46% Rate Obama Poorly on Economy

Positive views of President Obama’s economic leadership have rebounded slightly since hitting its lowest level in a year-and-a-half earlier this month.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 36% of Likely U.S. Voters now give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues. That's up from 32% in early December, his lowest positives since June of last year. Forty-six percent (46%) still rate the president's economic performance as poor, down slightly from 48% in the previous survey. (To see survey question wording, click here).

The Political Class, however, strongly disagrees. Ninety-one percent (91%) of Political Class voters think the president is doing a good or excellent job with the economy, but 61% of Mainstream voters consider his handling of economic issues to be poor.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats like the job the president is doing with the economy. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans and 50% of voters not affiliated with either major party do not.

Obama fares slightly better when it comes to national security. Forty-three percent (43%) of all voters rate his handling of national security issues as good or excellent, while 38% believe he’s doing a poor job. This is generally consistent with surveying for the past several months.

The president’s overall job approval rating has been running for several weeks at the lowest levels of his presidency, but this week suggests he may be recovering slightly from the high negatives he’s been earning as a result of the disastrous rollout of the new national health care law. The president's monthly approval for November hit a two-year low.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters have a negative opinion of the health care law.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on December 8-9, 2013 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 Rasmussen Employment Index which measures worker confidence jumped five points in November. October’s finding was the lowest level of confidence measured this year. The increase in the index correctly signaled that the next government jobs report was better than expected.

Forty-three percent  (43%) of working Americans think they will be earning more money a year from today. That ties the highest level of confidence measured since April 2009. 

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 this he's performing poorly, especially when it comes to the economy.

Ninety percent (90%) of voters who identify themselves as members of the Tea Party Movement feel the president is doing a poor job when it comes to economic issues. They have strong negative views on his handling of national security as well.

While both parties insist a budget deal that will prevent another federal government shutdown is near, most voters still want government spending cuts and remain skeptical that such a deal is coming. 

Voters continue to trust Republicans more than Democrats on both the economy and national security issues.

Despite the president's unexpected handshake and brief conversation with Cuban leader Raul Castro this week, only 17% believe America’s relationship with Cuba will be better a year from now, while 10% expect it to be worse.

Voters are almost evenly divided over a treaty the United States has reached with Iran to slow that country’s nuclear weapons program and tend to think the arrangement is likely to make things worse in the Middle East.

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

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