Obama Gets Negative Marks on Most Domestic Issues

A majority of Americans disapprove of President Obama's handling of five of seven domestic policy issues, while giving him positive marks in three foreign policy and national security areas, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll conducted March 19-21.

Overall, 51 percent disapprove of Obama's job performance while 46 percent approve, with 3 percent undecided. Those are the worst marks for Obama in this poll since he took office. In February and late January, Americans were almost evenly divided in their assessments of Obama, and in mid-December he was in positive territory, with 54 percent approving and 44 percent disapproving. However, in the months where those disapproving outnumbered those approving, the difference was never greater than two points.

But whether they approve of his overall performance and policies or not, 70 percent of those polled say they approve of Obama as a person.
When it comes to his policies, the only two domestic issues on which Obama gets positive marks have not been front-burner ones this year -- the environment and education. The public approves of his handling of environmentally policy by 55 percent to 37 percent, and of his education policy by 56 percent to 41 percent. (In all cases, the remainder of responses were undecided.)

They disapprove of his handling of the economy by 54 percent to 43 percent. They disapprove of his handling of health care by 58 percent to 40 percent. They disapprove of him on unemployment by 53 percent to 45 percent. They disapprove of his handling of the federal budget deficit by 62 percent to 36 percent. The also disapprove of him on illegal immigration by 56 percent to 37 percent.

Majorities ranging from 51 percent to 53 percent give him positive marks on handling the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the issue of terrorism.

A CBS News poll conducted March 18-21 had some different numbers. CBS said 49 percent approved of the job Obama was doing while 41 percent disapproved. It showed an even split among Americans on how they rated his handling of the economy. The CBS poll did agree with CNN's on the negative view of Obama's handling of health care, with 51 percent disapproving his performance and 41 percent approving, an improvement over the 55 percent to 35 percent negative ratio he had in February.

In the CBS survey, taken before passage Sunday of the health care overhaul, 45 percent said passage of the legislation would be a major accomplishment for Obama, 35 percent did not regard it as a major accomplishment and 10 percent said it would be a minor accomplishment.

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