These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
44% Rate Obama's Leadership As Good or Excellent, 37% Say It's Poor
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Voters' views of President Obama's leadership style have rebounded from last month's all-time low.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey - taken on Sunday and Monday - finds that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters now give the president good or excellent marks for leadership while 37% give him poor marks as a leader. (To see survey question wording, click here .)
When he first took office in January 2009, 64% of voters nationwide gave President Obama good or excellent marks for leadership. That fell into the 40s by July 2009 and has generally remained in that range ever since.
This year, following the president's State of the Union speech in January, 47% of voters viewed his leadership positively. A month later , that figure fell to 37%, the lowest level of confidence since he took office. The current results are up seven points since February but down three from January.
In terms of style, 15% now say the president's leadership style is too confrontational, while 31% view it as too cooperative. A plurality (40%) of voters, however, say the president's leadership style is about right. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.
Since late January 2009, the number of voters who say the president is too confrontational has ranged from a low of 13% to a high of 32%. At the same time, the number who says he's too cooperative has run from 17% to 38% (see monthly trends ).
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on March 20-21, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology.
The number of voters nationwide who give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues has fallen to a new low of 31%. Voters give the president a bit more credit on national security issues. Forty-one percent (41%) say the president is doing a good job handling those issues.
The United States began missile attacks on Libya on Saturday at the president's order, followed since by air strikes intended to enforce a no-fly zone over the country to protect rebels seeking to overthrow longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Forty-one percent (41%) of voters rate the Obama administration's response to the situation in Libya as good or excellent, unchanged from earlier in the month. But 28% now say the administration is doing a poor job, up from 21%.
Younger voters are more enthusiastic about the president's leadership that their elders. Ninety-three percent (93%) of African-Americans and 68% of voters of other races rate his performance as good or excellent, a view shared by just 35% of whites.
Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Democrats give favorable marks to the job the president is doing, compared to 16% of Republicans and 37% of voters not affiliated with either of the major parties.
Two-out-of-three Democrats (65%) rate the president's leadership style as about right, and 36% of unaffiliateds agree. A plurality (39%) of GOP voters say he's too confrontational.
Seventy-three percent (73%) of the Political Class agree that the president's leadership style is about right. Just 30% of Mainstream voters hold the same view.
But then 78% of Political Class voters say Obama is doing a good or excellent job as a leader, compared to 29% of those in the Mainstream.
Voters continue to blame the current economic problems more on the recession which began under the Bush administration than on Obama's policies. At the same time, the number who trust themselves more than Obama to handle these issues has fallen to its lowest level in a little over a year.
Still, just 22% of voters say the country is heading in the right direction , the lowest level of confidence found since before Obama's inauguration in January 2009.