Obama’s approval numbers hit all-time low

 President Barack Obama gestures while speaking about his plan for America's energy security, Wednesday, March 30, 2011, at Georgetown University in Washington.  



President Barack Obama’s approval rating sank to a new low Friday, according to Gallup’s daily presidential tracking poll.

Just 40 percent of Americans say they approve of Obama’s performance as president. That is down three percentage points from Thursday. 50 percent say they do not approve of the job he is doing.

The poor rating comes amidst an increasingly chaotic debate over raising the debt ceiling, as the deadline to raise it or risk the government defaulting on its debts looms.

Just 41 percent of the public said they approved of the way Obama was handling the debt-ceiling negotiations, while 52 percent disapproved, according to another Gallup poll released Thursday. Nonetheless, Obama still polls better than congressional leadership. Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid both received even lower approval rates.

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The president’s 40 percent approval rating follows a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll released Thursday that found Obama’s support among independents has eroded a great deal. 54 percent of independents disapprove of Obama’s performance as president, according to the Pew poll, the most during his time in office. Just 36 percent approve of the job he is doing.

Obama has also lost ground against a generic Republican challenger — getting 41 percent of the vote when matched with an unnamed Republican who polled 40 percent.

Obama’s approval rating is below that of former President Bill Clinton’s lowest approval rating during the government shutdowns of 1995. At the very end of the shutdown, Clinton’s approval rating was down at 42 percent, but quickly rebounded back to over 50 percent. His lowest approval rating ever was 37 percent in mid June of 1993.

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Republicans pound Barack Obama

Republican presidential candidates led by frontrunner Mitt Romney used their first big televised debate to lash out at President Barack Obama -- but not each other.
The debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, late Monday did little to define differences between the seven candidates in the unwieldy Republican line-up as White House hopefuls reserved their venom for Obama on the economy and foreign policy.
The civil exchanges left Romney, who has a slight, but consistent lead in the polls, still looking like the man to beat for the nomination.
Standing behind the centre podium in CNN's ultra modern studio, the carefully combed Romney looked suitably presidential as he led the charge against Obama.
"Any one of the people on this stage would be a better president than President Obama," Romney said.
"Why isn't the president leading? He isn't balancing our budget and he isn't leading on jobs. He's failed the American people... And that's why he's not going to be reelected."
Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman and leading light of the staunchly conservative Tea Party movement, momentarily upstaged the other six when she used her opening comments to announce that she had just formally registered her candidacy.
Bachmann, the only woman on the stage, pulled her punches when opportunities came to attack Romney, but she almost shouted during assaults on Obama.
"President Obama has failed his leadership," she charged.
Newt Gingrich, a veteran Republican who was speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s, piled in to attack "the Obama depression."
The presidential election is not until November 2012. But candidates were using this event -- the first of many over the coming months -- to solidify their sometimes poor name recognition across the country and position themselves for a grueling campaign.

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