UTICA, New York – President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has dropped to the lowest point of his Presidency at 39%, and in potential match-ups with Republicans in 2012, he trails Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich and is just one point ahead of Sarah Palin.
The percentage of likely voters saying the U.S. is on the wrong track is now the highest since Obama took office at 69%.
The President continues to lose the job approval of Democrats, going from 78% on Nov. 15 to 72% in this Nov. 19-22, 2010 interactive poll. His approval among independents stayed at 39%, and is 6% among Republicans.
Overall, do you approve or disapprove of Barack Obama’s job as President?
| Obama Job Performance | Nov 22 | Nov 15 | Nov. 10 | Nov. 1 | Oct 27 | Oct 25 | Oct. 18 | Oct 14 | Oct 11 | Oct 4 | Sept 27 | Sept 20 | Sept 14 |
Aug 30 |
| Approve | 39% | 42% | 42% | 45% | 43% | 47% | 46% | 44% | 49% | 46% | 45% | 49% | 46% | 44% |
| Disapprove | 60% | 58% | 57% | 54% | 56% | 53% | 54% | 56% | 51% | 53% | 54% | 51% | 54% | 56% |
| Not sure | 1% | <1% | 1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | 1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | 1% |
Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Obama’s approval is also falling among the First GlobalTM generation born since 1979. This age cohort was key to his victory in 2008, but just 42% now approve of his job performance. He continues to do better among women (44%) than men (33%.)
If the 2012 Presidential election were held today, for whom would you vote?
| Candidate | Mitt Romney |
Newt Gingrich |
Jeb Bush |
Sarah Palin |
Donald Trump |
Mike Bloomberg |
| Obama | 38% | 39% | 38% | 41% | 39% | 32% |
| Opponent | 44% | 43% | 40% | 40% | 29% | 13% |
| Neither | 15% | 16% | 19% | 19% | 19% | 47% |
| Not Sure | 3% | 3% | 3% | 1% | 1% | 9% |
Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Among independents, match-ups between Obama and Republicans Romney, Gingrich, Palin and Bush are very close. Versus all of these hypothetical opponents except Bloomberg, Obama draws between 36% and 39% of independents. He beats Bloomberg among independents, 26%-12%, but 49% of independents would choose neither. Obama beats Trump with independents, 36%-29%.
Obama wins between 75% and 78% of Democrats versus all opponents except Bloomberg, against whom Obama gets 65%. The percentage of Democrats who would choose neither Obama nor his opponent ranges from 7% versus Romney and 18% versus Bloomberg.
Among Republicans, Gingrich leads with 79%, followed by Romney 77% and Palin 72%. One-half of Republicans would choose Trump over Obama, but 43% want neither. Bloomberg would get only 19% of Republicans, with 74% not wanting either the New York City mayor or Obama.
Pollster John Zogby: “Obama lost support among independents more than a year ago. Now, he is failing to please more than one-fourth of his own party’s voters. This is a perilous position for the President. Conventional wisdom calls for him to reach for the center and assume that Democrats will stay with him in 2012. But as we saw in the mid-terms, Democrats can’t win without strong turnout from the young and minorities, both of which are demographics that need more motivation than others to vote.”
The interactive poll consisted of 2,032 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/-2.2%. A sampling of Zogby International’s online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the U.S., was invited to participate. Slight weights were added to region, party, age, race, religion, gender, and education to more accurately reflect the population.