New Poll Numbers Are Worst of Obama's Presidency

(June 24) -- More Americans now believe the country is moving in the wrong direction, and fewer approve of President Barack Obama's performance than at any time since he took office. And it's not just Obama. Nobody scores well in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Obama's approval rating has fallen to 45 percent, compared with 48 percent disapproval. And 62 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed in recent days said the U.S. is on the wrong track, up from 56 percent last month. (Click here for full results in a PDF.) A New York Times/CBS News poll released this week yielded similar results, noted Politics Daily's Bruce Drake.

Americans were already worried about the economy and angry at politicians. The BP oil disaster just added to the prevailing gloom. In the WSJ/NBC poll, half disapprove of Obama's handling of the crisis, and 42 percent approve.

"The crude has dragged him down," said Taylor Marsh on her blog this morning. "Independents have bolted, Hispanics and women, too, with African-Americans remaining his only solid support. ... People were just waiting for a tipping point, and his public management of the BP blowout was it."

The president's scores for strong leadership, decision making and being able to handle a crisis have all tumbled since last year, according to MSNBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray. Still, the Americans surveyed were even less satisfied with the way Congress, federal agencies and BP have responded to the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

Democratic pollster Peter Hart said the survey reflects "a really ugly mood and an unhappy electorate." Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the WSJ/NBC survey with Hart, said voters usually have their attitudes set by this time in any election year -- and this year the economy and oil are major influences. "It would take an enormous and seismic event to change the drift of these powerful forces before November," McInturff said.

Hotline on Call's Reid Wilson said the poll numbers should "scare Dems to no end."

"Few indicators correlate better with a party's performance in midterm elections than a president's approval rating, and now the oil spill is dragging Obama's numbers further into the mud. If Obama is under 50 percent on Election Day, Dems would stand to lose an average of 40 seats -- enough to hand the GOP the majority," Wilson predicted.

"The overriding message of this poll ... is more than just that 'Democrats are going to get pummeled in November'; it's also that Obama is dragging his party down, with no sign he and it have hit bottom yet," said Commentary's Jennifer Rubin. "Obama is not on the ballot this year, so voters are looking for the next best thing to voting him out -- candidates who will stop him from doing what they don't like."

There's bad news in the poll for the GOP too, political analyst Charlie Cook noted. Only 30 percent of those surveyed have a positive view of the Republican Party -- with 42 percent negative and 26 percent neutral. Voters "don't like Republicans these days" and don't think they've learned much from their losses in 2006 and 2008, Cook wrote in his National Journal Online column.

"The good news for Republicans is that this election isn't about them," he added. "When one party holds the White House and has majorities in both the Senate and House, the midterm election is invariably a judgment on the performance of that party.

The Wall Street Journal's Peter Wallsten said "one of the most interesting findings" is how fed up Americans are with politicians of all stripes. Fifty-seven percent -- the highest number in 18 years -- said they would rather elect someone new than their current member of Congress.

As bad as the numbers looks for Obama, they're worse for every other person or group the pollsters asked about, Politico's Andy Barr pointed out. Forty-seven percent gave a positive response when asked about the president, compared with 35 percent for the Democratic Party, 34 percent for the tea party movement, 30 percent for the GOP and 29 percent for Sarah Palin and former President George W. Bush.

But it could be even worse. Only 6 percent gave BP a favorable rating. That's still higher than the 3 percent Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro scored in previous WSJ/NBC polls -- but lower than O.J. Simpson's 11 percent.