Obama's Approval Rating Falls to New Lows
The new numbers suggest an uphill battle toward re-election.
| Posted Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011, at 11:10 AM
President Obama's approval rating has dropped to new lows, according to two new polls.
In an ABC News/Washington Post poll, the president's approval rating stood at 43 percent, the lowest of his term so far. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll placed Obama's approval at 44 percent.
The new numbers represent a steep challenge for Obama as he enters the 2012 election year and hopes to convince Americans that he is the best choice to fix the stagnant economy. The president will addresses the nation Thursday night on his plan for job creation, an area in which he faces widespread disapproval among the American public. According to the NBC News poll, 62 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy.
Obama's declining numbers led Peter D. Hart, one of the polling experts who conducted the NBC News survey, to conclude that Obama's chances in 2012 now seemed worse than ever before. "Obama is no longer the favorite to win re-election," Hart told NBC.
If history is any guide, Obama could be in for a tough campaign. By this point in their terms in office, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both had approval ratings comfortably above 50 percent, and they both stayed above that level until their re-elections.
