Obama’s approval ratings lowest at 53%

President Obama’s job approval rating is at the lowest point of his presidency – a drop largely caused by erosion in support among the political independents who gave him an electoral landslide, a new poll suggests.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey results released yesterday show his overall approval number at 53 percent, down from 76 percent in early February, just after he took office.

The increasingly bitter partisanship appears to be taking a toll on the president.

While his approval number among fellow Democrats rose slightly to 90 percent from July, it fell to 43 percent from 53 percent among independents and to 15 percent from 23 percent among Republicans. It is the first time in a CNN poll that independents gave a thumbs down to Obama’s performance as president.

Majorities now disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy, health care policy, taxes, the federal deficit, and Medicare. He still gets majority support for his handling of foreign affairs, race relations, terrorism, and Afghanistan.

The White House announced late yesterday that Obama, just back from a week on Martha’s Vineyard (though interrupted for Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s funeral), will leave for Camp David this morning for more rest and not return until Sunday.

The new CNN survey, conducted Friday through Monday, has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, and a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points within each political group.

Source: Boston Globe