Three Quarters of Americans Give President Obama Negative Ratings on His Handling of the Economy

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite some recent successes abroad, President Obama continues to struggle with how Americans perceive the job he is doing at home, particularly on the economy.  This month over three quarters of U.S. adults give President Obama negative ratings on his handling of the economy (77%) while just under one quarter give him positive ratings (23%).  While these numbers are fairly dismal, they do show a slight improvement from September when 79% gave the President negative marks.

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These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,463 adults surveyed online between October 10 and 17, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

Criticism on President Obama's handling of the economy is not confined to the opinions of Republicans (95% give negative ratings) and Conservatives (93% give negative ratings).  Rather, members of all political parties and philosophies currently give the President negative marks, including over half of Democrats (56%), Liberals (57%), three quarters of Moderates (76%) and over eight in ten Independents (83%).  Further, Americans do not seem hopeful that this situation will reverse any time soon—almost three quarters say they are not confident that the White House and Administration will produce policies to help fix the economic crisis (73%).  Additionally, only one in five expects the economy will improve in the coming year (20%); 46% say it will stay the same and a third think it will get worse (34%).

Although negative feelings abound regarding the economy, some regions of the country seem to be in worse shape than others.  While almost two thirds rate the economic condition in their region of the country as bad (64%), virtually unchanged from the 65% who said so last month, there are some variances by area.  Almost three quarters of Westerners call the economic condition of their region of the nation bad (73%) while fewer say the same in the Midwest (64%), South (61%) and East (59%).

The Buffett Tax                                            
Recently some Americans have been protesting as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, communicating displeasure with the extreme wealth disparity in the country, among other economic and political woes.  One piece of legislature, recently proposed by the Senate, could combat some of those issues.  Two thirds of Americans say they support the Buffett Tax, as it's sometimes called, which would impose a surtax on those earning more than $1 million per year (66%).  This potential legislation, which 45% of Americans say they strongly support is supported (either strongly or somewhat) by 85% of Democrats, 64% of Moderates and 48% of Republicans.  Interestingly those with a higher household income support the legislation more with 70% of those earning $100K per year or more supporting it, compared to lesser majorities in lower income brackets.

So What?                                            
Americans are unhappy about the economy and they seem to be demanding change.  And, unfortunately for the current Administration the people seem to have little confidence in its ability to bring that change.  The longer this unhappiness continues, the greater the "uprising" will be, mostly likely at the ballot box next November.  It will be interesting to see how the Obama camp and the Republican nominees cater to these financial concerns as they campaign for the 2012 presidential election.

Methodology                              
This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between October 10 and 17, 2011 among 2,463 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.

J40806                              
Q705, 710, 715, 718, 725

The Harris Poll^® #112, October 25, 2011                              
By Samantha Braverman, Sr. Project Researcher, Harris Interactive                              

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 and European 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.

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SOURCE Harris Interactive

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