Voters Remain Closely Divided Over Libya

Support for continuing U.S. military operations in Libya is holding steady from two weeks ago after a drop-off in support from just after the mission began. But voters remain almost evenly divided over U.S. military involvement in the Libyan political crisis.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of Likely U.S. Voters agree with President Obama’s decision to take military action in Libya, while nearly as many (37%) are opposed. Twenty-four percent (24%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

These findings are unchanged from earlier in April and down slightly since mid-March. 

At the same time, 37% continue to give the Obama administration good or excellent marks for its response to the situation in Libya, also unchanged from two weeks ago. Those rating the administration’s response as poor have crept up to 31% from 28% in the previous survey.

Prior to the president’s decision to take military action, 40% of voters gave the administration good or excellent marks for its handling of the Libyan situation, and just 21% graded that response as poor. Sixty-three percent (63%) said at that time the United States should stay out of the ongoing political crisis in the north African country.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 19-20, 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.