June 29, 2012 11:58 AM
President Obama
With just over 4 months to go before the general election, the public’s grade for the job President Obama has done so far is better than 3 of the last 8 Presidents at this point in their first term.The President’s current job approval rating in Gallup is 49% approval and 49% disapproval. This places him number 5 in the list of the last 8 presidents.
| App | Dis | |
| Eisenhower | 70 | 20 |
| Nixon | 55 | 33 |
| Reagan | 53 | 37 |
| Clinton | 52 | 42 |
| Obama | 47 | 48 (6/22-24) |
| G Bush (II) | 47 | 49 |
| G Bush (I) | 38 | 55 |
| Carter | 33 | 55 |
Throughout his term, women have expressed a stronger approval of Obama’s job performance than men. Most recently, Gallup showed a 6 point more positive score by women over men, 50% to 44%.
The following are several additional cuts at the President’s job approval rating over the last 18 months.
| NBC/WSJ | NYT/CBS | WP/ABC | CNN/ORC | |
| June 2012 | 47/48% | -- | -- | -- |
| May 2012 | 48/46% | -- | 47/49% | -- |
| April 2012 | 49/46% | 48/42% | 50/45% | 49/48% |
| March 2012 | 50/45% | 41/47% | 46/50% | 51/45% |
| February 2012 | --- | 50/43% | 50/46% | 50/48% |
| January 2012 | 48/46% | 45/47% (CBS) | 48/48% | 47/51% |
| December 2011 | 46/48% | 44/46% (CBS) | 49/47% | 49/48% |
| October 2011 | 44/51% | 46/46% | 42/54% | 45/52% |
| August 2011 | 44/51% | 48/47% | 44/46% WP | 44/54% |
| January 2011 | 53/41% | 48/49% | 54/43% | 53/45% |
The President continues to get bad marks on handling the economy. By 53% to 42%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing on the economy. This is roughly where his rating has been since the beginning of this year. It is slightly better than it was for the last part of 2011, when his disapproval was in the 57% range. [NBC/WSJ 6/12]
Currently, 48% of us have positive feelings toward the President and 38% have negative feelings. At this same time in 2004, President Bush was enjoying positive feelings from 48% and negative feelings from 44%.
There has been little change in the President’s year-to-year score on this question. A year ago, it was 49% to 37%, and two years before that it was 47% to 40%. In his first year in office it was 60% positive to 27% negative. [NBC/WSJ 6/12]
One of the best things that President Obama has going for him is Michelle Obama. 66% have a favorable view of the First Lady. She has carved out a place for herself relating to women and families. It is unclear whether she will take to the political stump during this campaign. If she does. her popularity might fall as it did when Hillary Clinton campaigned for President Clinton in 1996.
44% of Americans say they have no idea what Obama’s religious faith is (44%). This is almost the same amount of people who think he is either a Christian (34%) or think that he is a Muslim (11%). [Gallup]
