With Memorial Day marking the traditional end of the heavy legislative lifting for Congress, President Obama heads into the summer with the highest disapproval ratings of his term, dealing with the aftermath of a bruising health care fight while confronting stubbornly high jobless rates.
Mr. Obama’s job-approval ratings have dropped 16 percentage points in as many months in office, according to a new Gallup Poll, which found that 48 percent of Americans now approve of his handling of the country, compared with 64 percent this time last year. His disapproval numbers, meanwhile, climbed from 28 percent to 44 percent.
Perhaps ironically, pollsters say it is Mr. Obama’s marquee domestic accomplishment - the health care overhaul law - that is dragging down his approval numbers from the 60-percent range, where they hovered last summer. Despite an initial surge of support following its passage, the health care plan remains largely toxic among Republicans and independent voters.
“For whatever reason, the health care bill became the defining argument for much of the Obama administration, and the bill remained unpopular to the end, and that certainly did not help the president’s overall ratings,” said Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports.
Indeed, 63 percent of voters polled by Mr. Rasmussen’s firm say they support repeal of the law. Thirty-two percent oppose repeal.
But even aside from the divisive health care debate, Mr. Obama’s dip in approval ratings isn’t too surprising, given historical trends, said Jeff Jones, managing editor of the Gallup Poll.
“As is usually the case, once presidents start doing things, they start to anger some people. And the more they do, the more people they anger,” he said.
While Mr. Obama remains popular in certain parts of the country, some Democratic candidates have distanced themselves from him and his administration’s policies heading into the fall campaign season.
After railing against the health care bill, Democrat Mark Critz was easily elected last week to replace the late Rep. John P. Murtha in western Pennsylvania. Rep. Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia lost his primary bid against a challenger who charged that the longtime incumbent wasn’t strongly opposed enough to a House-passed energy bill supported by Mr. Obama.
Addressing Mr. Critz’s victory, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs last week played down the internal party disagreements, even touting them as evidence that Democrats tolerate a wider spectrum of views than Republicans.
“I doubt there are many in Congress that agree with each and every thing that the president agrees on. We have the luxury of enjoying a party with a big tent,” Mr. Gibbs told reporters.
Both pollsters agreed that Mr. Obama shouldn’t be concerned about his own re-election prospects in 2012 at this point, with Mr. Jones noting that Presidents Reagan and Clinton won re-election with lower first-term approval ratings.
After his initial post-Sept. 11 high, former President George W. Bush’s numbers remained at less than 50 percent approval for most of the final five years of his term, dropping below 30 percent in some surveys.
Mr. Rasmussen noted that voters in both parties were dissatisfied with the situation in Washington, but, as the party in power, Democrats are more likely to suffer the consequences.
“The number I would be concerned about if I were President Obama or anybody who cared about the future of our nation is that just 21 percent of voters say the government has the consent of the governed,” Mr. Rasmussen said.
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