by Mark Silva
Home from his fourth trip abroad as president, and home to face the highest unemployment --- 9.4 percent - since 1983 and the biggest federal deficit ever -- $1.8 trillion - President Barack Obama draws higher grades from the American public for his handling of foreign policy than for his handling of the deficit or his control of federal spending.
A solid majority of those surveyed by the Gallup Poll like what the president is doing on the foreign front. A slim majority disapprove on domestic spending. Overall, Gallup has found, Obama's public job- approval still rides at 61 percent after four-plus months in office.
While 67 percent hold a favorable opinion of Obama, the man, his 61 job-approval is tempered by different views of his performance on different fronts:
59 percent approve of his handling of foreign affairs.
55 percent approve of his handling of the economy.
55 percent approve of his handling of terrorism.
55 percent approve of his handling of the Middle East situation.
Just 47 approve of his handling of the situation with North Korea, but only 33 percent disapprove.
On the federal budget deficit, his grades are roughly even: 48 percent disapproval, 46 percent approval.
On controlling federal spending: 51 percent disapprove of his handling, 45 percent approve.
Because of the varying levels of approval and disapproval on each front, Gallup also has analyzed the ratio of approval to disapproval - and it's high in foreign affairs: 1.844. It's high overall: 1.794. And it's solid on most fronts, except for the deficit, where it's a reverse ratio of 0.958, and on spending, a reverse of 0.882.
The president's approval rating for his handling of the economy also has slid from 59 percent in February to 55 percent in the latest survey, Gallup found, while his disapproval rating on the economy has risen from 30 to 42 percent - even while Gallup's measure of "consumer mood'' has grown more positive since March.
His approval on foreign affairs has risen from 54 percent in February to 59 percent in the latest survey, though the May 29-31 poll on which these rankings are based was conducted before his latest trip to Saudi Arabia an Egypt, where he delivered an address to the Muslim world.
"This latest Gallup Poll shows that the U.S. public has significantly differentiated views on various dimensions relating to Obama,'' reports Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll. "Americans have become increasingly less positive about Obama's handling of the economy in recent months...
"The good news for Obama is that the public continues to be quite positive when asked to rate him as a person and to rate his overall job performance -- both of which are presumably summaries of Americans' views of their president across all of the ways in which he could be evaluated,'' he notes.
"Obama's favorable rating is higher than were those of Bush or Clinton at this point in the first months of their presidencies, and his approval rating is also higher than those for Bush, Clinton, or Bush the elder in May of their first year in office.''
The survey of 1,105 adults run May 29-31 carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Comments
Did anyone see this coming after Obama's first days in office? It's all about the stimulus...
http://www.political-buzz.com/
Posted by: matt | June 8, 2009 8:19 AM
Obama's the greatest. Consider the following facts:
1) We are winning the war against Eurasia.
2) Republicans eat babies.
3) Obama's already created 10 gazillion jobs.
4) Obama's "Five Year Plan" is increasing tractor production in the Urals.
5) We finally have a president courageous enough to spend lots of other people’s money.
6) And did I mention, Republicans eat babies?
Posted by: Gene Debs | June 8, 2009 8:22 AM
Did anyone poll for the Health Care issue? We need single payer health care passed and without massive public approval it might not happen
Posted by: Phyllis Culbert | June 8, 2009 12:17 PM
It took 8 years for Republicans to put us into this mess, let's give President Obama a little bit longer than 6 months to get us out, ok?
Posted by: Paul | June 8, 2009 1:45 PM
Paul,
I guess you were sleeping during the past 8 years. We had a 73 month economic expansion during that period. Can the myth and get some facts
Posted by: Terry | June 8, 2009 9:29 PM
Terry, you are so right. The economy under Bush was great! Fantastic! Perfect! How can anyone blame Bush for any economic problems at all? When he left office it was boom time.Unemployment was dropping, the stock market was rising, the economy was growing, banks were healthy, everything was just great, then on January 20, 2009, everything suddenly became terrible. Bush handed Obama a perfect economy, and Obama completely destroyed it, right Terry?
Posted by: As foolish as Terry | June 9, 2009 2:04 PM
Fool,
I guess you can't read. No where did I say that the economy was great when President Bush left office. What I did say is that for 6 straight years the economy was good during President Bush's term. Also, I did something that neither you nor Paul could do - provide facts to support my statement.
If you want to nlame Bush for the economy, please provide the policy that led to the current recession.
Posted by: Terry | June 9, 2009 8:07 PM
Terry, If I wasn't as foolish as you, I'd say that those 6 years of growth were based on a massive credit bubble that was clearly unsustainable, and that many, many economist repeatedly warned that the government should address before it crashed hard, a bubble which was made worse by Bush's reliance on massive deficit spending during the so called "good times". But thankfully I am a complete fool like you, so I think that Bush' policies were in no way responsible for the recession.
Posted by: As foolish as Trry | June 10, 2009 6:58 AM