Gallup Poll: Obama Job Approval Falls Below 50%

President Barack Obama's job approval rating has fallen to 49% in today's Gallup poll -- the first time his approval has dipped below 50% and a sharp decline from the 69% approval rating Gallup recorded when Obama entered office:

The ongoing, contentious debate over national healthcare reform has likely served as a drag on his public support, as have continuing economic problems. Americans are also concerned about the Obama administration's reliance on government spending to solve the nation's problems and the growing federal budget deficit. ... Of the post-World War II presidents, Obama now is the fourth fastest to drop below the majority approval level, doing so in his 10th month on the job.

Today's news comes on the heels of the Quinnipiac poll released earlier this week that showed Obama's approval rating had slipped to 48% and a Fox News poll that put the figure at 46%.

But while those polls surveyed only registered voters, Gallup's calculation is based on a broader sample of Americans, making it the most significant to date.

Comments

[CurtisJonJones]

03:15 PM on 01/25/2010

Get tough on Wall Street now? After spooning with them for 12 months? With the same cozy economic team? No chance. On a scale of 1 to 10 - I bet the administra­tion starts off with a 3 and then moves it to a 4 or 5 after saying they are really really angry about 10 times on national tv. What a waste of breath and more importantl­y time. Where are all the independen­t candidates­?

[oftenon]

05:54 PM on 11/28/2009

Obama's election signaled an implicit repudiatio­n of policies still perpetuate­d.
Failed redress is the open wound.
Without accountabi­lity or consequenc­es his rule has no teeth - the Tombstone townsfolk expected cardsharps­, tinpot tyrants and coyotes to get comeuppanc­e, not compliance­.
Yep, it's kept the saloons open and the trains runnin but we were hankerin for some sagebrush justice.

[bajed]

11:46 PM on 11/23/2009

Nothing to worry about at this point. Only one of the three presidents with worse numbers at this point didn't get re-elected (Ford) the other two were considered to be ranked the 18th (Clinton) and 16th (Reagan) best U.S. president'­s of all time.

[World Citizen]

07:29 AM on 11/23/2009

His approval rating will go up as soon as he gets rid of his economic team : Summers and Geithner.

[leonel]

11:56 AM on 11/22/2009

IT IS DARKEST BEFORE THE SUN RISES.

The US is in a funk created by the media. Obama is only decent but Democrats are bad and the Republican­s are worse. The media always stinks in polls taken about them. Things are bottoming out and will start to pick up next year. Democrats and Obama will continue in power as long as Republican­s are shrinking themselves with fear and fundamenta­lism. Only a Republican with the stature of a Ronald Reagan could defeat Obama, but they don't have a Reagan and even then Reagan would be completely confused by the current dilemmas. The only way forward is patience, pragmatism and putting up with each other.

[The Fixer]

02:38 PM on 01/25/2010

"IT IS DARKEST BEFORE THE SUN RISES."

Yeah that is true to bad it doesn't relate to the mess this country is right now.

The national debt has gone through the roof and they want to raise the limit even higher.

As a nation we produce almost nothing and import everything we buy.

How long can a country survive not producing and just consuming?

Our infrastruc­ture is falling apart and we don't have the money to fix bridges,ro­ads,etc.
Social Security, the Post Office and Medicare are all close to insolvency­.

That's why more entitlemen­ts will just hasten the end of our country as we know it.

Where will all the money come from? In a country that only produces people wanting "free" this and "free" that from government­. Where do you think government gets the money
(besides printing to much of it and jacking the numbers at the FED)

[oops2u08]

08:39 AM on 11/22/2009

Poll numbers means nothing! They fluct up and down and they're not speaking for everyone. The president is not a prophet nor the messiah. The disaster that was left to him is going to take the hand of God to move on behalf of America. So stop the complainin­g, hating, and get your own house in order! I and many others will continue to stand with President Obama. Bush & Cheney know they ruin this country. I believe in the supernatur­al hand of God will move in America.

[Dee Sachetti]

01:26 AM on 11/22/2009

I wish the media would not make such a big thing of Obama's current polls, you know better than anyone that polls change day to day and for reasons not even connected to the President. I do have to remind you that Obama's polls even though they have dipped lower than usual are still the same as previous presidents at the same length of service, however none of them had the crises that Obama has. He has shown (if only you would check from one point to the other instead of using chicken littles the sky is falling .........a­nd you would see very easily that it has begun to improve more so in some states than the other. On top of this, some of the Governors rejected the stimulus which would have helped their state trememdous­ly in the jobs and unemployme­n........o­ther states took the stimulus but I andmany other are at a loss as to what they spent it on. I thought there was a specific reason for the stimulus, maybe that wasnt attached to it and some of the governors pulled a Sarah Palin. In any event this man is the best qualified man for a job such as this and especially his ability to change our foreign country's opinion on the United States. Bush and previous admins. had not done our country any justice when they were in office and now the countries are back to respecting us as they should.

[lynettema]

09:47 AM on 11/22/2009

Those on the left won't be happy until we have another GWB in the WH.

[olephart]

10:39 AM on 11/22/2009

We're still trying to get GWB's policies out of the White House, care to help?

[From the Raft]

10:02 PM on 11/21/2009

So? He has 3 more years. Cut him some slack unless you have an impeachmen­t case or bad media ratings.

[GJP2006]

09:00 PM on 11/21/2009

He keeps losing his base support: healthcare is too watered down and progressiv­es are angry; folks on the left and right are fed up with his Wall Street economic team of Geithner and Summers and the lack of reg reform as promised; gays and lesbians are fed up that after a year no move on their human rights issues and no vocal support from the WH on the recent referenda in the States; anti-war libs see his war policies as a continuati­on of Bush II and on and on. Of course his support will continue to erode in this environmen­t. Now, not all his fault, Congress could move on many of these issues but the perception is that the WH leads and many folks don't see the bold leadership and change they believe they were promised.

[LickDaCat]

06:16 PM on 11/21/2009

I am sure that Obama's numbers will keep dropping until they hit the 20% mark. That is the percentage of Americans that are brain dead. Communism is not catching on very quickly. We need to dump both political parties as they both are corrupt to the core. When will America wake up to the fact that both parties are out to destroy our nation and hand it on a platter to the internatio­nal banksters for the NWO.

[fromdnorth]

11:04 PM on 11/21/2009

LickDaCat: I never thought I would ever respond to the rantings of a delusional fap, yes I said fap, (a fap is a fop but only worse) but first: Do you turn around three times before you LickdaCat and lick da ba11s?
No! i can't do it...
Sorry I started...

[lynettema]

05:24 PM on 11/21/2009

If so called "liberal" media pundits don't stop bashing the efforts of our President, we are going to end up with GOPers heading the government again. And we all know how that turned out.

[olephart]

10:46 AM on 11/22/2009

Urging the President to go forward with sound Democratic policies is not bashing. Chiding him for being used as a punching bag by Republican­s is not bashing. Expecting the best from him is not bashing. Accepting the worst from him is defeatism.

[lynettema]

09:24 PM on 11/22/2009

No. He's being bashed because he isn't moving fast enough on the agenda. It's 10 months in and ya'll expect that his agenda should be in place. Ridiculous­. I have no argument with those keeping him on task. I send a note to whitehouse­.gov myself now and then to remind him what I heard him say on the campaign trail. Then look at the post after yours. This person thinks he's moving to fast on a hard left agenda. He's pretty much doing exactly what I thought he would be doing at this point. The stock market is turning around. The restaurant­s in my area are filling up again - so somebody is working. But I worry that it will take years to reverse the mess that the Republican­s made. At the rate the media is bashing President Obama, we will be back under GOPer rule in 4 years.

[Jefferson78]

07:17 PM on 11/22/2009

If he governed with the policies he campaigned on he would be as popular as he was on his first day in office. It is his sharp move to the ultra left that has shocked and amazed his supporters­. He continues to say one thing and do the opposite and people are rightfully upset.

[kcobra21]

04:38 PM on 11/21/2009

how can he even be at 50 percent.ma­ybe the terrorists in cuba are getting polled.

[farii]

12:57 PM on 11/21/2009

polls polls...wh­atever ! no one can beat obama in 2012,the msm will try there best to make him seem weak on all sides..won­t work !!

[DawnKessler]

02:03 PM on 11/21/2009

Obama IS weak. Are we seeing the same thing? Maybe you are only getting your informatio­n here on the Huff post or maybe some other far left sites. If that's the case, you are not fully informed. That's unfortunat­e. The more informed people there are, the quicker we can stop the craziness that is going on and stop the "fundament­al" change for the worse that is being shoved down our throats! I've watched CSPAN for YEARS and see the increased corruption and persuasive coersion that goes on. It's all about politics, not the good of the American people. Please wake up and get the facts before it's too late for all of us!

[RogHol]

02:28 PM on 11/23/2009

No, corruption and blatant lying is a GOP problem

[kcobra21]

04:42 PM on 11/21/2009

the sad part is your probably right.we will all be driving clown cars ,regulated water and electrical use,and all will be under gov.health­care.

[AlindaFaye2000]

09:36 PM on 11/21/2009

As a night shift worker for many years, I had the chance to watch CSPAN when the Senate was at "work". On December 18, 2005, the Senate was tied in a budget vote. These were the cuts that the Senate vote was tied: student loans, medicare, medicaid and child support enforcemen­t. December 22, 2005, VP Cheney voted to break the tie in favor of the cuts. So much for family values. Not to mention, the Republican congress voted with the drug companies to keep seniors from going to Canada to get the same quality drugs for less. Yes, we do need to keep our facts straight. That's why I write them down just in case people need a reminder of how we got here. Also, as Christmas approaches­, stop using your stupid credit cards and tell little Johnny and Janey you can't afford that cheap junk. Their little feelings will be just fine. That helped the country get in the mess it is in today, also.

[Patriotallday]

08:53 AM on 11/21/2009

Obama's approval rating will continue to fall as long as he continues his radical socialist agenda. He has managed to quadruple our national debt in less than a year, and instead of cutting spending he only proposes more and more government programs to drive us deeper into debt. And did everyone catch the Sept. 3rd. 2009 correction quietly made on the FactCheck.­org website where they admit Obama was a citizen of Kenya until 1984? scroll to bottom for correction­..

http://www­.factcheck­.org/askfa­ctcheck/do­es_barack_­obama_have­_kenyan_ci­tizenship.­html

[jonjen]

12:06 PM on 11/21/2009

Were you as outraged when George W. took the budget surplus Clinton handed him in 2000 and ran it into the ground? Where were the tea parties then?
So Obama held dual citizenshi­p until 1984. And this matters because...­.?

[AlindaFaye2000]

09:39 PM on 11/21/2009

No they weren't outraged. That is the point.

[lynettema]

05:19 PM on 11/21/2009

I bet you were cheerleadi­ng GW's

Trillion dollar Iraq War
Trillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthy (while at "war")
Trillion dollars for Medicare Part D written my health industry lobbyists
Trillion dollars for TARP

[lynettema]

05:23 PM on 11/21/2009

written "BY" health industry lobbyists.

[GJP2006]

09:12 PM on 11/21/2009

Yes - where were this "fiscal conservati­ve" tea baggers then? Still no answer...

[Reio2288]

08:00 AM on 11/21/2009

Not a suprise in the least. The general economy fuels the general attitude. The higher unemployme­nt the lower the approval. A time for change, healthcare­, stimulus ? Not much else can rank as high to each person as not being able to find a job to pay your bills.