Voters Render Split Decision on Whether Obama Will Be Re-Elected

Reflecting his current public opinion doldrums, 46 percent of voters don't believe President Obama will be re-elected in 2012 compared to 44 percent who do, with 9 percent undecided, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted Dec. 8-9. The margin of error is 3 points.

Asked whether they would vote for a Democrat for Congress in 2010 to help Obama with his agenda or support Republicans to put a check on his power, 42 percent sided with the Republicans, 39 percent with the Democrats, 14 percent said it was too soon to say, and 4 percent were undecided.

Despite those results, Obama's current approval rating rose in the latest Fox survey with 50 percent giving positive marks to his performance, 44 percent disapproving and 7 percent undecided. In Fox's November poll, the public was split on his performance at 44 percent each. (Sixty-six percent of voters approve of the job Hillary Clinton is doing).

But that's where the good news for Obama ends, as voters give him negative marks for his handling of domestic issues that they think are important.

Fifty-two percent disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy compared to 45 percent who approve, with 3 percent undecided. In October the disapproval-to-approval margin was 49 percent to 48 percent. Fifty-two percent turn thumbs down on Obama's performance on job creation, with 6 percent undecided. (Fox didn't test this question in October). Fifty-four percent disapprove of his handling of health care compared to 39 percent who approve, with 7 percent undecided, compared to the 50 percent-to-42 percent disapproval ratio in October. Fifty-eight percent disapprove of Obama's performance on the federal deficit with 33 percent approving and 9 percent undecided. (This also wasn't tested in October).

Only on Afghanistan is Obama in positive territory with 49 percent approving, 44 percent disapproving and 7 percent undecided. In October, 43 percent disapproved and 41 percent approved.

But Afghanistan comes in fourth in terms of how voters ranked the issue in order of importance. Twenty-seven percent said fixing the economy was the most important, 26 percent cited job creation, 10 percent said health care (even Democrats ranked it third) and 8 percent pointed to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.