Neil Munro of The Daily Caller examines implications of the latest presidential approval numbers.
Only 41 percent of Americans approve of President Barack Obama’s performance, down three points since April, according to a new poll.
That’s bad news for Democratic senators running in November, partly because the November results tend to mirror the president’s overall support.
Overall, Obama’s approval stands at 42.2 percent, according to a compilation of polls calculated by RealClearPolitics. Overall, his disapproval rate is now 53.6, according to the RCP compilation.
Only 42 percent of the adults in the NBC and Wall Street Journal poll believe Obama is able to lead the country, while 54 percent believe he cannot lead the country. Only 25 percent of the adults believe the country is heading in the right direction.
“This poll is a disaster for the president. … Essentially, the public is saying ‘Your presidency is over,’” MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd said Tuesday morning.
Only 37 percent back Obama’s foreign policies, says the poll. That’s a record low, but it may fall further because the poll was taken before the media publicized how a jihadi army was surging toward Iraq’s capital, following the pullout of all U.S. soldiers in 2010.
His policy ratings are falling because “whether it’s [Vladimir] Putin, Ukraine, the VA hospitals, [Sgt.] Bowe Bergdahl, the events have controlled Obama, rather than Obama having controlled the events,” said Peter Hart, one of the pollsters who ran the survey.
The public supports him on some issues, but “he’s losing the political debate because they don’t see him as a leader,” Hart said.
