Obama Approval Rating Goes UP: CBS News Poll

Despite a wounded economy and public furor aimed at Wall Street, a new CBS poll finds President Obama's approval rating has actually gone up.

Sixty-four percent of Americans say they favor the job that Obama is doing right now, a modest increase of two points since CBS's poll earlier this month. More notably, ratings for the president's handling of the overall economy jumped five points, from 56 percent to 61 percent.

The news is not all good however. On the AIG bonuses issue specifically, Obama is facing his first instance of relatively high disapproval with 42 percent disapproving (versus 41 percent approving and 17 percent undecided).

More on the poll from CBS:

The poll numbers can be explained in part by the fact that most Americans do not think there was much the Obama administration could have done about the bonuses. Only 12 percent think the administration had a lot of control over the payouts, while more than half say the administration had little or no control.

Even so, 56 percent of Americans say the administration ought to have found some way to stop the bonuses from being paid out. Thirty-four percent said it should not have.

The president is set to give his second prime-time press conference Tuesday and it is generally presumed that a central focus will be on mollifying public outrage over towards the AIG handling. From the AP:

Obama is virtually certain to use Tuesday's prime-time news conference to continue an effort that began over the weekend: cooling the anti-AIG ferocity, now that it threatens to undermine his efforts to bail out the nation's deeply troubled financial sector.

Obama's tone changed dramatically after the House voted last week for targeted taxes to take back most of the $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG executives. Many lawmakers felt Obama had encouraged their step, because he called the bonuses reckless, outrageous and unjustified.

Read through the complete poll results below:

CBS News Poll - Free Legal Forms

Comments

[AceInTheHole]

THE POLLS JUST GO TO SHOW , THAT WE THE REAL AMERICANS, APPRECIATE HAVING A HARD WORKING HONEST MAN WHO WORKS FOR WE THE PEOPLE, DOING HIS THING IN THE WHITE HOUSE. GO OBAMA!!! SHOW THE WORLD WHAT A " REAL" AMERICAN PRESIDENT IS LIKE!

[prddem]

Amen

[Simpletruthiness]

Eat that fox news.

[Owltree]

I am so happy that the shrub is out of office that President Obama will ALWAYS have my vote of approval.....

[qubit]

Obama’s job approval slipping to ‘50-50’

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/2009_03_23_Poll_of_change:_Obama_s_job_approval_slipping_to_%E2%80%9850-50_/srvc=home&position=recent

Try some real news drones.

[thepianodiva]

The American people realize now that we really have our t!ts in the wringer. It has been a big wake-up call. We allowed ourselves to be taken for a ride and totally fleeced over the last 30 years. Enough. They recognize Obama as the one who can set things aright again. He may make mistakes but that is okay-because the general direction is correct for the people. He never acts in haste, he thinks things through, he is open to ideas that will work, he cares about the people, they get it. They like it.

[dspencer3491]

Gallup has his approval rating at 63%

[WeMadeAmistake]

Facts.....His approval rating is falling. His disapproval rating is rising. Since the
TARP passage in October, banks are lending 23% less than they were on the day the bill was passed. This is a truthful indicator that his fiscal policies are failing. Unemployment keeps rising. Our country is now operating with an $11 Trillion deficit and $55 Trillion in unfunded liabilities. For those of you who do not understand what unfunded liabilities are, it means that the social security trust fund has NO MONEY in it. Just IOU's. Because of this unbridled spending of money we don't even have, the Chinese are now moving away from buying our debt. They are buying copper.....a tangible asset. (The U.S. Dollar became the world's reserve currency because it was backed by Gold. Today, it is backed by nothing but faith that it will always be accepted as money. With $11.4 Trillion now being allocated by the Fed and U.S. Treasury for bailouts and so called stimulus's, the world is beginning to realize that the purchasing power of their U.S. Dollar reserves is about to be drastrically debased-inflation.us.)

[expanse]

As long as he gets the job done I don't care. I trust him to fix this.

[Shieldmaiden]

*shrug* He's up, he's down. Whatever. I'll support him when he's right and get annoyed when he's wrong. As long as he keeps trying to solve this, we should support him as best as we can and try to work together.

[nogimmicks]

"Most Americans believe that angels and demons are active in the world, and nearly 80 percent think miracles occur,.. 92% believe in God" Washington Post, June 24, 2008

[janeInCA]

Pres Obama will face opposition from the GOP on everything that he wants to make change. They resist strongly to even rescue the economy, change for health care, change for more efficient enegy, change for stricter wall street regulation, change for preventing big company CEOs from rewarding themselves what they don't earn, and anything that needs change

[WeMadeAmistake]

Obama is not rescuing the economy. He and his misguided friends in Congress are killing it. Look at his methodology and compare it to what happended in Germany after WW1. The outragous spending is debasing the dollar. In short time, unemployment will be 15-20% and a loaf of bread will cost $9. For all intents and purposes, we are bankrupt. If you check your history and facts, in 1939....nine years after the stock market crash, the unemployment rate was 17%. FDR's policies did nothing but make the economy worse. It took a war to get us out of it. I hope that is not the remedy this time. The best remedy that I can think of, is a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution and term limits for Congress.

[yuhaniz]

more importantly is a poll that shows only 7% of americans blame prez obama for the AIG bonuses...
that's 93% who say "i know this isn't your fault"!! and only 9% blame geithner! the bulk of the blame went to AIG, then feds, then congress. wow, the bush years have matured america. besides, they're not gonna shoot themselves in the foot. if prez fails, they fail.

[Ides]

So...where's all that populist rage? This has to be the most unimpressive "Katrina Moment" yet.

[SoCalAmerican]

Oh the populist rage comes online on Friday and Saturday night -- the ones that don't have evening plans...

[iver]

GOP: "Darn it! The more American's see this guy, see what he is trying do, hear him talk, and see him in action, the more they like him! How come that doesn't work for our stars? Guess we will have to drum up some real issue to knock him down a peg or two, like his use of the teleprompter and his wife's arms. That'll distract em!"

[WeMadeAmistake]

How about the fact that he and Congress are bankrupting the nation and when hyperinflation hits later this year, I guess you won't mind paying $8 for a gallon of milk.

[chicagoike]

The Bishop just wants more time to find more little boys.

[Immhotep]

America has finally seen the light after the debacle called George Bush. It is a mop up operation, and that takes time. I trust Obama.

[Lovelydaze]

Why is that despite this economic mess and other shenanigans, Obama has a high approval rating?

You Rethugs just can't stand Obam for being the man MOST people believe can do this job better than any one in your party could....

[WeMadeAmistake]

His approval rating has fallen since his inauguration and his disapproval rating is rising to a point now where there is a two point difference between the two. Banks are lending 23% less than they were at the time of the TARP bill signing in October. Unemployment is rising. Hyper-inflation is a guarantee in the later part of this year....next year for certain because of all this irresponsible spending and printing of money we do not have. Please read about what happened in Germany after WW1. God Bless America and you.

[WeMadeAmistake]

Bush stock market.....14,500
Obama stock market....6,700-8,500

Bush unemployment.... 5.4%
Obama............................ 9% and rising

Number of Employees I had with Bush as president and a Republican Congress.......135
Number of Employees I now have with Obama and a Pelosi Congress after two years......... 18

[OldManoftheSea]

Why is it, everytime Obama speaks, wall street tanks?...Could it be his actions do not reflect his words?...I don't have much faith in the CBS poll results, not exactly "fair and balanced" reporting by any means..

[Tim303]

I guess you held W to the same high standard. And you're out of date in any case (viz. recent rise). Wall St. is bothered he might, you know, knock some of their greedy little heads together.

[calijon]

why when obama talks p/e ratios does the market bottom?

[WeMadeAmistake]

I might be because he does not know what a P/E is. He was recorded as saying, "Profit to Earnings Ratio." It is Price to Earning Ratio. But, what can we expect from an experience Community Organizer.

[chicagoike]

Why is it when you speak shiiiit come out of your mouth, that the more relevant question here.

[PSTEN]

Why is everytime a republican is president the economy flatlines.

[Grunty1]

If ONLY it flatlined... More like it drops like a rock.

[zola77]

The dow is NOT a real barometer of economic health or illness. The dow is going to go up and down continuously like a rollercoaster, just like in did during the depression - the dow movements are really based on nothing.

Its just that tv news needs something to latch onto to keep their 24 hour news cycles interesting.