Barack Obama Hits Rock Bottom With Independent Voters: 39%

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 6, 2011   |   12:36PM   |   Washington, DC

President Barack Obama has hit rock bottom with independent voters in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll that shows him with the support of just 39 percent of voters who don’t identify with either the Republican or Democratic parties.

He’s at a career-low 39 percent approval among independents, who typically decide the result of presidential elections.

“More than half of Americans now disapprove of Barack Obama’s job performance, six in 10 rate his work on the economy and job creation negatively and more than one in three say they’ve become worse off financially under his presidency,” the poll, conducted by Langer Research Associates, indicates. Thanks to 9 percent unemployment, 77 percent say the country is headed on the wrong track — up 17 percent this year and the highest level since the end of the presidency of pro-life President George W. Bush.

Although Obama has tried to blame the nation’s economic woes on Bush, the ABC/Post survey shows Americans by a 2-1 margin, 34 percent to 17 percent, now say his administration’s efforts have done more to harm rather than help the nation’s economy. ABC notes: “The number who say his economic program has improved the economy has plummeted by half since January. And 47 percent say it’s had no effect.”

The poll shows a record 62 percent disapprove of his work on the economy and 50-45 percent describe themselves as pessimistic rather than optimistic about employment in the year ahead.

“The intensity of the public’s sentiment on these issues is striking. Nearly half, 47 percent, “strongly” disapprove of Obama’s performance on the economy; just 15 percent strongly approve, a record low. It’s about the same on his handling of job creation and the federal budget deficit. Overall, 38 percent strongly disapprove of his job performance, matching the record. Twenty-one percent strongly approve,” the poll shows.

Despite the opposition from Republicans and independents, Obama holds Democrats — with an approval rating among Democrats of 73 percent.

This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone August 29 to September 1, 2011, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents.

Another new poll released today, the POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll, showed 72 percent of voters believe the country is either strongly or somewhat headed in the wrong direction, a jump of 12 percentage points since May. Only 20 percent of voters say the country is going in the right direction, a 12-point drop in the same period.

A third poll today, a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, finds 59 percent of voters disapprove of the way Obama has handled the economy.