37% Rate Obama Good or Excellent on Economic Issues

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Positive views on President Obama’s economic leadership have dropped slightly, but are still above the recent low reached in December 2013.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% of Likely U.S. Voters now give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues. That’s down from 39% in early January, but it’s still up from a year-and-a-half low of 32% in early December. Forty-five percent (45%) still rate the president’s economic performance as poor, up four points from earlier in the month, but still down from a recent high of 48% in early December. (To see survey question wording, click here).

As has been the case throughout his presidency, Obama fares slightly better when it comes to national security. Forty percent (40%) of voters rate his handling of issues related to national security as good or excellent, while 39% believe he’s doing a poor job in this area. But that's the highest negative finding since December 22.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of the Political Class give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues, while 54% of Mainstream voters rate his performance in this area as poor. Sixty-two percent (62%) of Political Class voters give the president positive marks for his national security efforts, compared to 31% of those in the Mainstream.

Most voters continue to believe the U.S. economy is fair to women, blacks and Hispanics, but more voters than ever (66%) view the economy as unfair to the middle class.

Thirty percent (30%) now believe the terrorists are winning the War on Terror, the highest finding in three years.

Voters strongly believe that radical Islam remains a threat to the United States, and a sizable number thinks the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have only made the problem worse.

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The national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on January 27-28, 2014. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. 

Seventy-five percent (75%) of Democrats like the job the president is doing with the economy. Seventy-five percent (75%) of Republicans and 55% of voters not affiliated with either major political party do not. When it comes to national security, Obama earns good or excellent marks from 77% of Democrats and poor marks from 64% of GOP voters. Among unaffiliateds, 23% say good or excellent, 50% poor.

Older voters rate the president more negatively on both the economy and national security than younger voters do.

Black voters overwhelmingly think the president is doing a good or excellent job in both areas. Whites and other minority voters don't give him as strong of marks, with 54% of whites who say he is doing a poor job on economic issues. 

President Obama is making income inequality a central legislative issue this year. But 59% believe that  less government involvement in the economy would do more to close the income gap in America as opposed to more government involvement.

Americans started off 2014 with their most optimistic view of the nation's banks since before the Wall Street meltdown.

Confidence in the Federal Reserve’s ability to keep inflation and interest rates down is at its highest level in over a year.

Thirty percent (30%) believe the country is headed in the right direction while 63% feel it is on the wrong track.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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