Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. voters now give President Obama good or excellent marks on leadership, down three points from last month and down 19 points from when he took office in January, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Nearly one-third of voters (32%) see Obama as a poor leader, down two points from July. The percentage of voters who give the president a poor rating on leadership is double the level it was the week after his inauguration.

Slightly more women (48%) than men (44%) give the president positive marks on leadership.

Eighty-two percent (82%) of Democrats say the president is doing a good or excellent job, but 57% of Republicans rate his performance as poor. Voters not affiliated with either party are much more closely divided: 39% say good or excellent, while 35% say poor. (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The new leadership findings come as Congress recesses until September, and the president and members of his party aggressively lobby for passage of major health care reform legislation in the fall.

Nearly one-in-four voters (24%) now view the president’s leadership style as too confrontational, nearly double the result found in July and the highest level measured since he took office. But 26% see the president as too cooperative, down 11 points from last month.

Still, the plurality (40%) view the president’s leadership style as about right. But that’s down 20 points from the end of January.

GOP voters are fairly evenly divided on the president’s leadership style, with 38% who say he is too confrontational and 39% who say he is too cooperative. Seventy-one percent (71%) of Democrats say his style of leadership is about right. Among unaffiliated voters, 25% say too confrontational, 28% say too cooperative, and 33% say about right.

The plurality of voters (39%) continues to see Obama as more ethical than most politicians, up one point from last month. Thirty-one percent (31%) see the president as less ethical, down one point from July. Just over a quarter of voters (26%) think the president is about as ethical as most politicians.

Forty-nine percent (49%) give Obama good or excellent ratings on handling government ethics and corruption, up four points over the past month. However, 35% give the president a poor rating, the highest level measured since he took office.

In July, over half of voters (53%) viewed the president as a partisan Democrat, the highest level measured since he took office. Fifty-five percent (55%) believe politics in Washington will grow more partisan over the next year.

Recent polling shows 71% of U.S. voters say Obama’s policies have increased the size of the federal deficit, while only five percent (5%) says they have cut the deficit.

Forty-three percent (43%) of voters give Obama a poor rating on his handling of economic issues, also the highest level measured since he took office.

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