Poll: Obama's Favorability Rating Upside-Down for First Time

By Steven Shepard  //  September 16, 2011 | 7:27 p.m.
Updated: September 16, 2011 | 7:34 p.m.

(JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

For the first time, more Americans have an unfavorable opinion of President Obama than have a favorable opinion of him, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll released late Friday, an indication that dissatisfaction with the president's job performance and the direction of the country is dragging down how Americans view Obama personally.

Just 39 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Obama, while 42 percent view him unfavorably. In January of this year, 40 percent had a favorable image of Obama, and 34 percent had an unfavorable opinion. In January 2009, as he was inaugurated, 60 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of him.

While the president's approval rating -- which is down to 43 percent in the new poll, an all-time low -- is an important indicator of his re-election standing, the high regard Americans felt for Obama personally was a sign that Americans hadn't yet given up on his presidency.

Republican pollster Glen Bolger made this point earlier this week in a blog post on the website of his firm, Alexandria, Va.-based Public Opinion Strategies. In the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, conducted late last month by Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican pollster Bill McInturff (Bolger's partner at POS), equal percentages of Americans had positive and negative opinions of Obama.

From Bolger's post:
For quite some time, Republican pollsters have been making the point to their clients: don't confuse the attitudes of base and swing voters toward the President. Base GOP voters do not like Obama's policies, and they dislike him personally (some more vehemently than others). However, we had consistently seen in our polls and focus groups that while swing voters are increasingly unhappy with his policies and his politics, they still liked Obama personally. Lately, I have been making the case (and others may have as well) that we're nearing a tipping point for the President's personal standing. If his job approval ratings were weak, eventually swing voters would no longer view him as the shining star he believes himself to be.

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In the new CBS News/New York Times poll, Obama is being crushed by negative data points: -- 72 percent of Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track, a new high for the Obama presidency. -- 49 percent of Democrats now say that Obama's job performance has been worse than they expected. -- 47 percent of Americans are either "not very confident" or "not at all confident" that Obama's jobs legislation "will create jobs and improve the economy." -- Obama's favorable/unfavorable rating among independents: 31 percent/41 percent. The poll release did not ask about his reelection prospects, but an oversample of Republican voters found Texas Gov. Rick Perry leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the race for the GOP nomination, 23 percent to 16 percent. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tied for a distant third, at seven percent. The CBS News/New York Times poll was conducted Sept. 10-15, surveying 1,452 adults. The margin of error is +/- 2.6 percent. There was an oversample totaling 781 Republicans, with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent.

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