) say, when thinking about their Member of the House of Representatives, it is time to give someone else a chance while one in five (20%) believe their Congressperson deserves to be re-elected and three in ten (31%) are not at all sure. In March, half (51%) believed it was time to give someone else a chance, one in five (20%) said their Congressperson deserved to be re-elected and three in ten (29%) were not at all sure.

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Methodology
This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between June 11 and 16, 2014 among 2,241 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, The Harris Poll 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 Poll 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 our 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 The Harris Poll.

The Harris Poll^® #60, June 23, 2014
By Regina A. Corso, VP, The Harris Poll and Public Relations Research

About Nielsen & The Harris Poll
On February 3, 2014, Nielsen acquired Harris Interactive and The Harris Poll.  Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

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SOURCE The Harris Poll