It’s the middle of August, members of Congress are at home, and the traditional thinking is that most of America is on vacation, whether they’ve physically left their homes or not. But it seems that whatever the theory about who is paying attention, President Obama is seeing a downward trend in his approval rating, which just hit another low.
Obama registered 39% approval in the daily Gallup tracking poll from Sunday, which is made up of interviews of adult Americans from the three days prior to release (Thursday-Friday-Saturday of last week). It was also the first time the President has dipped below the forty percent threshold.
This is the second all-time low that President Obama has scored within a month. Back on July 29th, Obama hit 40% for the first time, only to push up a few points and stay fairly steady over the following week as Congress finally passed a debt deal. But with news of the S&P downgrade, fluctuating markets and subsequent news coverage of a still troubled economy, the Gallup poll has shown a divergence in presidential approval. And while 54% disapproval is not a record for a tracking poll, it is certainly well above Obama’s marks throughout his Presidency.
The Gallup tracking poll is a rolling average using interviews 1,500 American adults over a three day period, and has a sampling error of plus or minus three percent.
Update: Gallup just released the weekly average of President Obama’s approval rating, providing a more comprehensive view of Obama’s score. It was an average of 40% for the week, the same previous single day low of his Presidency until Sunday, and the lowest weekly rating of his Presidency. However, his approval ticked up two points to 41% in Monday’s numbers, and his disapproval rating fell two points from 54% to 52%.
Get the day’s best political analysis, news and reporting from the TPM team delivered to your inbox every day with DayBreaker. Sign up here, it takes just a few seconds.
Kyle Leighton
Kyle is the Editor of TPM Media’s PollTracker. He graduated from Beloit College (WI) and began working in politics before getting an M.A. in magazine journalism from New York University, where he interned at TPM and the website of The New Yorker.
Disqus Conversations
Click here to read the Disqus Commenting FAQ.