39% Rate Obama Good, Excellent on Economy

Positive views on President Obama’s economic leadership continue to improve after reaching a year-and-a-half low last month.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of Likely U.S. Voters now give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues. That's up from a low of 32% in early December and Obama's highest positives in this area since October. Slightly more (41%) still rate the president’s economic performance as poor, but that's down from a recent high of 48% early last month. (To see survey question wording, click here). 

As has been the case throughout his presidency, Obama fares slightly better when it comes to national security. Forty-two percent (42%) of voters rate his handling of issues related to national security as good or excellent, while 34% believe he’s doing a poor job. This is generally consistent with surveying for the past few months.

Fifty percent (50%) of the Political Class give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues, while 51% of Mainstream voters rate his performance in this area as poor. LINK Fifty-six percent (56%) of Political Class voters give the president positive marks for his national security efforts, compared to 32% of those in the Mainstream. 

Most voters continue to believe the U.S. economy is fair to women, blacks and Hispanics, but more voters than ever view (66%) view the economy as unfair to the middle class.

Confidence that the United States today is safer than it was before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, has fallen to its lowest level since the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

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The national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on January 13-14, 2014. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. 

The president’s monthly job approval rating rose two points to 47% in December. That’s up from 45% in November, the president’s lowest monthly approval in two years, but still down nine points from December 2012’s recent high of 56%.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Democrats like the job the president is doing with the economy. Seventy-seven (77%) percent of Republicans and a plurality (41%) of voters not affiliated with either major political party do not. When it comes to national security, Obama earns good or excellent marks from 71% of Democrats and poor marks from 66% of GOP voters. Among unaffiliateds, 36% say good or excellent, 34% poor. 

Older voters rate the president more negatively on both the economy and national security than younger voters do.

Blacks overwhelmingly think the president is doing a good or excellent job in both areas. Whites and other minority voters tend to think he’s performing poorly, especially when it comes to economy.

The president has declared income equality to be his number one issue this year, but 53% of all voters continue to rate economic growth as more important than economic fairness. Only 38% think the U.S. economy now is at least somewhat fair to people who are willing to work hard, a new low.

Voters strongly believe that radical Islam remains a threat to the United States, and 36% think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have only made the problem worse.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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